The Handmaid’s Tale - part 2

Offred’s life continues at a monotonous pace, eventually she frequents the Commander in his study, and the ceremonies begin to feel less impersonal. The Commander takes her to Jezebel’s, where it is common to mingle with prostitutes. She meets Moira there, a long lost friend who had run away only to be captured right before she reached the border, who states that she preferred a life at Jezebel’s over the Colonies. Offred and the Commander have sex in what used to be a hotel room that night, and when she gets back she has sex with Nick. The two begin to continue their affair without anyone’s knowledge, with Offred eventually getting caught up in the affair. Ofglen, another handmaid tells Offred about Mayday, an underground organization dedicated to overthrowing the Gilead regime. She also leads the handmaids in the execution of a supposed rapist. Later, news of the trip to Jezebel’s reaches the Commander’s wife who sends her to her room. Nick comes in later, and tells her to go with what was supposed to be a secret police force but are actually Mayday members who want to save her. The story concludes with an epilogue from 2195 without knowing what happens to Offred. The second half of this novel was definitely more defiant in the nature of the writing, and I thought that the conclusion was particularly interesting because it all mirrors on what I considered to be an underlying theme of who to trust.