Handmaids Tale Essay # 6
4/24/12
By: Karen Reznik

Reconstruction in Offred’s life is comparing her life on how it used to be before Gilead. She compares her experiences in the past society with those of Gilead - Offred is revisiting her life after it was damaged when Gilead was formed (try to explain how atwood uses her reconstructions to further the plot in HMT). Offred takes pleasure in imagining her life on how she wishes it could be, through memories. The novel is told in a reconstruction of events, but it is also an audio recording of a journal on Offred. This means Offred discussed the events after it happened. It’s a journal of her experiences and emotions of being a Handmaid. Through out the book, memories of her past are brought up. The reconstructions in her life are not productive because it is making her dwell on the past and not allowing her to find happiness in her present.
The story is told in reconstructions beginning with the memories of Offreds past life before Gilead. Offred often flashes back to memories of Luke; Luke being a married man that Offred had an affair with. He divorced his wife and married Offred, and they had a child together. When Offred becomes a handmaid she meets someone named Nick. Nick is a guardian and also works as a member of the Eyes, which is Gilead’s secret police. Serena, the commanders’ wife, convinces Offred to sleep with Nick so that she could get pregnant and pass the child off as the commanders. Offred’s starts sleeping with Nick frequently. It is evident that Offred has more feelings for Nick than she thinks. What gets away of the feelings is Luke. She continues to compare Nick to Luke. "All I can hope for is a reconstruction: the way love feels is always only approximate." Offred believes that having feelings for Nick is betraying Luke. Though in reality Offred will almost certainly never see Luke again. All she has from Luke are the memories that she wants despairingly to reconstruct into real feelings and emotions. If Offred were to stop reconstructing her times with Luke she would actually be able to pursue her feelings for Nick. Through out the book short glimpses of Offred’s daughter are portrayed. She thinks back on when they attempted to escape to Canada with Luke, they were captured and separated. Three years later Offred sees a photograph of her daughter. Her daughter is eight years old and wears a long white dress. Offred dwells on the fact that she has most likely been erased from her daughters’ life. Offred hopes that in the future she will be able to reunite with her daughter as well as Luke. Offred distracting herself by thinking about her daughter gets in the way of her job, being a handmaid. The second series of flashbacks, Offred remembers the Women’s Center, which is the place where she was sent after being caught crossing the border to Canada. She remembers how all the women were brainwashed into being handmaids and leave behind their old lives. Offred clearly doesn’t enjoy being a handmaid. The job of a handmaid is to please the commander and to have babies with him. Offred doesn’t want to be used just to have sex and get pregnant. She also had to leave Luke and her daughter that she will never see again. When Offred reconstructs, she revisits her life before Gilead. If she didn’t revisit, she would be able to find some type of joy in being a handmaid. It would allow her to stop comparing her life to what it was before Gilead and just to accept that this is her job and that she should make the most of it. Offred often brings up memories of her best friend from college, Moira. When Gilead was formed the two were separated due to her escaping from the Red Center. When Offred is in her room she wishes to disable the fan and remembers that Moira would know how to