"I stop walking. Ofglen stops beside me and I know that she too cannot take her eyes off these women. We are fascinated, but also repelled. They seem undressed. It has taken so little time to change our minds, about things like this. Then I think: I used to dress like that. That was freedom" (Atwood 38).
This passage in This passage The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood describes the society in which the narrator resides. Freedom is not a luxury in which the women of this society possess. The lack of freedom is produced from the government and the pressure to keep women low. When the narrator walks alongside her partner, Oglen, on her routinely walk she realizes that she used to be like the young tourists who wear whatever they please. They have freedom to live but because of the society the narrator lives in, she can't even share eye contact with other human beings. This cage that the women in her situation live in is a controlled environment and oppresses the inhabitants. The environment has caused the two women to begin to believe in what they are told to believe. The narrator shows disgust with the skimpy way the tourists dress. The controlled society has brainwashed these women and cause them to believe that its okay. The narrator remembers what her life used to be like before she was sucked into this society and cannot help rebelling in her heart a little bit against what is expected of her.
(192) Word Count
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