Gilead's Soundtrack

Don’t Stop Believin’ - Journey
While this song has a level of positivity to it that Offred’s situation doesn’t, its name, which is repeated multiple times throughout the song, connects so well to Offred’s situation that I chose to include it. In many aspects of her life, Offred has continued to believe, and that belief seems to be what keeps her motivated. An example of this is Offred’s hope that Luke is still alive. On page 166, when she passes The Wall with Ofglen she says “When I can see the bodies, the actual bodies, when I can guess from the sizes and shapes that none of them is Luke, I can believe also that he is still alive.” Without this belief that her loved ones are somehow okay, Offred might very well lose her will to live given how horrible her situation is. For this reason, “Don’t stop believin” is a phrase that describes a crucial aspect of Offred’s life in Gilead. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k8craCGpgs

Here - Alessia Cara
I chose this song because it has strong similarities to Offred’s experience at Jezebel’s. The song is about someone who is at a party, but doesn’t want to be, and includes lines such as “I’m sorry if I seem uninterested / Or I’m not listenin’ or I’m indifferent / Truly, I ain’t got no business here,” and “But really I would rather be at home all by myself not in this room / With people who don’t even care about my well being” These lines seem to relate to Offred’s sense of being out of place at Jezebel’s. For example on page 240, Offred describes her attempt to meet Moira in the bathroom saying, “ I get up, wobble across the room. I lurch a little, near the fountain, almost fall. It’s the heels… Several of the men look at me, with surprise. I think rather than lust. I feel like a fool.” This quote shows how different Jezebel’s is to Offred’s typical environment and I think her feeling of discomfort in this moment relates to the emotions expressed in “Here.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKp2CrfmVfw

Cold - Maroon 5
I chose this song because I saw a strong connection between it and the Commander and Serena Joy’s relationship. The song describes a relationship in which the singer Adam Levine, and the subject of the song have drifted apart. Adam Levine sings that he feels that the subject of the song is “cold” towards him. While Margaret Atwood hasn’t revealed the details of the Commander and Serena Joy’s relationship before Gilead, coldness has certainly become a central theme in their relationship at the time in which the book is written. One example of this is at the beginning of the Ceremony when Offred says, “The Commander knocks at the door. The knock is prescribed: the sitting room is supposed to be Serena Joy’s territory, he’s supposed to ask permission to enter it. She likes to keep him waiting. It’s a little thing, but in this household little things mean a lot.” (86) Petty displays of power, such as Serena Joy’s behavior in this quote, do not indicate a happy relationship, which is why “Cold” is a fitting song to describe their marriage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XatXy6ZhKZw

Somebody to Love - Basstrologe
I chose this song because it repeats the lines “Don’t you want somebody to love?; Don’t you need somebody to love?; Wouldn’t you love somebody to love?; You better find somebody to love.” This relates to The Handmaid’s Tale, because one of the biggest things missing from everyone’s lives seems to be loving relationships. For example, when the Commander secretly meets with Offred to play Scrabble for the first time and asks her to kiss him, she does so, but then he says, “Not like that. As if you mean it.” (140) To me this shows the Commander wants to convince himself that there is some real connection between himself and Offred, when in reality, that is impossible given the fact that she is essentially his slave. I think that this is a reflection of the loneliness that all of the characters feel due to the lack of real relationships in Gilead. Despite all the power the Commander has, all of his relationships seem to be defined by the rules of Gilead: none of them are natural or based on emotion. I think that this is Margaret Atwood’s way of making a point very similar to the idea that “Don’t you need somebody to love.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRLRymTR_rA

How Long - Charlie Puth
While “Cold” relates to Serena Joy’s relationship with the Commander in general, I think that “How Long” connects to the impact that the Commander’s secret meetings with handmaid’s has on Serena Joy. This is a song about cheating in a relationship. In the song, Charlie Puth sings, “How long has this been goin’ on? / You’ve been creepin’ ‘round on me / While you’re callin’ me ‘Baby.’” Atwood doesn’t tell the reader exactly how Serena Joy reacted when she found out that the last handmaid was secretly meeting the Commander. However, when the Commander is telling Offred what happened to the handmaid on page 187, Atwood does write, “‘She hanged herself,’ he says; thoughtfully not sadly… ‘Serena found out,’ he says, as if this explains it. And it does.” This quote at the very least implies that Serena Joy had a strong reaction when she discovered the meetings, which may have driven the handmaid to kill herself. This relates to “How Long” because while the Commander might not have been cheating on Serena Joy in the traditional sense, he was “creepin’ ‘round” on her. Gilead has already stripped away most of the meaning from the Commander and Serena Joy’s marriage, and then the Commander lied to her and broke rules that seem to matter to her. This means that it wouldn’t have been unreasonable for her to have felt as much pain as one would feel from being cheated on in the way that Puth describes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwfoyVa980U