Emptiness and Where it Leads You

GNARLS BARKLEY- WHOS GONNA SAVE MY SOUL

Listening to this song reminded me of how Offred thinks about Moira and her blind faith that she is alive. Who’s Gonna Save My Soul, was originally written as an expression of Gnarls Barkley’s reaction to James Brown dying months after he invited them to perform with him. CeeLo Green and Danger Mouse (the band’s two members) had put so much hope in James Brown that they were distraught and lost after he died. Offred and the other handmaids used Moira as an object of their fantasy and wonder to keep them going. On page 133, Offred explains, “Nevertheless Moira was our fantasy. We hugged her to us, she was with us in secret, a giggle;” Offred and her fellow handmaids blindly putting their hope into Moira makes me fear what will happen if she is revealed to have died. The line “I may be just a little selfish, All I have is the memory, Yet I never start to wonder, Was it possible you were hurting worse than me, Still my hunger turns to greed, ‘Cause what about what I need, An’ oh who’s gonna save my soul now.” reveals the song’s narrator using this person to fill their void of hope, no matter what situation they might be in. Offred describes this feeling too by saying that she and the handmaids were just starting to feel comfortable with no hope and nowhere to go but latching on to Moira’s story filled that emptiness.

WISH YOU WERE HERE - LEE FIELDS & THE EXPRESSIONS

When listening to Wish You Were Here, I immediately found a correlation between the emotions shown in The Handmaid’s Tale and this song. Lee Fields sings this song to convey a feeling of longing for someone who is no longer with him, especially playing on the theme of not taking something for granted. Offred’s storytelling relates to this heavily. An obvious connection between the two is the chorus and title of the song, Wish You Were Here. Offred frequently dreams about Luke, the before times, and when they were happy together and raising a child and wishing he was with her and holding her again. This goes so far for her to imagine Luke and her daughter as if they were with her. “From time to time I can see their faces, against the dark, flickering like the images of saints, in old foreign cathedrals, in the light of drafty candles…I can conjure them but they are mirages only, they don’t last.” (103-104). This feeling of deep longing and emptiness is also explained through the lyrics, “Miss you again, over again, Love will not die, Walkin’ the road, I see you at night, I know you’re right by my side.” These lyrics describe the exact feeling I think Offred is portraying through the quote I picked, missing someone so much everything you see reminds you of them and holding them with you in your heart.

RETTE MICH - NENA

The song Rette Mich by Nena is about the loneliness of being alone at night and the longing you have for someone to come “save you.” The song title itself translates to “Save Me.” On page 96, Offred is bored in her room and longs for the before times. “I want Luke here so badly. I want to be held and told my name. I want to be valued, in ways that I am not;” Offred’s longing for Luke increases when she is lonely and bored. Similar to this, Nena sings, “Es wird Nacht, Und die Einsamkeit erwacht, Ruf mich an, komm her, sei bei mir, Rette mich.” This all roughly translates to “Night is coming, And loneliness awakens, Call me, Come here be with me, Save me.” This illustrates how Offred is feeling at the moment, even describing her need for Luke to hold her and comfort her.

IT’S A MAN’S WORLD - JAMES BROWN

It’s a Man’s World by James Brown is filled with themes and lines about men being the main providers for a family. There are also many mentions of women being important and essential to the family, however their importance seems to be only to support the man in his endeavors. This idea is reciprocated in The Handmaid’s Tale by the structure of Gilead, a male-dominated society that is religion based, specifically enforcing the idea that a woman’s only role is to bear children and help in the kitchen (be a “traditional wife”). One person who personifies this idea of women only being there to support men is Serena Joy. On page 45, referring to her, it says, “Her speeches were about the sanctity of the home, about the how women should stay home.” Similar to this James Brown sings, “You know that man makes money, to buy from other men, This is a man’s world, But it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing, not one little thing, without a woman or a girl.” His lyrics explain a similar thing to Serena Joy’s speeches, women should stay home and men should essentially rule society.

BEDS ARE BURNING - MIDNIGHT OIL

This song, Beds Are Burning, by Midnight Oil is about the indigenous Australian people and liberating them from being treated as if they were worse. This song connects directly to The Handmaid’s Tale because of the oppression women are facing in Gilead. The chorus of the song is “How can we dance while the beds are burning, How can we sleep while the world is turning.” I imagine this is exactly how Offred feels about the wives and how they agree with the oppression of women. “The Commander’s Wife looks down at the baby as if it’s a bouquet of flowers: something she’s won, a tribute.” (126). This quote describes how Offred perceives the Wives as perpetrators of the system of Gilead.