Mother and daughter

The narrator in the handmaid’s tale is constantly jumping from thought to thought in her mind. Chapter 11 starts off by narrating how the bathroom is a luxury and the only place she ever has privacy. The following paragraph she starts to narrate about her daughter. The narrator thinks about her daughter by saying “She fades, I can’t keep her here with me, she’s gone now. Maybe I do think of others as a ghost, the ghost of a dead girl, a little girl who died when she was five”(64). On the surface level the readers can see the narrator has a constant thought about her being “dead”.

The narrator thinking about her child being dead is more comforting thought as cruel as it sounds. In the new society that has been created, although women are not constantly being threatened there is still a big issue with their society. Society, although it claims to keep women safe, has full control over what happens to women if they don’t comply and that’s what keeps women in line.

Throughout this chapter I think the narrator would prefer her daughter to be dead because of how young she was when they separated. The relationship between her daughter and her, the child still heavily relies on the mom in my opinion. In her mind a small child couldn’t possibly survive the world without a guide from at least one parent. In the narrator’s mind I strongly believe she fears for her child’s life more than her own.

If I were to live in this society and if I had a child to keep myself sane I would honestly gaslight myself into thinking my child died. I don’t agree with the system and to put a child through that. To keep myself sane I would pray that my child was dead. I wouldn’t want my child to live in a society where she wouldn’t have control over her own autonomy. Even in modern day; I wouldn’t have a child. There are so many risks that if I put a child out in the world with so many issues, I just wouldn’t want to bring it upon them.

Growing up I feel like my mother would move the world if she really had too for my sister and me. I grew up with women surrounding me and we were taught that we should be loyal to our families. I feel like I have a different take on why the narrators would rather believe her daughter to be dead than alive. It would be so much easier to believe her daughter was dead than to want her to be alive. I believe a mother would do anything for their child to be safe and sound. My example of believing that is by the strong independent woman that raised me growing up. This includes my mom, aunt and grandma. My grandmother most of all being an example of a woman of family and having a deep love of owning her own restaurant at the moment. She can be so busy but will always try her best to make time for the family. She has sacrificed to get us to stand on this ground today.