5 Prayers and The Before Times

My art piece represents multiple themes that are present in The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, religion, memory and individuality. In Gilead there is a popular chain of stores called Soul Scrolls, where you can pay to have your prayers read aloud by a machine, as many times as you want and pay for. “There are five different types of prayers: for health, wealth, a death, a birth, a sin.” (167). This commercialization of religion is exactly what Gilead represents, they even control what types of prayers people can make! Control is the reason I drew Offred is praying, even though she is not religious. Along those same lines, a halo floats above Offred head but half of it is broken off. The halo represents religion and its connection to the government. The right side of the halo (Gilead side) is still intact and shining showing how religion and state are in sync. The idea of control is why I decided to include the eye on the side of the machine, showing how the Eyes keep this control in check, always watching, even during sacred moment like prayer.

Memory is another integral part of The Handmaid’s Tale. This is why I chose to draw the old lingerie store that Offred remembers on the left side of her. Offred’s memory of the before times gets worse and worse throughout the book. Most of her memories are vivid in the beginning, she even can selectively think about the before times in her free time. “But the night is my time out. Where should I go? Somewhere good. Moira, sitting on the edge of my bed, legs crossed, ankle on knee, in her purple overalls, one dangly earring, the gold fingernail she wore to be eccentric, a cigarette between her stubby yellow-ended fingers.” (37). However towards the end of the book she talks about being erased as time passes, “Time has not stood still. It has washed over me, washed me away, as if I’m nothing more than a woman of sand, left by a careless child too near the water. I have been obliterated for her. I am only a shadow now…” (228). I portrayed this memory loss and the passing of time by drawing the world around Offred falling apart and crumbling down, giving her less and less of a foundation to stand on and stay strong with.

Isolation and individuality play a big role in the portrayal of Offred. Her description of how she prays shows this, “I pray where I am, sitting by the window, looking out through the curtain at the empty garden. I don’t even close my eyes. Out there or inside my head, it’s an equal darkness. Or light.” (194) I represented this quote by drawing Offred in the middle of everything, the only thing colored in, praying. Her individuality shows throughout the book but especially when she prays, where she only sits with her thoughts. In my drawing, she is also a lot smaller than all of the other buildings to show how individual her character is in the book. Without the three themes I highlighted in my piece the world of Gilead would not have come to life like it did in The Handmaid’s Tale.