"Nolite te bastardes carborundorum"

If you can't say it, sing it. Margaret Atwood wrote of a totalitarian theocracy with copious numbers of biblical allusions to create a suppressive society. U2 created and performed a motivational song about escaping the burdens of an unwanted lifestyle. Through the use of syntax, diction, and detail U2 produced "Acrobat," a song motivating one girl to find a cause to rebel and fight, as though they were singing this song to Offred.

The lack of fluidity and shortness of sentences mirror Offred's thoughts in The Handmaid's Tale. The bluntness shows frustration, and translates a sense of hopelessness. The use of repetition in the song ("And I can love, and I can love...) reminds me of the numerous times Offred needs to repeat herself in attempt to keep Luke, Moira, her child, and her old way of life close to her.

In class, the point about anthropology was brought up and the issue of ethics vs. morals. If you saw a society that you thought had customs that were inhuman, would you take a step and try to stop it? Mostly everyone could agree that they want to see what's best for mankind and would want to intervene. However, do we ever intervene in time?It seems as though in the course of history the United States has stepped back and watch numerous countries suffer (Irish potato famine, Stalin's dictatorship, Hitler). Although these are not cultures, these are examples of crises that the world chose to ignore, making each and every one of us, to some degree, a hypocrite. The line "I must be an acrobat to talk like this and act like that," indicates hypocrisy. Acrobat, in this context does not mean a circus performer, but rather someone who readily changes viewpoints and opinions. Offred describes this longing for change in the line, "If you don't like it, change it we said, to eacother and to ourselves (226).

"If you only knew who to hit, and I'd join the movement, if there was one I could believe in. Yeah I'd break bread and wine, if there was a church I could receive in." Movements, like the women's rights movement mentioned in The Handmaid's Tale with Moira, and religion are two aspects of an organized society that are meant to give people a sense of fulfillment and purpose. However, these lines suggest that these things are not available in this society, just as the suppressed society of Gilead had nothing of meaning to offer its people.

While this song seems very correlated to Offred, the lyrics mirror the character of Moira, as well. At the beginning of the novel Moira defies the limits to establish herself as a free, motivated women who has enough self-respect to announce her sexual orientation. However by the end of the novel Offred finds her chained down to society suppression as a prostitute as Jezebels. The line, "When I first met you girl, you had fire in your soul. What happened your face of melting snow," is a prefect line describing Moira's initial dignity which was morphed into desperation and seclusion.

The lines "And I can love, and I can love" can be compared to the line, "You would look at the man one day and think, I loved you, and the tense would be past, and you would be filled with a sense of wonder, because it was such an amazing and precarious and dumb thing to have done," (226). These lines suggest that love is the single force that can drive a person to break the chains of suppression. "Love is not the point," (227) said Aunt Lydia. And yet, love was the point. Is.

"No new ideas in the house and every book has been read," suggest that ideas of revolution lie is books and literature, however in Gilead, the only book available was the Bible, and even women could not have access to that. In saying that "every book has been read" it suggests that every idea, and all knowledge has been exhausted and the mind can no longer house the strenght to pose questions that could lead to a new life.