Throughout the book, the use of language is often pondered, changed to give a new meaning, or adapted from alternate sources in order to further the author's point. Even the most simple of words that are not thought of by many people when spoken in our society today have very complex and deep connotations to the characters.
One way in which the author changes the language is using Offred's thoughts to create a dichotomy to the meanings of different words. For example, we talked briefly in class about Offred's thoughts on the words "lie" and "lay", and later Offred musing that "lay is always passive". It was brought to attention that "lay" is the stem word of the saying "getting laid", which is most likely not coincidental considering that one of the major issues in this book is sex. Before reading this book, I never thought about the differences between those two words, and never really considered their connotations. After reading the sentence in which she mentions this, I thought about it for a while and realized that it was through her musings such as these that even more meanings are brought to this book.
Take "lie" and "lay", for example. Each of these words has meanings and sayings that can either correlate directly with one another, or have completely different connotations. One way that I looked at it was the fact that "lie" can be used to express the act of laying down, but it can also be used to used to explain when someone is not telling the truth. In this book, I feel that lying is a major role for many of the characters. Moira, for example, lied about feeling ill so she could escape the life of beinga handmaid. The commander often lies, or doesn't tell the entire truth, while spending time with Offred outside of the "ceremonies". One could argue that the entire society is based off of lies and "untruths" that created the handmaid process ro begin with.
"Lay" has an even stronger significance in this book. Offred muses that lay is always passive, which if one should take the example "getting laid" and refer it to the book, then Offred is really implying that in the society they are now a part of, there is no more choice to have sex, but is rather a duty that one is expected to carry out in order to procreate and maintain society. It is in this way that she expresses her displeasure with the entire handmaid process, and the "duties" that come with. Because of the fact that she says "lay is
always passive", it led me to think about if "lay", including our society today, is passive. Can it be that still today the choice to "get laid" is a passive decision?
