Write a short commentary on a passage from Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale."

In this extract, we see Offred bathing and considering her existence. This scene can be seen as an extended metaphor for the conflict that Offred is experiencing between memories of a former life and her new life in Gilead. This passage employs diction relating to colour to emphasise the harshness of Gilead. The “wings” that cover her face, much like the blinders used on horses, are described as being a “heavy white”, which comes at a sharp contrast to how this colour is usually viewed. The colour white evokes sentiments of purity and serenity, both aspirational values. However, the use of the word “heavy” connotes a sort of authoritarianism to these values, as if they have been foisted upon this garment, and therefore onto Offred herself. Offred’s approach to the bathing itself is interesting. It show to some extent the way that she had been conditioned by the program that she underwent at the “Red Center”. She talks about “Aunt Lydia” who “wants everything to be very hygienic”, but only mentions this in relation to “Moira”, her vulgar term “crotch rot”. The fact that she in this passage can only associate her liberal friend to something vulgar and sinister is telling as well, as it shows that she is becoming more compliant with the practices and virtues of Gilead’s theocratic society. She says that her “nakedness is strange” to her “already”, that her body seems “outdated”. Not only does this show the relative youth of Gileadean society, it also shows the power of its messages. To a thirty something year-old living in the 70s and 80s, surely nakedness would be something to be embraced and venerated, yet here she is shown to be almost alienated by something that would ordinarily be seen as normal. The “outdated” comment may refer to the fact that in Gilead, the only parts of her body that are of use are her sexual organs and her womb. She is little more than a glorified vector for childbirth.
It is little wonder, then that she views the “bathing suits” that she wore “at the beach” with revulsion. In Gilead such revealing garments would be little more than blasphemy against the regime. Additionally, she avoids looking at her naked body because it makes her uncomfortable to “look at something that determines” her “so completely”. She does not refer to her body as a part of her, or use the word “me”. She calls her body “something” as if it were almost separate from her consciousness, or as if she were detached entirely from being able to relate to herself. More significantly, it connotes a lack of control over her own body, something that in Gilead is entirely realistic. This further emphasises the conflict that Offred feels. On one hand, her own nakedness has become repulsive to her, yet on the other, she is shown to recognise it is not her efforts as a Handmaiden that are the most important, more that it is her ability to conceive. As for how she feels about this, the reader is not explicitly told in this passage. This bathing scene is crucial to understanding the impact that Gilead has had on Offred. She has become almost suspicious of her own body, and yet she is also aware of the changes that have taken place. Some parts of the passage seem to revere the ideals and ideas that have become a core part of society in Gilead. Others denigrate how deeply she has been programmed, and show the time before to be a gentler and perhaps altogether more preferable time to live in. There is no clear resolution to the passage, showing to ongoing nature of the inner turmoil that Offred is experiencing, and making the question of how she feels in Gilead all the more pertinent.