This chapter is replete with ostensible splendor. In other words, everything looks shiny and luxurious on the outside, while not so much on the inside. There’s golden lettering on signs. Women are wearing makeup and costumes, concealing who they really are and projecting the image that the men in power desire. Much about the club is a reminder of a more extravagant era: the Gilded Age of the 1920s where everything seemed opulent, luxurious, as in The Great Gatsby. The irony of the Gilded Age, however, is that everything looked prosperous and golden on the outside, yet (as the definition of “gilded” goes), it was only on the outside. Moreover, awaiting the end of the 1920s was a great American financial crash—a direct parallel to the plotline of The Great Gatsby. In this den of iniquity, we also have an Aunt wearing purple, a purple cardboard pass (out in the naughty world). Purple is usually the color of royalty and true opulence. See HERE for an explanation. Girly pinks. Vanity here is necessary. Women need to see how they look, to...
Chapter 38
Part XII: Jezebel's
Chapter Summary
During two clandestine bathroom meetings, Moira reveals to Offred how she escaped the Red Centre by impersonating an Aunt and found temporary refuge through the Underground Femaleroad before being caught in Maine, after which she chose the club over the Colonies where unwanted groups are sent to die. Though dismayed by Moira's seemingly resigned acceptance of her new life among the "damned" women in the club, Offred learns crucial details about Gilead's early days - when religious tolerance still existed and the Rachel and Leah Centers were unknown - while realizing her once-rebellious friend has lost her fighting spirit, no longer the resistance hero Offred had imagined.