“I walk along the gravel path that divides the back lawn, neatly, like a hair parting. It has rained during the night; the grass to either side is damp, the air humid. Here and there are worms, evidence of the fertility of the soil, caught by the sun, half dead; flexible and pink, like lips.
I open the white picket gate and continue, past the front lawn and towards the front gate. In the driveway, one of the Guardians assigned to our household is washing the car. That must mean the Commander is in the house, in his own quarters, past the dining room and beyond, where he seems to stay most of the time.
The car is very expensive one, a Whirlwind; better than the Chariot, much better than the chunky, practical Behemoth. It’s black, of course, the color of prestige or a hearse, and long and sleek. The driver is going over it with a chamois, lovingly. This at least hasn’t changed, the way men caress good cars.
He’s wearing the uniform of the Guardians, but his cap is tilted at a jaunty angle and his sleeves are rolled to the elbow, showing his forearms, tanned but with a stipple of dark hairs. He has a cigarette stuck in the corner of his mouth, which shows that he too has something he can trade on the black market” (17).
Right before this chapter Offred has realized that the new Commander’s wife she has come to meet is Serena Joy. During my passage I chose Offred is talking about the nature around her, what she sees. She is trying to enjoy everything she sees because she doesn’t get to see much when she is stuck in her room all day again. After this passage she goes through the gate to start taking her normal walk she has every day. You can find my passage I chose on page seventeen and is in chapter four.
One of the things I saw was significant was the motif of “the white picket gate” it is very important through this book because Offred walks through it every day on her way for her walk. It is a friendly thing to see for her every day. Another important aspect to the gate is that it holds Serena Joy’s garden. It protects her garden from what though? Her flowers are constantly wilting and shriveling up. Never being able to take care of her precious flowers. The flowers (dead flowers) in her garden are representing her babies that she can never have. So, the gate is actual not a sturdy gate showing that she is getting old with age and that is why she doesn’t have the strength in order to get pregnant again.
Another thing I noticed was the “Guardians,” it is a biblical reference because Guardians are the guards to the kingdom of heaven. But, in The Handmaid’s Tale they are actual guarding the city of protecting anything that should attack them and to keep the citizens in check.
The final thing that popped out in this passage was the motif of “the black market” and “cigarette” that connect together since you can buy cigarettes at the black market. The black market pops up all through the book since this is the only thing people can get away with doing without getting into trouble.
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