Offred is a Handmaid. A handmaid is women who bear children for rich women who have trouble conceiving their own children (because there was pollution and chemical spills that led to the rate of pregnancies to drop). She serves Serena Joy & her husband the Commander. Serena is a formal gospel and he he is an advocate for traditional values. Every month at the perfect time of Offred's period, the commander has wonderful sex with her. But Serena sits behind her, and holds her hand while her husband has sex with her. Just so she can get pregnant and have her baby.
During the book Offred will sometimes will go into flashbacks. (which is really confusing) Before Gilead, Offred had an affair with a married man. His name was Luke. She ended up marrying him after he divorced his wife, they had a child together.
Offred doesn't have much freedom. She can only go out shopping, to the doctors, and her door can not be completely shut. The police in the book are called “The Eyes”, and they have to watch everything that Offred does while she is public. As I mentioned earlier, Gilead came to power effortlessly. They were prostituting women, pornography and beating/violence against women. They ended up taking the military they killed the president and the congress. Once they took over, they made it so women didn't have any rights anymore. As this is occurring Offred and her husband Luke try to run away and go to Canada, (to be free) but they got caught. Since then they have never seen their child.
Offred's marriage was voided, and she was sent to the Red Center. The Red Center is a place were women went to become Handmaids. There is a women and the women know her as Aunt Lydia. She supervises the women. She explains and teaches the women Gilead's beliefs and laws. But one day her best friend Moira is brought to the center, but some how she escapes, but no one knows what ended up happening to her.
Once she started to live with the Commander and his wife her day to day routines started to be regular. Like going to the doctors, and going to go and get groceries. But one day something happens to Offred. Something that is not suppose to happen, something so bad that she could be sent away, for good. The doctor offered to have sex with her. He thinks that the commander is infertile.
Offred starts seeing the chauffeur (Nick). They start to play boardgames, and he lets her read magazines, which is forbidden because women are not allowed to read. Near the end of the night things start to get heated.
There is a group of people that get together, and they are called “Mayday”. They are an organization that is going against Gilead. Ofglen ( a fellow handmaid) is a part of this group.
A couple of months go by, and Offred is still not pregnant. Serena offers Offred to have sex with Nick the chauffuer. And if she were to get pregnat by Nick then they would pass the baby off as the Commanders. Serena starts to bribe Offred with a photograph of her baby girl. So one night the commander took her to a bar(without Serena's knowledge) with prostitutes, he had his fun with the other girls, then he took Offred up stairs to an old hotel room and had sex. Offred tried really hard to make it passionate. Once she returns to her home, Serena tells Offred to go to Nicks and have sex with him. After a while they start sleeping together a lot more often with out anyone knowing except the three of them.
Offred is approached by Ofglen to get information on the commander for the Mayday. But she refuses. Then one day Aunt Lydia holds an execution of a rapist. Ofglen takes the first hit, but after she tells Offred the reason why she actually hit him. She said that she hit him because he was a part of Mayday, and she hit him to put him out of his misery.
Some time goes by now, and Offred is out shopping, and a new Ofglen approaches her and lets her know that the old Ofglen killed her self because she saw the police coming after her.
Serena finds out about her trip to the bar, so she sends Offred to her room, and told her that she was surely going to get punished. After a while in her room she sees a black van from The Eyes approach the house. All of sudden Nick bursts into her room and lets her know that The Eyes are actually Mayday's. And they are going to take her away. But she is not sure if it is to freedom or to jail.
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