We continue to learn about the many layers of the Republic of Gilead and Offred’s story as we begin to reach the end of The Handmaid’s Tale. In this chapter, called “Jezebel’s,” we learn about the Commander’s membership of an underground brothel in the city when he takes Offred on a “night out” and exposes her to “the club.” Here, Offred is brought back to the time before Gilead, seeing women wearing revealing outfits and makeup and smoke cigarettes. It’s a significant departure from the oppressive life that she’s been forced to lead during her time as a Handmaid. At the brothel, Offred sees her friend Moira for the first time since Moira escaped the Red Center by stealing Aunt Elizabeth’s outfit. We learn that we was in hiding for several months before being found out near the Canadian border as she was trying to escape. When given the choice between being sent to the Colonies and becoming a prostitute, she tells Offred that the decision was easy. This is the last encounter that Offred has with Moira.
What struck me the most about this section was the part in which Offred recounts Moira’s time on the run from the Gilead authorities. Moira tells Offred about the Underground Femaleroad. The Underground Femaleroad is an obvious reference to the Underground Railroad that was used to help escaped slaves find freedom in the nineteenth century. When discussing the Underground Femaleroad, though, Offred was sure to intentionally leave out the exact methods in which Moira was able to navigate the Underground Femaleroad and potentially escape Gilead because she did not want to compromise the Underground Femaleroad if it was still smuggling women out of Gilead.
This reminded me of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. In his autobiography, Frederick Douglass purposely did not divulge the specifics of his escape from slavery. He knew that his escape was one of the most important parts of his life, and would definitely have been the selling point of his autobiography. However, he instead chose to protect the slaves who were still relying on the Underground Railroad, and he knew that by revealing these secrets he would have compromised the escape of countless other slaves. Offred does the same thing in this section because while it would have been fascinating to hear the nature of Moira’s near escape to freedom, Offred could have jeopardized other women’s escapes by revealing this vital information because her story could have fallen into the wrong hands.
This connection between Moira’s escape from the Gilead and Fredrick Douglas’s escape from slavery is extremely important. I agree that the omission of details serves as a method to preserve the potential of escaping for other women. Contrary to other scenes in the novel, in which women compete for social dominance (for example, the Marthas and the handmaids), this act reflects a desire to help rather than put down another woman.
The connection between the Underground Femaleroad and the Underground Railroad was an interesting part of this section to me. It is interesting how much the world around Atwood inspired this novel.
I too was very impacted by the way Moira told her story (or, more specifically how Offred filled it in for her). It made perfect sense that she didn’t give away specific details but it’s not something I would have thought about before. Not only is she protecting the people doing the work in the underground, but also protecting Offred, because the less information she has, the less reason someone would have to torture it out of her. The “I never saw her again” at the end of the section with Moira really broke my heart, because she really is this symbol of defiance and hope for Offred and we now know that symbol will now remain nothing more than that, because she will never see her again.