IB English
The people of water memory
The Republic of Gilead creates a society in which women are treated as subhuman. They are nothing more than a set of ovaries and a womb. Water Memory, written by Roo Borson, is one of the poems that have a similarity to this particular society. Gilead is a place where women have lost all of their freedom as well as their voices. They are slowly being brainwashed and becoming mindless robots after a while, that can be related to the Water Memory.
In the first few lines of Water Memory, Roo Borson describes "water" (line 1) as a kind of substance that moves and forgets quickly.
Water does not remember, it moves
Among reeds, nudges the little boat
(a little), effloresces a shadowy fog
Which forgets for us the way home
Reflecting on the society in Gilead, womans bodies are considered as an instrument of their desires. They are just a mound of flesh surrounding a womb that must be filled in order to make them useful. Gilead seeks to deprive women of their individuality to turn them into a machine that creates a new generation. That can reflect Offred when she lies in the bath. I cannot avoid seeing, now, the small tattoo on my ankle. Four digits and an eye, a passport in reserve (Atwood, page 80). By looking at the small tattoo it is showing that, like all the other handmaids in Gilead, she will be identified easily. water (line 1) that moves among reeds, nudges the little boat (line 1-2). Offred likes water, (line 1) she no longer remembers her old self; they do not allow her to speak. Therefore, the language has become the power in Gilead society. Lots of forbidden words, they are restricted in communication. Most of the words that handmaids can use are biblical language, such as May the Lord open, Blessed be the fruit, Praise be, . These handmaids are the same as drops of water that have to forget the way h...
