Appreciation For The Little Things In Life/ Shifts In Perspectives

With the restrictions that come with a totalitarian theocracy, one begins to appreciate even the nuisances that once proved to be a hassle. Its sort of like fasting, when you restrain from eating food from dusk to dawn, you become grateful for what you have on your plate, and everything that was taking for granted before has now subdued into admiration. Such feelings increase your awareness of what it means to be human at a very basic level. Through various incidents in 'The Handmaid's Tale', Offred recognises the norms of pre- Gilead times and compares them to the norms of her society she lives in and at times images, words and actions are powerful enough to changes her perspective on the past.

Offred listening outside closed doors to try and hear what Rita and Cora are saying is something she "never would have done in the time before"(20). The sheer isolation of Offred to the world is too large to be ever ignored. Later on Offred describes her conversations with Cora and Rita. "We could nod our heads as punctuation to each other's voices...We would exchange remedies and try to outdo each other in the recital of our physical miseries; gently we would complain, our voices soft and minor-key and mournful as pigeons in the eaves troughs. I know what you mean, we'd say. Or, a quaint expression you sometimes hear, still, from older people: I hear where you're coming from, as If the voice itself was a traveller..."(20). Offred goes on to say that she "used to despise such talk. Now I long for it. At least it was talk. An exchange, of sorts"(21). The lack of communication in Gilead's society has debased the quality and value of conversations, and has reduced the individual to a mere object, where talking about each others physical miseries is regarded as casual  conversation. 

Whilst coming back from a shopping trip Offred encounters tourists from Japan. She recalls that "it's been a long time since Iv seen skirts that short on women. The skirts reach just below the knee and the legs come out from beneath them, nearly naked in their thin stockings, blatant, the high-heeled shoes with their straps attached to the feet like delicate instruments of torture...We are fascinated but also repelled. They seem undressed. It has taken so little time to change our minds about things like this"(38). Offred's reaction to such an image illustrates the power of isolation. Offred even says "I used to dress like that", and now she considers the way the female tourists were dressed as repulsive. This proves Gilead has power over Offred's thoughts, and the more she is living in the present the more she forgets the norms of her past.