Historical Notes

After the book ends there is a section titled Historical Notes. It is written as if its a transcript of a conference about the Gileadean Society set in 2195. It’s talking about this as if it was in the past with someone specialised in 20th to 21st-century archives. This society has led to an association and people study and learn about this time period. People study this time period. The keynote briefly passes over one of the changes the Gileadean society caused. “What was once the city of Bangor, in what, at the time prior to the inception of the Gileadean regime, would have been the state of Maine.” (Page 309). References the historical information Margaret Atwood did for this book but in a way to say this is what caused the Gileadean Society. They propose various ideas that link to what we are doing in class by looking at different questions the book opens up. They propose that the names used in the book were pseudonyms and because of the name “Offred’ they can propose ideas as to who the commander was due to finding high-ranking Gileadean officials with the name or nickname as “Fred”. They propose that it was “Nick” who “by evidence of the very existence of the tapes” must have helped “Offred” to escape with the Mayday group who they said was a “shadowy… underground group” (Page 318). 

The person who is speaking as an “expert” at the keynote, a man named “Professor Pieixoto”. He seems like an arrogant speaker like he’s an expert in this field. When he asks at the end if there’s “any questions” (Page 320), he asks it kind of cockily like there’s no reason anyone shouldn’t know about this society after he has spoke. Also, it’s like him making himself the authority figure of this section of history. He is also kind of dismissing Offred’s story, yes he is being objective about history but he is almost saying that her account wasn’t as good, in terms of history. “She could have told us much about the workings of the Gileadean empire, had she had the instincts of a reporter or a spy.” (Page 318).

At the end of the book, by saying that someone must have escaped in order to have the tapes, it gives a prediction based off of ‘facts’ which can technically answer some of the questions proposed when we finished the book. Though it doesn’t answer all the questions and also creates more about who really was Offred, Nick, Moira and the people that made up the society. It answers some questions but still keeps the mystery that Margaret Atwood created through her ending.