The Handmaid's Tale

Eating her breakfast, Offred thinks, “Pleasure is an egg,” but speculates that “possibly this is how I am expected to react. If I have an egg, what more can I want?” (120). She hears a siren and sees the “red Birthmobile” (121) come to collect her. She sits in the back with three other Handmaids and learns that Ofwarren—“formerly that whiny bitch Janine” (125)—is due to give birth.

Offred wonders if Ofwarren will give birth to a baby or “an Unbaby, with a pinhead or a snout like a dog’s, or two bodies, or a hole in its heart or no arms, or webbed hands and feet” (122). She remembers Aunt Lydia discussing the “slippery slope” (123) of a declining birth rate that had various causes, including women choosing not to have children. Aunt Lydia condemns them as “lazy women” and “sluts” (123).

At Warren’s house, the Wives gather in the sitting room, “get[ting] a little drunk,” “cheering on this Commander’s Wife, the Wife of Warren,” and “massag[ing] her tiny belly, just as if she’s really about to give birth herself” (126). The Handmaids gather around Ofwarren, and Offred thinks that she could “almost like her” (126), considering, “[W]hat did she ever want but to lead her life as agreeably as possible? […] It’s possible that’s the catch” (127).