is executed during a sweep of government officials involved in subversive acts – he is evidently arrested for his collection of pre-Gilead women's magazines and lingerie. Blacks and Jews are forced into exile, other religions are considered heretical. It is enjoyably ironic that Gilead has to combat, among other factions, "Baptist guerillas." In the real United States, there are factions of Baptists represented by some of the more vocal proponents of governmental adoption of traditional biblical morality.
             There are several other events in the Tale that bring to mind the negative impact Gilead has upon males. Offred's husband Luke, the father of her child before Gilead's assumption of power, is either shot dead or arrested during their attempted escape into Canada several years earlier. Luke's fate is particularly ironic because during the initial stages of the Gilead government, when women were forced out of their jobs and cut off from their access to currency, his attitude was on the border of being smug; he certainly seemed amenable to the idea of being the breadwinner, the "man of the house" taking care of his woman and
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