t there was some and this is what I chose." (Atwood,121) This statement is very dangerous. It shows how Offred has convinced herself that this deploring act (rape) is not so bad. It also shows how she is beginning to embrace the system and justify the violations that are being commited against her. By calling it a choice she has shifted the blame from her oppressors to herself and labeled the blatant crime as a mere ritual. Offred shows signs of a developing victim mentality where she accepts defeat and associates the regime's will with her own. The danger lies in her complacency because if she accepts this role as being her choice she eliminates any need to rebel. This mentality provides her with a false sense of security which will impede her ability to fight back.
             We can try to argue tht Offred's unwillingness to resist was due to fear, but there's more to it than that. In the novel she is afraid that spies (eyes) are everywhere and that trust is a lost luxury. Maybe she was afraid to fight by herself. This seems understandable, but Offred's reluctance to fight back is more complicated than just fear. By coming to accept her role in the "new society" she clouds her perception of freedom and her need to rebel at all. Ehrenreich argues: "Offred cries alot and lives in fear of finding her erstwhile husand hanging from a hook on the wall, but when she is finally contacted by the resistance she is curiously uninterested." (155) Ehrenreich also argues that Offred's unwillingness to embrace the resistance is due to her changed mentality; the system has been embedded in her. She states: "Offred has sunk
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