By eliminating their citizens’ privacy, the governments are not allowing them to effectively think and act for themselves. In Oceania, the use of panopticism by the Party completely changes the way people act and heightens their suspicions of others around them. “Oceania’s telescreens make privacy impossible and because Big Brother might be watching, people are obliged to walk about with an expression of quiet optimism; the portrayal of any other emotion could be construed as treason” (Bryfonski 126-127). A physical abnormality may raise the Party’s suspicion of a certain person because even “the smallest thing could give [someone] away” (Orwell 62). Therefore, people worry about their facial expressions because for anyone “to wear an improper …show more content…
It also makes them extremely suspicious of not only each other, but everything around them. Even though the handmaids are taught to follow strict rules, “from their first indoctrination, the future handmaids learn to lip-read and to find out each others’ names by soundless whispering” (Hansot 57). Lip-reading is their method of forming personal relationships with each other without exhibiting blatant disobedience. In order to find out each others names, they lay their “heads flat on the beds, turned sideways, watching each other's mouths” (Atwood 5-6). By doing this, they could exchange names as well as secrets amongst each other without being caught by their superiors. If they are caught whispering, they will somehow be punished by the government, and out of fear, they are reluctant to engage in activities such as whispering very often. Another feature of society that strips handmaids of their individuality is the removal of their names. Because they are known by their commanders and not for who they are, society is basically telling them that as individuals, they do not exist. Offred is fully aware of her situation, so she continuously “reminds [herself] of what [she] could once do, [and] how others saw” her because all she wants is to be valuable to society in ways other than having children (Atwood 113). Segregation from the elite group and then eradication of individuality within the oppressed population allows the elite to maintain power. Offred’s “isolation as well as her fear (of the Eyes, of spies among the handmaids, and of the never fully specified punishments if found out) severely limits her involvement” in society (Hansot 58). Even when Offred comes across an interpreter and a group of Japanese tourists,