The Handmaid's Tale Journal 2: Topic A

"Today, later, with Ofglen, on our shopping walk:
We go to the church, as usual, and look at the graves. Then to the Wall. Only two hanging on it today: one Catholic, not a priest though, placarded with an upside-down cross, and some other sect I don't recognize. The body is marked only with a J, in red. It doesn't mean Jewish, those would be yellow stars. Anyway there haven't been many of them. Becuase they were declared Sons of Jacob and therefore special, they were given a choice. They could convert, or emigrate to Israel. A lot of them emigrated, if you can believe the news. [...] You don't get hanged only for being a Jew though. You get hanged for being a noisy Jew who won't make the choice. Or for pretending to convert. That's been on the TV too: raids at night, secret hoards of Jewish things dragged out from under beds, torahs, taliths, Magen Davids. And the owners of them, sullen faced, unrepentant, pushed by the Eyes against the walls of their bedrooms, while the sorrowful voice of the announcer tells us voice-over about their perfidy and ungratefulness" (The Handmaid's Tale, 200)

In this passage, Offred describes how the Republic of Gilead prevents rebellions and dissenters. A wall is used to display the corpses of those that are caught in illegal activity. There are signs on the bodies that tell the citizens what offense(s) the person is guilty of to warn them to not try to the same thing. This passage also shows that the Republic is not welcoming of other religions, as Offred says that Jews "could convert, or emigrate to Israel" (Atwood 200). She says that many Jews did leave "if you can believe the news" (Atwood 200), implying that the news is untrustworthy or reports made up facts. The Republic of Gilead controls the news and so controls what information the people hear of the outside world. Offred also discusses how these offenders are detected and caught by the governement. People called "Eyes" work for the government and find those that have rebellious feelings towards the goverment and its ideals.
This passage relates to the events of this section of The Handmaid's Tale because it talks about the punishment for treacherous behavior or actions and later Offred engages in unlawful behavior by planning with Serena Joy to have sex with Nick in hopes of getting pregnant. It also talks about the unreliabilty of the TV news, which means Offred has to take risks and talk to the other Handmaids to find out what is really going on.