Atwood made Offred have a limited philosophy in order to make the narration and story of Offred and her struggles in Gilead realistic and credible. The government has banned education and censored everything Offred is exposed to in order to restrict and control her thoughts, knowledge, and mind. They also effectively used coercion and instilled fear in Offred to make her follow Gilead's strict anti-feminist rules. The strict censorship of everything that is heard or seen by Offred, combined with the ban on education, has filled her mind with what the government desires, which demeans Offred's philosophy. The only thing we can read in society and on the street in The Handmaids is the language of images. For example, when Offred went shopping, she mentioned, "Next we go to AllFresh, which is marked by a big wooden pork chop hanging on two chains" (34). This shows that HandMaid's education and knowledge is totally controlled by the government because the girls only know how to read pictures and the government only has pictures of simple things like road signs, names of stores to limit and control what they read. Additionally, the girls are brainwashed into thinking the way the government wants them to at the “Red Center.” An example of this can be found in a commentary by Offred on the Beatitudes being read to them at the Red Center. She mentions: “They released it from a cassette, so even an aunt would not be guilty of the sin of reading… Blessed are the meek.” Blessed are the silent. I knew they made it up, I knew it was fake, and they left things out too, but there was no way to check” (110-11). This indicates that the government is censoring everything the girls are exposed to in order...... middle of paper ......ote shows one of the many ways the government has used to scare the citizens of Gilead into get them to obey the laws. The government killed and hung people on walls for the public to see. This scared everyone, because they knew that if they did something against the government, the next body on the wall could be theirs. This fear led Offred to follow the rules and do whatever it took to survive safely in Gilead. The Handmaids of Gilead had only one job: to make babies with the commander they were assigned to. Handmaids who fail to do so are either sent to the colony, or if they rebel, they are killed. Offred explains this fear of not meeting expectations by saying, “Every month I watched for blood, in fear, which meant failure. I have once again failed to meet the expectations of others, which have become my own” (Atwood, 91).