"Today it makes me think of a hat, the large-brimmed hats women used to wear at some period during the old days: hats like enormous halos, festooned with fruit and flowers, and the feathers of exotic birds; hats like an idea of paradise, floating just above the head, a thought solidified." (Ch. 22; pg 128)
While studying chapter 22 of The Handmaids Tale, I noticed the importance of the attire in the caste system of Gilead. The Handmaids are dipped in red, the Wives are dipped in blue, the Marthas are draped in green, and the Econowives are striped to suggest their fertility. In the quote above, Offred's musing suggests the great importance of the seemingly smaller things in her life that she sees and wears.
In context with Gilead, hats are nothing more than shields from the long-term effects of hours out in sunlight. Particularly for the Handmaids, hats cover vulnerable parts of the body the way the red wool dresses cover the Handmaids. Offred is probably wearing this hat, so the first mention of a "hat" may draw attention to her winged shield. However, Offred turns the musing away from it in order to reminisce on the exocitism of past hats, using words like "halos", "fruit and flowers", and "exotic birds".
In light of the situation, these words boost her thought of past hats and appearances, because by comparison, the hats of the Handmaids also cover the head are also "large-brimmed" and "like enormous halos". The difference between the winged hat and her recollections is that the bouyance ("floating") of the imagined hat. It takes her away from her present situation, like "an idea of paradise" and holds more individualism as a "thought solidified. She completely forgets about her shield in order to escape her present place as a Handmaid.
The imagined hat is a metaphor for the small things that Offred misses. Throughout the book she muses on her habits and the items she owned and her loved ones, such as Luke, her daughter, and Moira before prior to her escape. However, she avoids thinking hard about her past loved ones to the extent that she reminisces about items like the hat. Unlike the idea of Luke's death (or life), and the life of her daughter, the hat keeps her mind from going over the psychological edge by allowing her to revel only in the picturesque ideals of the past. In its own way, the hat sustains some of her sanity by keeping her attention away from everything of the past and probable future, bringing to life an adage that she may remember later on:
Simple Things quote and image courtesy of QU 301 South Africa
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