Internet is full of many cool things and it is adding its share in making this world a global village. Nowadays, living is not as easy and confined as it was decades ago. People are always found busy in interacting people from various parts of the world. Same is the case with learning new phrases and use them in daily means. ‘Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum’ is hitting the internet and making people more curious about the meanings of it.
The Handmaid’s Tale offered a whole new surprise after Offred comes to know that she has to learn how to survive at her own to get through from what is happening to her and other Handmaids as well. The tale adds spice by showing a letter found in her room highlighting ‘Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum’.
Offred eventually noticed a phrase on the floor saying ‘Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum’ and right after that moment audience started asking for the meaning of it. When she found an interaction with commander, which was a nightly scrabble interaction, she found the courage to ask him that what is ‘Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum’?
When offred finally found some courage to ask the question, she got the answer as well but in a different way. Firstly, the commanders laughed than he translated it in the following words, “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.”
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From this we can say that for commander it was a kind of joke or a phrase to laugh on. But for Offred it means a lot more than that. She hasn’t got pregnant yet and it is a common practice to pass such women to others men. Another duty that is meant to be done by such women, who are infertile of unable to bore a child, is to clean the putrid, which is nuclear sludge. And they have to clean it until they are dead.
Ofglen is another character on The Handmaid’s Tale, once in a conversation with Offred advised her that she will learn to fight when it comes to her. Actually, it was an answer to the talk of Offred in which say she is not a fighter. No one knows to fight until they actually do it.
Lastly, the Latin phrase must be something more than it seems. It will definitely enrich and intensify the theme of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’. As we can see from the translation of it, “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.”