Anna Sheffer
Aug 22, 2017 · 1 min read

Thank you for your thought-provoking comment. This is an excellent point. I definitely think the epilogue is a condemnation of cultural relativism, and I did notice the way that many characters in the epilogue seem to be non-white, as you said. Your comment that the researchers view Offred as “a curiosity from another culture” really captures a lot of what I felt reading the epilogue as well!

As far as the epilogue being overlooked is concerned, I didn’t mean to imply that no one reads it, but it seemed to me that it was less a part of the conversation surrounding the novel than the main body of the work, especially with all the buzz that the TV series has generated. I’m sure it’s been written about extensively in academia, but I wasn’t seeing much discussion of it among the general populace.

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    Anna Sheffer

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    Denver-raised, Indiana-educated, currently figuring out Los Angeles. Sometimes I write things.