Hand Maid's Tale

My favorite paragraph in this novel is " I'd like you to play a game of scrabble with me, the commander says. I hold myself absolutely rigid. I keep my face unmoving. So that's what's in the forbidden room! Scrabble! I want to laugh, shriek with laughter, fall off my chair. This was once the game of old women, old men, in the summers or in retirement villas, to be played when there was nothing good on television. Now of course it's something different. Now it's forbidden, for us. Now it's dangerous. Due to the extremist views that oppressed these women they aren't allowed to do anything, except raise children, go shopping, and cook. They are looked upon to give children that is all, the Handmaid's  purpose truly is despicable. Scrabble is banned, especially in this case, because it's more intimate then anything Offred or any of the other Hand Maid's have known. This is more intimate then the ceremony. Offred actually talks to the commander on a personal level. He just wanted company and that is what he received. She was able  to play a game with him, that she may or may not have won, but that wasn't the purpose. This was a moment of intimacy.