The Partitcicution is an event that is a form of execution to a prisoner of Gilead who has “committed” a crime. The people who carry out the punishment are the Handmaids under the order of Aunt Lydia who tells them when to start and stop with the blow of a whistle, whatever the Handmaids do in the time between is up to them. Throughout this book, I always found Groupthink and Group Conformity to be a huge theme. First in the formation of Gilead to how Gilead is carried out. Groupthink is a tendency for groups to make bad decisions because members of the group suppress their reservations about the ideas supported by their group. This causes flaws of the group to be overlooked and false unanimity. Sometimes it causes the group to do things they…show more content… The people in the upper hierarchy of Gilead order things like public executions and the raping of women under the guise of fancy names for the “greater good” or what the Commanders’ messed up views of what “for the greater good” are. The Commanders lost their touch of moral beliefs and they think that they’re doing the right thing because the outcome is more important to them. The end justifies the means, anyone who comes in their way will be tortured and brutally killed. Gilead forces the people in the system to distrust each other and makes them do things they usually wouldn’t do by brainwashing, the use of guns and violence, the threat of the Colonies, and the stripping away of people’s rights and privacy that would make anyone crazy. Gilead especially manipulates the Handmaids and the Particicution scene is a great example of what the women have become under the brutal regime. Gilead fed the Handmaids lies that end up with the women almost killing an innocent man with their bare hands who in reality want to help
