Quotation 5

"The problem wasn’t only with the women, he says. The main problem was with the men. There was nothing for them anymore . . . I’m not talking about sex, he says. That was part of it, the sex was too easy . . . You know what they were complaining about the most? Inability to feel. Men were turning off on sex, even. They were turning off on marriage. Do they feel now? I say. Yes, he says, looking at me. They do."

This was from the commander's attempt to explain the creation of Gilead. He suggests that men were left without a purpose in life, due to feminism. The quote from the commander is the closest thing to reason offered pertaining to the creation of Gilead, although it does not exactly justify it. He claims that Gilead restored meaning to their lives by making them soldiers, providers, and caretakers.  p.210