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Offred’s daughter is around five years old when Gilead launches its takeover of the United States. She appears only in Offred’s memories, and she symbolizes the most important things that were lost in the creation of Gilead and the destruction of the former world. Although Offred and Luke try to smuggle their family into Canada, they are caught, and Offred’s daughter is confiscated. The details of her fate are never fully revealed, but the novel confirms that Offred’s daughter was given to a high-status family to raise as their own. At eight years old, she would have been brought up for several years in the faith, and likely would have lost most, if not all, memories of her true mother.
Offred’s daughter fulfills two symbolic roles in Offred’s life. On the one hand, she is a symbol of hope: the possibility that she is still alive and being raised in Gilead gives Offred the strength to survive. If she lives, she might one day be reunited with her daughter – this is the only hope that Offred has, since she knows that Luke is likely dead or in the Colonies, never to be seen again. On the other hand, Offred’s daughter is also a symbol of slavery and loss. If she is still alive, she has been brainwashed by Gilead to consider herself inferior, and to believe her only purpose in life is being a submissive wife and ready womb. Additionally, Offred’s daughter is also an eternal threat held over Offred’s head. As mentioned in the lecture at the end of the novel, Gilead exerted control even over escaped refugees by hurting loved ones who are still trapped in Gilead. Escapees who shared the dark truth of their experience in Gilead were sent body parts of their family members, and, as such, future escapees avoided publicly criticizing Gilead. If Offred did manage to escape Gilead at the end of the novel, it’s possible that her daughter bore the punishment for her mother’s transgressions.
