The way Atwood worked with character was amazing. She fleshed each one out to the point where we knew them all fairly well, and Simon’s mom I felt I got to know so well through only letters. Throughout this story we get very close with Simon himself who seems to be an upstanding man. However, my image of him began to deteriorate quickly as the story progressed. Due to the nature of the story and the heavy handedness with which we are reminded that women tend to get the short end of the stick, I found myself coming to the common sentiment that all men are trash and you can’t even trust the ones you thought you could. I felt deceived and disappointed by the way Simon initiates and continues an affair, leaves to save himself from any potential responsibility, and lusts after Grace. I wonder if Atwood did this on purpose to give us just a taste of what a woman may have gone through and felt, after trusting a man who turned out to be annoyingly unloyal and cowardly.