part 1: night and part 2: shopping

CH1: purpose of the vivid description of the gymnasium?

contrasts it’s former use as a place of freedom

CH1: examples of sensory description of the gym? 2 points

• ‘smell of old sweat’

• ‘the varnished floor’

CH1: significance of the gym being used to house handmaids? 2 points

• shows loss of autonomy

• gym is part of a school - once used to educate, now part of a sexist regime

CH1: significance of the line starting ‘felt-skirted as i knew from pictures…’?

focuses on freedom of expression, which is now outlawed

CH1: what do the angels and aunts symbolise?

control through fear and indoctrination - the two methods of oppression

CH1: significance of aunts carrying ‘electric cattle prods’?

used to dehumanise women like animals

CH1: significance of aunts ‘[not being] trusted with guns’?

reflects ideas that women are too emotional to carry weaponry

CH1: significance of the women’s real names being read out at the end of the chapter?

highlights their individuality, especially considering they get renamed by gilead

CH2: purpose of the line ‘they’ve removed anything you could tie a rope to’?

gilead finds handmaids valuable and refuses to let them escape through suicide

CH2: significance of offred’s red dress?

it symbolises fertility, sexuality and visibility

CH2: significance of the white ceiling and curtains?

symbolises purity

CH2: significance of religious references; ‘as once in nunneries’, ‘a sister dipped in blood’?

shows gilead is built off of a perverse interpretation of christianity

CH2: significance of offred’s attention to detail and imaginative similes (‘like a path through a forest’)?

shows her escapism and coping mechanisms

CH2: significance of the ‘dull green’ dresses for marthas?

forced relation to nature

CH2: significance of the different colored dresses for the women?

represents roles in gilead’s hierarchy

CH2: significance of the marthas distaste for the handmaids (rita: ‘i wouldn't debase myself like that’)?

either jealousy or contempt for keeping gilead’s regime alive

CH2: significance of simile ‘…mournful as pigeons in the eaves troughs’?

pigeons were domesticated before being shunned and seen as pests

CH2: the marthas ‘gossip’ amongst themselves - significance of the handmaid ‘stabbed by a knitting needle’? 2 points

• traditional feminine activity contrasted with violence

• shows the contempt commander’s wives have for handmaids

CH2: importance of the narrative perspective?

1st person narration has an intimate, claustrophobic tone

CH3: significance of serena joy’s garden? quote to prove point

• symbolises female creativity, fertility, and acts as a replacement for a child

• ‘something…to order and maintain and care for’

CH3: ‘the tulips are red…as if they have been cut and are beginning to heal’ significance?

metaphor for the handmaids’ suffering

CH3: ‘from a distance it looks like peace’ significance?

implies the order of the gilead is only surface level

CH3: line proving serena joy wants a child of her own?

‘they aren’t scarves for grown men but for children’

CH3: serena asks offred ‘so you’re the new one’ - significance?

implies handmaids are disposable

CH3: offred narrates ‘i thought [i sounded like the] voice of a monotone, voice of a doll’ significance? 2 points

• relates to dehumanisation of women

• could imply false persona

CH3: why is serena joy’s past christian association important?

because the gilead is based off christian values, she may have had an advantage

CH4: offred describes parts of the garden as ‘like a hair parting’ and ‘pink, like lips’. significance of this humanisation?

relates the garden to women - obsession with female experience

CH4: significance of the commander’s car being the color of a ‘hearse’?

could foreshadow a death

CH4: example of foreshadowing? how so? 2 points

• offred interacting with the guardians and nick

• hints at future danger, alliances and potential rebellion

CH4: the sidewalk is ‘red brick’ - signficance?

continues trend of red color codes - implies road paved with bloodshed

CH4: ‘steps like a trained pig on its hind legs’ - significance of this simile?

relates women to animals that are bred and disposed of

CH4: significance of relating the young guardians to ‘dogs’ and ‘sheep’?

implies they are like service animals following the regime

CH4: What do the guardians represent? how so? 2 points

• state control and repressed sexuality

• their glances at the handmaids suggest desire despite the strict rules

CH5: significance of the word ‘doubled’?

refers to offred and her partner - depersonalizes the handmaids, likening them to clones

CH5: significance of mentioning ‘the war’?

foreshadowing

CH5: significance of anecdote starting ‘luke and i used to walk together’? 2 points

• reflects the handmaids walking in twos

• shows how much freedom offred has lost

CH5: significance of the portion starting ‘women were not protected then’? 2 points

• compares the potential dangers of freedom with the overprotection of handmaids

• shows that the leaders of gilead believe it loss of autonomy is for the handmaids’ own good

CH5: ‘some people call [handmaid hoods] habits…habits are heard to break’ significance? 3 points

• wordplay

• compares the uniform to a nun’s habit - religious theming

• difficulty to rebel against regime

CH5: significance of the description of the pregnant handmaid - ‘she’s a flag on a hilltop’, ‘object of envy and desire’? 3 points

• shows pregnancy becoming the handmaids’ only purpose

• handmaids objectify her in jealousy - explains how attacks against the pregnant are common

• implication that pregnancy helps ‘save’ handmaids

CH5: significance of the description of the pregnant handmaid - ‘swells triumphantly’, ‘belly…like a huge fruit’? 2 points

• idolization of pregnancy

• ‘fruit’ is a biblical reference eg. blessed be the fruit

CH5: significance of the description of the tourists - ‘nearly naked’, ‘high-heeled shoes... like delicate instruments of torture’? 2 points

• emphasizes how offred has been influenced by the puritan gilead

• irony - the handmaids are who are being tortured

CH5: significance of the description of the tourists - ‘hair…darkness and sexuality’, ‘lipstick, red…damp cavities of their mouths… like scrawls on a washroom wall’? 2 points

• language reminiscent of prostitutes or nightclubs

• ‘damp cavities’ alluding to glory holes - ironic as it’s the handmaids who are used by men

CH5: significance of animalistic language/similes for the tourists - ‘cocking their heads…like robins’, ‘twittering’ etc?

emphasizes and relates their freedom to that of birds

CH5: ‘westernized, they used to call it’ - significance?

irony that the west is more conservative now, while the east more progressive

CH5: aunt lydia: ‘to be seen…is to be penetrated’ - significance? 2 points

• women are sexualized just for existing

• assumes all men to be sexual deviants

CH5: '[aunt lydia] called us girls’ significance?

infantilization of handmaids/women

CH5: ‘the smell of nail polish has made me hungry’- meaning?

offred is ‘hungry’ for freedom of expression

CH5: ‘we are secret…we excite them’ significance?

contextually relates to the sexualization of modestly dressed religious women

CH5: use of vivid sensory details in the chapter?

descriptions of the handmaids’ uniforms and the walls around gilead evoke a sense of confinement and control

CH5: example of situational irony in this chapter?

the juxtaposition between the language of safety and the oppressive reality

CH5: example of verbal irony in this chapter?

the women are told they’re ‘protected’ and ‘honored’ while they are stripped of autonomy and freedom

CH6: quote emphasizing lack of freedom?

‘when we think of the past…we want to believe it was all [beautiful']’

CH6: ‘women…hair covered by white caps… our ancestors’ significance?

old patriarchy persists to modern day

CH6: which quote from this chapter shows the censorship of progressive ideology in gilead?

‘it’s only the recent history that offends them’

CH6: offred thinks ofglen is ‘a woman…[who] is acting rather than a real act’ significance?

acknowledges women must conform as self-preservation

CH6: what does the wall represent?

state power, fear,and control

CH6: how does the wall control the citizens? 2 points

• limits movement

• scare tactic through dead bodies

CH6: significance of the wall being ‘red brick’? what does it represent?

continues color symbolism in the novel, represents violence and danger 

CH6: how does the wall act as an indicator of the horrors of gilead?

it displays dead bodies of those who defied gilead, making it a monument to terror

CH6: how does atwood emphasize the normalized violence in gilead?

by contrasting the mundane walk with the horrific executions

CH6: technique in ‘the heads are zeros…the heads are melting’? 2 points

• repetition shows power of propaganda

• dehumanizes the hanged victims 

CH6: ‘the red of the smile (of blood on the hanged man’s sack) is the same as the red of the tulips in serena joy’s garden’ significance?

relates red that represents violence to femininity