chapter 6
the wall ‘their heads are zeros’
chapter 23
playing scrabble
context- ww2 conc camps
lack of individuality, governed by fear, specific groups treated with violence and discrimination
context- gestapo and french resistance
the eyes and the resistance offred and ofglen are part of
context- the amish
lack of individuality, wear uniform, hierarchy of positions in society
context- iran in 1980s
women not allowed to read and rights restricted
context- romania in 1980s
big portrayals of power by people in power, abortion and contraception banned
context- ireland in 1950s
women’s children taken from them and abortion banned
chapter 1- the gymnasium
‘the angels… were objects of fear to us’, ‘there was old sex in the room and loneliness’
chapter 2- Offred’s room
‘time here is measured by bells, as once in nunneries’, ‘they’ve removed anything you can tie a rope to’
chapter 3- Serena Joy’s attitudes
‘I am a reproach to her; and a neccesity’
chapter 5- Aunt Lydia’s speech on freedom
‘freedom to and freedom from’, ‘modesty is invisibility’
chapter 6- the wall
‘the heads are zeros’, ‘it makes them look like dolls on which the faces have not yet been painted’
chapter 9- reflection on life with Luke and the previous Handmaid
‘careless. I was careless in those rooms’, ‘it pleases me to ponder this message’
chapter 10- Aunt Lydia’s speech on women in pre-Gilead
‘oiling themselves like meat on a spit’, ‘I’m trying to give you the best chance I can’, ‘not even stockings on them, no wonder these things used to happen’
chapter 13- Janine blamed for rape
‘Her fault! Her fault! Her fault!’
chapter 16- the Ceremony
‘which of us is it worse for, me or her?’
chapter 23- scrabble
‘I hold the glossy counters with their smooth edges… what a luxury’
chapter 25- Serena Joy’s gardening
‘Saint Serena, on her knees doing penance’, ‘cutting with a convulsive jerk of the hands’
chapter 33- prayvaganda and Janine
‘the rope segregates us, marks us off, keeps the others from contamination by us’, ‘they burn you up with the garbage like an unwoman’
chapter 42- salvaging
‘there is a bloodlust; I want to tear, gouge, rend.’
chapter 43- Particicution led by Aunt LYdia
“he has abused his position of trust”
handmaids structure
- intro
-para 1: topic sentence,
quote 1 with analysis,
quote 2 with analysis,
link to elsewhere in novel,
link to context/ dystopia
repeat for para 2 and para 3
