Paper 2- Prose THT

Question 1

What are the three epigraphs in The Handmaid’s Tale?

Answer 1

Sufi Proverb
Exert from a Modest Proposal (by Johnathan Swift)
An exert from the Bible

Question 2

Who is The Handmaid’s Tale dedicated to?

Answer 2

Mary Webster- ancestor of Atwood accused of being a witch and lynched for it (supposedly)

Question 3

What type of narrator is ‘Offred’?

Answer 3

Meta-diegetic

Question 4

What type of narrator is Piexoto?

Answer 4

Intra-diegetic

Question 5

When was the second wave of feminism?

Answer 5

1960s and 1970s

Question 6

Who were significant figures in 2nd wave feminism?

Answer 6

Simone de Beauvoir- writer of ‘The Second Sex’
Ruth Bader-Ginsburg - lawyer worked on cases for women’s rights

Question 7

What was the Equal Rights Ammendments?

Answer 7

Proposed amendments to constitution in 1980s that would end sex based discrimination

Question 8

What was STOP ERA?

Answer 8

Campaign lead by right wing Christian women against the Equal Rights Ammendment.
Stood for ‘Stop Taking Our Privileges’

Question 9

Who was Phyllis Schlaffley?

Answer 9

Key figure in STOP ERA
Traveled state to state campaigning to stop the bill going through

Question 10

Who was the New Right?

Answer 10

Rise of right wing political figures in response to feminist movement
Key figures:
Ronald Reagan
Margaret Thatcher

Question 11

Who were the puritans?

Answer 11

Fundamental Protestants moving from England to America
Big focus on female modesty
Atwood was descended from Puritans in Nova Scotia

Question 12

What was the focus of 2nd wave feminism?

Answer 12

Sexual freedom
Tackling exist language
Women’s History and

Question 13

Why does Atwood prefer the term speculative fiction rather than dystopian fiction?

Answer 13

Suggests it is possible

Question 14

What are features of dystopian fiction?

Answer 14

Heroic protagonists
Neologisms
Future
Scapegoats
Totalitarian regimes

Question 15

What are dystopian novels Atwood was inspired by?

Answer 15

Brave New Worlf
Clockwork Orange
1984

Question 16

What are features of dictatorships/totalitarianism?

Answer 16

No democracy
No freedom
Control of media
Violence
Concentrated power

Question 17

What fascist regimes were happening in the 21st century?

Answer 17

USSR
Germany
Italy
Spain

Question 18

What is écriture féminine?

Answer 18

A ‘feminine’ genre focusing on the female body, ‘stream of consciousness’ style and contradiction in the narrative

Question 19

What was 3 Mile Island?

Answer 19

Meltdown of a nuclear reactor in 1979
Exposed millions to radiation (in low levels)

Question 20

How were nuclear weaponry developing?

Answer 20

Cold war- arms race between USA and USSR
US dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WW2
Cuban Missile Crisis

Question 21

How is Atwood concerned with the environment?

Answer 21

One of the first members of the Canadian Green Party
His a 2nd home in middle of nature at Peely Point

Question 22

Why is Atwood concerned by the Cold War?

Answer 22

Concern about nuclear warfare causing a rise in birth defects
Lived in West Berlin while writing

Question 23

‘I’ve me children, _ ___ _ __’

Answer 23

Or else I die

Question 24

‘ I hunger to _____ __ ___ _ ____’

Answer 24

Commit the act of touch

Question 25

‘His cap is _____ at a ____ ___ and his sleeves are _____ __ __ ____’

Answer 25

Tilted Jaunty angle Rolled to the elbow

Question 26

‘ There is ___ ___ __ ___ __ _____, said Aunt Lydia. _____ to and _____ from’.

Answer 26

More than 1 kind of freedom Freedom x2

Question 27

‘ I would like to ____ ___ __ _ ____ _ __ ______. _ ____ to believe it. _ ___ believe it’

Answer 27

Believe this is a story I’m telling I need I must

Question 28

‘I’m a ____, _______ around a____ ____, the shape of a pear, which is hard and ___ ___ ___ _ __ and glows ___ within its ________ _______’

Answer 28

Cloud Congealed Central object More real than i am Red Translucent wrapping