CHILDREN Flashcards
Give a quote that suggests garden care is a metaphor for child care.
Many of the Wives have such gardens… (3.2-3)
How does the garden work as a metaphor and substitute for childrearing?
The narrator “once had a garden,” just as she once had a child. She was able to care for both of them, and both of them represented her “fullness” and maternal nature. But while the narrator cared for her own garden—and by extension, her child—the Commander’s Wife does not. She “directs” someone else to take care of it, just as she directs the Handmaid to produce a child for her.
Give a quote that suggests how much women value pregnancy.
She’s a magic presence to us, an object of envy… (5.18)
What does the pregnant woman represent for the Haindmaids?
For the Handmaids in particular, this pregnant woman represents not only the future of the human race, but the idea that “[they] too can be saved.” Becoming pregnant is the one thing they can do to rescue themselves from death.
