context

Question 1

cattle prods

Answer 1

• used by the aunts as a visible threat of violence

- used by the police in alabama against afrian americans in the 1960s civil rights movement

Question 2

the american new right

Answer 2

• 1980s movement of conservative ideas about the role of women in society
• mirrored in gilead
• atwood cautions against failing to “separate church and state” through the use of satire within the dystopian genre
• this exaggerates the consequences of fundamentalist views

Question 3

puritan roots

Answer 3

• atwood’s relative, mary webster, was hanged as a witch in the 17th century
• the first buildings in puritan new england were a prison and gallows
• these are symbols of oppression similar to the wall
• puritanism’s ideal society is a utopia with traditional values
• in practise this means oppression, theocracy and patriarchy

Question 4

north american feminist movement

Answer 4

• offred’s mother supported the women’s liberation movement

- campaigned for women’s sexual freedom in the 1960s

Question 5

the bible

Answer 5

• the patriarchal and fundamentalist passages highlighted are used as the foundations of gilead
• old testament story and quote “give me children or else i die” from the epigraph acts as a pretext for the mass removal of women’s rights

Question 6

harvard

Answer 6

• the setting is synonymous with culture, knowledge and progression
• atwood presents it as a symbol of oppression where political, religious and sexual traitors are butchered (the wall)

Question 7

inspiration for serena joy

Answer 7

• parodied figure of phyllis schafly
• in response to women who have publicly campaigned for values that will punish them
• she was an american conservative who campaigned against the equal rights movement

Question 8

environmental degradation

Answer 8

• there was a fear in the 1980s that the environment was deteriorating
• portrayed through the factors that allowed gilead to form

Question 9

deprivation of individuality

Answer 9

• the name system (patronymic) e.g. offred robs them of their identity
• refers to the history of slavery and nazi concentration camps where people were issued numbers

Question 10

hitler and nazi germany

Answer 10

• brainwashing ideology
• discrimination against other people
• threat of violence
• psychological control

Question 11

islamic regimes

Answer 11

• the uniform of the handmaids (mandatory dress codes have been repeatedly evident in history)
• a refusal for women to be educated and attend school