Identity Flashcards
Identity, complicity and resistance says
‘Gilead adopts measures aimed against woman their individuality and identity’
‘I want to be held and told my real name’
Offred connects her name too value, a value which Gilead has stripped away from her.
‘why should this mean anything’
Nick uses her name at the end. Could suggest her name does not mean anything to her anymore or Nick sees her as an individual so she should trust him.
‘We aren’t supposed to form friendships’
No friendships means woman are not able to reject Gilead’s ideas together.
‘There has to be so space I claim as mine’
As Offred becomes more resigned to her role becomes more desperate to own something to herself.
Stilman and Johnson says
‘Memories allow Offred to recall a sense of herself’
Begins to forget her closest relationships and uses past tense.
‘Luke wasn’t a doctor’
‘She was still my oldest friend’
‘Mirage, fading before their eyes’
metaphor implies Offred is an illusion as she loses her family she loses herself.
‘They slip away from me, ghosts at daybreak’
Describing her family as ghosts shows their in the past slipping away.
‘I wish I had a pig ball’
Offred longs to have a hobby to give her a social group outside handmaid.
‘Congealed around a central object’
Her identity in Gilead is shaped around her womb.
‘I resign my body freely to the use of others. I want to keep living’
In Gilead you either have an identity or keep living.
