IV Waiting Room Flashcards
CH.8 Wall/ walk with Ofglen
‘The snowman with the red smile is gone’ (Very impersonal, they have normalised tragic deaths)
Ofglen- ‘It’s a beautiful May Day’ (testing Offred, signs of rebellion) (May day=help me)
CH.8 Aunt Lydia teachings
‘All flesh is weak, All flesh is grass —God made them that way’ (Shows that there has been biblical manipulation, no reference to Satan and making them weak)
CH.8. Senses of the past
‘The kitchen smells of yeast, a nostalgic smell.’ (The adjective ‘nostalgic’ implies of a former life, creating a individualistic narrative)
‘This is a treacherous smell’ (The adjective ‘treacherous’ shows the psychological warp that the totalitarian society of Gilead has on the people, as the indoctrination has changed their pattern of thinking)
CH.8. Belonging to Gilead
‘Was he in my room?’—‘I called it mine’ (the possessive pronoun of ‘mine’ directly shows how Offred has accustomed to society and no views it as a threat instead it could be said she could have Stockholm syndrome
C.H 9 Breaking the 4th wall
‘I am not trying to tell stories, or at any rate not this one’ (the noun ‘story’ implies of fiction, this advocates for the view that the narrative of Offred is highly fabricated)
CH.9 Offred past rebellion
‘’It might just be an affair” (this shows that she was adulterous and this behaviour is not new, readers can gain an intel that she isn’t always the victim as she portrays herself to be, starts to make sense with her sexual relations of Nick and the emotional relationship of Commander)
CH.9 Rita
‘What you don’t know wont hurt you, was all she would say’ (this metaphor could be said is the reasoning behind the Handmaids being left in dark with knowledge in the Gilead society// link to 1984 ‘IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH’
CH.10 Movement of society
‘’Whatever is going on is as usual. Even this as usual, now” (Very reflective on what societal norms actually derive from as to other it could be seen that the current society is unusual but when in present its normal)
‘We lived, as usual, by ignoring. Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it’ (Could be implying that societal movements are not hidden from the public but possibly by being distracted, you ignore the signs ahead of you)
‘Nothing changes instantaneously: in a gradually heating bathtub you’d be boiled to death before you knew it’
CH.9. Unreliable narrator
‘We lived in the gaps between the stories’. (Makes readers question whether the stories that Offred is telling contain gaps and are so not accurate as we thought)
C.H11. Adjusting
‘Yesterday I went to the doctor. Was taken’ (correcting herself to remember that this isn’t her life, the indoctrination has made her subconsciously think that this was all voluntarily)
C.H11. Potential freedom
‘It’s the choice that terrifies me. A way out, a salvation’ (Freedom is no longer freedom, its scary to have self liberation
CH.12. Luke patriarchal views
‘Men needed more meat than women did’ (link to primal biological beings)
‘Studies have shown’ (Aunt Lydia has used this phrase in reference to justify patriarchy, could be said that Luke may exchange similar views on the differentiation of men and women// Aunt Lydia- ‘No coffee or tea though, no alcohol. Studies have been done’)
CH.12. Baby theft
‘I thought it was an isolated incident, at the time’ (This shows that there been inclination to a fertility crisis, evidence that the signs have been there but people didn’t know the extent of how extreme it was)
