Key quotations Flashcards
‘step sideways’
this refers to Offred’s ability to escape through her private memories of her life before Gilead.
‘Nolite te bastardes carborundorum’
Never let the bastards get you down
‘HOPE and CHARITY, where have they been stowed?’
Talking about the pillows, but there is a distinct subtext here used by Atwood, where she may be asking readers where such values have been stowed in actual society, especially with the rise of the New Right.
‘our fantasy’
used to describe Moira and how the women saw her after her attempt at escape
‘I’ve tried to put some of the good things in as well. …’
‘… Flowers, for instance.’
‘There is something subversive about this garden of Serena’s, …’
‘… a sense of buried things bursting upwards’
‘tiny peepholes’
Offred searches for moments of instability in which human responses break through official surfaces.
‘Still, it must be hell…’
‘… to be a man like that.’
‘a circle with a stem…’
‘… like the stem of an apple.’
‘Perspective is…’
‘… necessary.’
‘If it’s only a story,…’
‘… it becomes less frightening..’
‘I want anything that…’
‘… breaks the monotony.’
‘Which of us is it worse for…’
‘… , her or me?’
‘All flesh is…’
‘… grass’
‘They’ve frozen them… Any account with an F on it instead of an M. …’
‘… All they needed to do was push a few buttons.’
