key quotes Flashcards
rita’s perception of offred
“But the frown isn’t personal: it’s the red dress she disapproves of, and what it stands for”
storytelling
“I would like to believe this is a story I’m telling. I need to believe it. I must believe it.”
the message
“Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. Don’t let the bastards grind you down”
prison/privilege
“Where I am is not a prison but a privilege, as Aunt Lydia said”
pregnancy
“She’s a magic presence to us, an object of envy and desire, we covet her.”
reading
“I read quickly […] before the next starvation”
identity
“Another name, which nobody uses now because it’s forbidden”
the wall, mass hysteria and fear
“Bodies hanging by their necks […] made into examples”
handmaids
“We are for breeding purposes”
“We are two legged wombs”
surveillance
“She is my spy as I am hers”
limited freedom
“Women can’t hold property anymore”
“We can be read from it, by him, but we cannot read”
religion
“Blessed are the silent. I knew they made that up […] They left things out too”
“She wanted our heads bowed just right, our toes together and pointed, our elbows at the proper angle. Part of her interest in this was aesthetic: she liked the look of the thing”
serena joy
“She doesn’t make speeches anymore. She has become speechless. She stays in her home, but it doesn’t seem to agree with her.”
the commander
“You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs, is what he says. We thought we could do better. Better? I say, in a small voice.”
lack of safety before gilead
“No children walked to school anymore, there had been too many disappearances”