key quotes Flashcards
‘we slept in what had once been the gymnasium’
reduction of freedom
things have changed
communal space - prom, romance, optimism about the future
‘we’ - lack of identity, everyone is the same
‘the hoops for the basketball nets were still in place, but the nets were gone’
structure there, details gone - past lingers over them
gilead doesn’t have to destroy everything to keep control
uncanny - familiar place put against an oppressive society
‘there was old sex in the room and loneliness’
temporal deixis - sex had mostly stayed the same
loss of hope - old sex is differentiated from the sex of gilead. emphasises the division and isolation that sex in gilead brings
we yearned for the future. how did we learn it, that talent for insatiability?’
intense desire - can’t have that
want equality and freedom
shame associated with desire in the novel - desire is a natural part of humanity
‘army cots’
oxymoron
infantilised but disciplined
‘electric cattle prongs slung on thongs from their leather belts’
authority - guard, gives them an element of control
treated like animals - no identity
‘we still had our bodies’
only value is their bodies
can be given up in exchange for a better life
the one thing the handmaids can control
‘whisper almost without sound’
unity
rebellion against authority
repressed, can’t talk - similar to how children are treated
‘alma. janine. dolores. moira. june’
intimate act - draws readers closer into offred’s life
names are precious - gives them identity and a sense of control
’they’ve removed anything you could tie a rope to’
no escape, not even though suicide
stripped of any personal autonomy
gilead regime was purposely designed for people to hate
‘folk art, archaic, made by women, in their spare time, from things that have no further use’
drawing parallels to art - implies that women are nothing more than a decorative sex
their role in society is almost pointless
‘i try not to think too much. like other things now, thought must be rationed’
thought is restricted and impoverished by oppression
thinking is dangerous for women
‘black, for the commander, blue, for the commander’s wife, and the one assigned to me which is red’
status difference
black - authority
blue - royalty/ trapped by the patriarchy
unintellectual and repressive - colours categorise people, almost childlike
‘the tulips are red, a darker crimson’
emphasises vitality - women forcibly used as baby makers
garden - cultivated against natural inclination
‘i am a reproach to her; and a necessity’
offred is disliked yet vital for change/ survival - dehumanises herself, shows her lack of self worth
serena only wants offred because she can give her a child
ironic, offred should be fearful of her superiors
‘there’s still a black market’
still corruption in society despite the oppressive nature of the gilead regime
need to have access in order to buy things
offred only has her body to trade - illegal, trapped
hoping there’s a way to escape
‘voice of a monotone, voice of a doll’
pre programmed
no thoughts - lost identity
no freedom of speech in gilead
’ it was worse than i thought’
no hope for change
the fact that she was powerful before and continues to conform to the gilead regime emphasises just how oppressive it is
‘his cap is tilted at a jaunty angle, and his sleeves rolled to the elbow’
fixating on details - irregular behaviour and looks
rebellious - has something he can trade
‘misfit as odour’
not uniform like everyone else
‘perhaps he is an eye’
first thought is that he’s a spy - how paranoid the regime has made offred
corruption of gilead
can’t trust anyone
extreme oppression
links to nazi germany
‘i’m ravenous for news, any kind of news, even if it’s false news, it must mean something’
desperate
boredom of life
cut off from the rest of the world
controlled thinking
‘she is my spy as i am hers’
hypocrisy of women
paranoia - oppression of everyday life
doppelgangers - merging onto the same path
stripped of any identity
supposed to go on different paths
disconnection between names and people
‘gilead is within you’
no escape
part of the little identity they have - only thing that defines them
propaganda - controlling
nazi regime
’ you are being given freedom from’
protecting by controlling
for their own safety
manipulating the handmaids into thinking they’re lucky
‘swells triumphantly… she’s a magic presence to us, an object of envy and desire’
jealous - pregnancy gives them status
idolised gileadean figure
rescue the from death
‘we are fascinated, but also repelled. they seem undressed. it has taken so little time to change our minds about things like this’
dangers of regime
how quickly the handmaids have become conditioned
lost autonomy over how they dress
constant reminder of the past
‘women’s feet. one of them is wearing open toed sandals, the toenails painted pink’
freedom - feet used to run/ walk - change
simple luxury she doesn’t have anymore
how little she has - feet are not a typically glamourised body part
‘six more bodies hanging by the necks, their hands tied in front of them, their heads in white bags tipped sideways onto their shoulders’
warning to those who rebel
gilead is capable of killing
men have more power
begging
‘these bodies hanging on the wall are time travellers, anachronisms. they’ve come from the past’
no choice over their bodies
abortion doesn’t exist
oppression of women
‘it will become ordinary’
nothing to rebel against if gilead is normal
how quickly people adapt to oppression
shows the dangers of extreme oppression
‘tulips are opening their cups, spilling out colour’
symbolise female reproductive organs
‘the colour of blood defines us’
fertility - primary function
menstrual blood - failure
childbirth blood - success
‘a sister dripped in blood
