Minor characters

Question 1

‘Luke told me that’ (pg.11)

Question 2

‘She’s a flag on a hilltop, showing us what can still be done: we can be saved’ (pg.26)

Question 3

‘Luke wasn’t a doctor. Isn’t’ (pg.33)

Question 4

‘Saturday’s were supposed to be my day’/’she had a way of talking about me to others’ (pg.38)

Question 5

‘She was wearing a dress I’d never seen, white and down to the ground’ (pg.39)

Question 6

‘He was so momentary, so condensed. And yet there seemed no end to him’ (pg.51)

Question 7

‘Formerly that whiny bitch Janine’

Answer 7

There is no solidarity between women not even Handmaids - Janine is often described in a negative way by Offred calling her annoying

Question 8

‘Wiry, spunky…won’t let anyone butt in front of her in a line’

Answer 8

Offed’s mother is depicted to be headstrong and stubborn which is perhaps why Offred never got on with her as Offred herself is quite passive

Question 9

‘Hobby schmobby, my mother would say’

Answer 9

This dismissive idiom shows the tense relationship between Offred’s mother and Luke, it also shows Offred’s mother radical ideas that are perhaps slightly anti-men

Question 10

‘I want her back. I want everything back, the way it was’

Answer 10

Offred ‘wanting’ is desperation to escape the totalitarian regime of Gilead

Question 11

‘Her transparent voice’/ ‘Janine was like a puppy’

Answer 11

Offred always depicts Janine in a negative light - here she is suggesting that Janine is a people pleaser and will do anything for anyone

Question 12

‘We watch as Janine enters…in her veil of untouchability, of bad luck’ (p.217)

Answer 12

Janine’s miscarriage has obviously affected her mentally and makes her feel hopeless as she has failed to perform her one irrevocable function in society

Question 13

‘I have been obliterated for her’ (p.231)

Answer 13

Gilead is again erasing any memory of the past even for children so they will grow up learning to be subservient to the regime

Question 14

‘Kicks his head viciously…sharp painful jabs’ (p.281)

Answer 14

Offred is shocked by Ofglen becoming so violent like the regime wants however this is what must be done in order to not arouse suspicion

Question 15

‘She’s in free fall, she’s in withdrawal’ (p.282)

Answer 15

Janine’s mental decline shows she has become attached from the harsh reality of Gilead in order to cope with her failure to conceive