Quotes Flashcards
What is the significance of âOrdinary is what you are used to. This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary.â
Aunt Lydia, however it is told to the reader via Offred - Chapter 6
It reflects the power of a totalitarian state like Gilead to transform a natural human response such as revulsion at an execution into âblanknessâ. It makes people forget what a different world would be like.
In short, to transform horror into normalcy.
What is the significance of âI would like to believe this is a story Iâm telling. I need to believe it⌠Those who can believe such stories have a better chance⌠If it is a story Iâm telling, then I have control over the ending.â
Offred - Chapter 7
It reflects the connection between Offredâs story, her readers, her lost family and her inner state. It suggests Offred is not recounting events from afar, or looking back on an earlier period of her life. Rather, sheâs describing the horror of Gilead as she experiences it daily. It is her way of rebelling against the regime.
What is the significance of â I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure, or a means of transportation, or an implement for the accomplishment of my will⌠Now the flesh arranges itself differentlyâŚâ
Offred - Chapter 13
Said as she sits in the bath, naked, and contrasts the way she used to think about her body to the way she thinks about it now. Before, her body was an instrument, an extension of her self; now, her self no longer matters, and her body is only important because of its âcentral object,â her womb, which can bear a child. Offredâs musings show that she has internalised Gileadâs attitude toward women, which treats them not as individuals but as objects important only for the children that they can bear.
What is the significance of â The problem wasnât only with the women, he says. The main problem was with the men⌠Men were turning off on sex, even. They were turning off on marriage. Do they feel now? I say. Yes, he says, looking at me. They do.â
Offred & The Commander - Chapter 32
The Commanderâs attempt to explain to Offred the reasons behind the foundation of Gilead. His comments are ambiguous, perhaps deliberately so, but they are the closest thing to a justification for the horror of Gilead that any character offers. He suggests that feminism and the sexual revolution left men without a purpose in life.
What is the significance of â Is that how we lived, then? But we lived as usual. Everyone does, most of the time. Whatever is going on is as usual. Even this is as usual, now. We lived, as usual, by ignoring. Ignoring isnât the same as ignorance, you have to work at it. Nothing changes instantly: in a gradually heating bathtub youâd be boiled to death before you knew it.â
Offred reflecting on life back in college with Moira - Chapter 10
Here, she admits that they werenât unaware of the changes happening around them. Like everyone, they preferred to pretend the changes werenât happening and live their lives as usual. The willing ignorance eventually led to the rise of Gilead, which shows how dangerous ignoring a situation can be.
What is the significance of â My name isnât Offred, I have another name, which nobody uses now because itâs forbidden⌠I keep the knowledge of this name like something hidden, some treasure Iâll come back to dig up, one day.â
Offred - Chapter 14
As Offred remembers the day she and her husband and daughter tried to escape across the border, she recalls the name she had then. In Gilead, a Handmaidâs name derives from the name of the man whom they serve, easily changeable and anonymous. In taking away her name Gilead stripped her of her identity, now buried treasure in Offredâs consciousness.
What is the significance of âthe room - not my roomâ
Offred - Chapter 2
It is a definitive article. The dashes suggest isolation and depersonalization. It will never belong to her, she will never have a space to call truly âhersâ.
What is the significance of âI am poked and proddedâ?
Offred - Chapter 11
Past participle, hints at slavery and has underlying sexual connotations.
What is the significance of âBelow the Commander is fucking. What he is fucking is the lower part of my bodyâ?
Offred - Chapter 16
Chiasmus, present participle, vulgarity of
systematic rape, sadomasochistic norms of Gilead, brutal doctrinaire of Gilead.
Shows how little the Handmaidâs are valued and how they have almost no rights in both the home and Gilead itself.
