quotes Flashcards
1 - Night: The past
“later in mini-skirts, then pants”
“pictures flickering over lifting flesh”
1 - Night: Red Centre
“we slept in what had once been the gymnasium”
“army issue blankets, old ones that still said U.S”
1 - Night: Oppression
“spaces between us so we could not talk”
“the lights were turned down but not out”
“Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrolled; they had electric cattle prods”
1 - Night: Rebellion
“we learned to whisper almost without sound”
“we exchanged names from bed to bed”
2 - Shopping: Oppression
“thought must be rationed”
“I hunger to commit the act of touch”
“she is my spy, as I am hers”
2 - Shopping: Oppression - the room
“like the place in a face where the eye has been taken out”
“removed anything you could tie a rope to”
“those other escapes, the ones you can open in yourself, given a cutting edge
2 - Shopping: Oppression - guardians
“aren’t yet permitted to touch women”
2 - Shopping: language
“now places are known by their signs alone”
“I am not being wasted. Why do I want?”
2 - Shopping: flowers
“a print of flowers, blue irises”
“this garden is the domain of the commander’s wife”
“something for them to order and maintain and care for”
2 - Shopping: mirrors
“as in a nunnery, there a few mirrors”
“myself in it, like a distorted shadow”
2 - Shopping: handmaids outfits
“the colour of red, which defines us”
“to keep us from seeing, but also from being seen”
2 - Shopping: handmaids rules
“like liquor and coffee, cigarettes were forbidden”
“It’s too soon, everyone is unsure of our exact status”
2 - Shopping: handmaids
“they’re doing it for us all”
“supposed to show respect, because of the nature of our service”
“she’s a magic presence to us, an object of envy and desire, we covet her”
2 - Shopping: Martha
“dull green, like a surgeon’s gown”
“the Marthas know things”
2 - Shopping: Hierarchy
“in the houses of the commanders there is still real coffee”
“low status: he hasn’t been issued a woman”
2 - Shopping: commander’s wife
“ivory head of her cane” “arthritis”
“keep the wives busy, to give them a sense of purpose”
“Till death do us part, its final”
2 - Shopping: angels
“knitting scarves for the angels at the front lines”
2 - Shopping: dissent
“cigarettes must have come from the black market”
“sleeves are rolled to the elbow”
“He begins to whistle. Then he winks” “I enjoy the power”
2 - Shopping: religion
“they can hit us, there’s scriptural precedent”
“milk and honey”
“Ofglen’s head is bowed as if she’s praying”
2 - Shopping: Utopian appearance
“gravel path that divides the back lawn, neatly, like a hair parting”
“sidewalks are kept much cleaner”
“the street is almost like a museum, or a street in a model town
2 - Shopping: Utopian freedoms
“women were not protected then”
“no man shouts obscenities at us, speaks to us, touches us”
“in the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it”
2 - Shopping: Utopia
“war can not intrude except on television”
2 - Shopping: Indoctrination - paranoia
“perhaps he is an eye”
“she may be a real believer, a handmaid in more than name”
2 - Shopping: Indoctrination - mind washing
“Gilead is within you”
“it’s been a long time since I’ve seen skirts that are short on women”
“it has taken so little time to change our minds”
“It will become ordinary”
2 - Shopping: Dystopia
“there are no children”
“there are no lawyers anymore, and the university is closed”
2 - Shopping: Violence
“six more bodies hanging, by the necks”
“smile of blood”
“Like the mouths painted… by kindergarten children”
