Serena Joy

Question 1

‘Wives have such gardens, it’s something for them to order and maintain and care for’ (pg.12)

Question 2

‘I am a reproach to her; and a necessity’ (pg.13)

Question 3

‘Her blue waist thickened her left hand on the ivory head of her cane’ (pg.14)

Question 4

‘Two lines downwards/ clenched like a fist’ (pg.15)

Question 5

‘The woman sitting in front of me was Serena Joy. Or had been, once’ (pg.16)

Question 6

‘She’ll put a hand on my shoulder…as if i’m a piece of furniture’

Question 7

‘Some kamikaze, committed on the swelling genitalia’

Answer 7

Serena Joy is infertile so she is trying to take control over some fertility which is in her garden

Question 8

‘Knitting away…her form of procreation’

Answer 8

This again is Serena Joy trying to take control over some sort of fertility

Question 9

‘She’s biting her lip, she’s suffering. She wants it all right, that baby’ (p.261)

Answer 9

Serena Joy is unable to conceive as she is clearly getting older and with that more frail. Offred is her only hope at being able to settle down with a child.