shopping

Question 1

‘a chair, a table, a lamp.’

Answer 1

life is repetitive - notices every detail

simple sentences reinforce monotony

little effort put into a room - she’s only a handmaid

Question 2

’ they’ve removed anything you could tie a rope to’

Answer 2

no escape, not even though suicide

stripped of any personal autonomy

gilead regime was purposely designed for people to hate

Question 3

‘folk art, archaic, made by women, in their spare time, from things that have no further use’

Answer 3

drawing parallels to art - implies that women are nothing more than a decorative sex

their role in society is almost pointless

Question 4

‘waste not want not. i am not being wasted. why do i want?’

Answer 4

desire is illogical in gileadean ideology

wants change but doesn’t know what

brainwashes - deeply embedded ideology

atwood shows the dangers of oppressive regimes

Question 5

’ i try not to think too much. like other things now, though must be rationed’

Answer 5

thought is restricted and impoverished by oppression

thinking is dangerous for women

Question 6

‘the bell that measures time is ringing’

Answer 6

bells were seen as the voice of god

routine and oppression

Question 7

‘red shoes, flat heeled to save the spine and not for dancing’

Answer 7

colour of sin and passion - danger in that society

birth/ infertility

Question 8

‘black, for the commander, blue, for the commander’s wife, and the one assigned to me which is red’

Answer 8

status difference

black - authority

blue - royalty/ trapped by the patriarchy

unintellectual and repressive - colours categorise people, almost childlike

Question 9

‘the tulips are red, a darker crimson’

Answer 9

emphasises vitality - women forcibly used as baby makers

garden - cultivated against natural inclination

Question 10

‘the commander’s wife directs, pointing with her stick’

Answer 10

garden is the only thing she can control - almost pointless role in society

the garden is a metaphor for childrearing - once able to care for them

commander’s wife doesn’t care - directs someone else to do it

Question 11

‘i am a reproach to her; and a necessity’

Answer 11

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

Question 12

‘the cigarettes must have come from the black market… and this gava me hope. even though there is no real money anymore, there’s still a black market’

Answer 12

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

Question 13

‘hostile blue of a midsummer sky in bright sunlight, a blue that shuts you out’

Answer 13

misses warmth and happiness

contrasts the familiar summer sky - uncanny atmosphere

removed identity - restricted

Question 14

‘an older sister, an motherly figure, someone who would understand and protect me’

Answer 14

longing for human connection

both offred and the commander’s wife are trapped in the system

Question 15

‘voice of a monotone, voice of a doll’

Answer 15

pre programmed

no thoughts - lost identity

no freedom of speech in gilead

Question 16

‘the woman sitting in front of me was serena joy. or had been, once. so it was worse than i thought’

Answer 16

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

Question 17

‘fertility of the soil’

Answer 17

all she’s conditioned to think about

pressure to think about maternity - still prevalent today

Question 18

‘his cap is tilted at a jaunty angle, and his sleeves rolled to the elbow, showing his forearms, tanned but with a stipple of dark hair. he has a cigarette stuck in the corner of his mouth, which shows that he too has something he can trade on the black market’

Answer 18

fixating on details - irregular behaviour and looks

rebellious - has something he can trade

Question 19

‘low status: he hasn’t been issued a woman, not even one. he doesn’t rate: some defect, lack of connections’

Answer 19

gilead takes arranged marriages to a new level

government decide how much action men get

Question 20

‘smells fishy, they used to say; or i smell a rat. misfit as odour’

Answer 20

not uniform like everyone else

Question 21

‘he winks’

Answer 21

not allowed to interact

Question 22

‘perhaps he is an eye’

Answer 22

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

Question 23

‘this is supposed to be for our protection, though the notion is absurd; we are well protected already. the truth is that she is my spy as i am hers. if either of us slips through the net because of something that happens on our daily walks, the other will be accountable’

Answer 23

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

Question 24

‘i’m ravenous for news, any kind of news, even if it’s false news, it must mean something’

Answer 24

desperate

boredom of life

cut of from the rest of the world

controlled thinking

Question 25

‘the republic of gilead, said aunt lydia, knows no bounds. gilead is within you’

Answer 25

no escape

part of the little identity they have - only thing that defines them

propaganda - controlling

nazi regime

Question 26

‘rules that were never spelled out that every woman knew’

Answer 26

unwritten rules

women never safe

atwood criticises the danger of women

Question 27

‘there is more than one kind of freedom. freedom to and freedom from. in the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. now you are being given freedom from. don’t underrate it’

Answer 27

protecting by controlling

for their own safety

manipulating the handmaids into thinking they’re lucky

Question 28

‘one of them is vastly pregnant, her belly loose under her garment, swells triumphantly… she’s a magic presence to us, an object of envy and desire’

Answer 28

jealous - pregnancy gives them status

idolised gileadean figure

rescue the from death

Question 29

‘we are fascinated, but also repelled. they seem undressed. it has taken so little time to change our minds about things like this’

Answer 29

dangers of regime

how quickly the handmaids have become conditioned

lost autonomy over how they dress

constant reminder of the past

Question 30

‘women’s feet. one of them is wearing open toed sandals, the toenails painted pink’

Answer 30

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

Question 31

‘six more bodies hanging by the necks, their hands tied in front of them, their heads in white bags tipped sideways onto their shoulders’

Answer 31

warning to those who rebel

gilead is capable of killing

men have more power

begging

Question 32

‘the men wear white coats, like those worn by doctors or scientists’

Answer 32

don’t follow ideology - abortion

anti scientific establishment

Question 33

‘these bodies hanging on the wall are time travellers, anachronisms. they’ve come from the past’

Answer 33

no choice over their bodies

abortion doesn’t exist

oppression of women

Question 34

‘this may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. it will become ordinary’

Answer 34

nothing to rebel against if gilead is normal

how quickly people adapt to oppression

shows the dangers of extreme oppression