The Handmaid’s Tale Flashcards
‘We slept in what had once been a gymnasium’
School - potential for human growth, growing up, puberty - this has ll been stripped from them
Creates a sense of haunting
Language to do with the past
‘Now you are being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it’
Freedom from danger
The bare minimum is considered freedom
No happiness
‘It will become ordinary’
Indoctrination
Manipulation
Things will never change
‘If it’s a story I’m telling then I have control over the ending’
Realising the lack of control
Not fully convinced
Desperate
‘My name is not Offred, I have another name… it’s forbidden’
Their uniqueness has been stripped away
They are toys in the game
No humanity left
‘Moira was like an elevator with open sides’
Free unlike the other women
Dangerous
‘We are for breeding purposes’
Treated like animals
Machine-like
‘A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere as long as it stays in the maze’
It seems to the women that they have freedom - allowed to go outside and speak to others but they have no freedom within the restriction of the Gilead
‘Better never means better for everyone. It always means worse for some’
Double speak
Play on words
Still understands the injustice in the world - not been completely controlled
‘We’ve given them more than we’ve taken away, said the Commander’
Justifying the wrongdoing
Potentially a reflection of male attitudes towards gender equality
Blissfully ignorant about the complete injustice this system has created
‘It’s strange to remember how we used to think’
Things have changed so much
Distance
‘At first glance there’s cheerfulness’
It’s all a facade
Indoctrinated
Told that this is normal
‘They can do almost anything with us but they aren’t allowed to kill us, not legally’
Rules don’t apply to them
Violence
Treated like animals
‘if the author is telling the truth’ - historical notes
Still no belief in women
Uncertainty
Patronising
