The red centre and handmaid/martha life:

Question 1

what is offred told about her role as a handmaid

Answer 1

Where I am is not a prison but a privilege

Question 2

how does offred descrivbe the handmaid outfit

Answer 2

a sister, dipped in blood

Question 3

how are Marthas treated

Answer 3

nobody much cares who sees the face of a Martha

Question 3

what does aunt Lydia say about freedom

Answer 3

There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. 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.

Question 4

what does aunt Lydia say about adapting to the new world

Answer 4

Ordinary, said Aunt Lydia, is what you are used to. This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will, It will become ordinary.

Question 5

how is sex viewed by Offred

Answer 5

As far as I’m concerned, this is like a business transaction

Question 6

what does Offred say about the suicide of the handmaids

Answer 6

there are no razors, of course. There were incidents in bathrooms at first: there were cuttings, drownings

Question 7

what is the line about the rat in the maze

Answer 7

“A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze.”