Handmaids Tale SampleSection

THE COMPLETE GUIDE AND RESOURCE FOR GRADE 12
“There is nothing in The Handmaid’s Tale that didn’t happen somewhere.”

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BACKGROUND
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The Handmaid’s Tale

A TI M
COMMENTARY
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CRITICAL
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LI THE COMPLETE OT GUIDE AND RESOURCE F FOR GRADE A12
T
LITERARY ANALYSIS
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PUBLISHED AND EDITED E N F
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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T ISBN: 978-1-77634-566-3 A T
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T made to the novel in this resource and
All references Sthe companion disc S
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refer toCthe Vintage 2010 edition of the novel
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(ISBN 978-00995-11-663).
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© THE ENGLISH EXPERIENCE 2022 1
T H E H A N D M A I D ’ S TA L E | T H ER C O M P L E T E G U I D E A N D R E S O U R C E
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FOREWORD
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BACKGROUND
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COMMENTARY
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2 P H OTO C O P Y I N G O F T H I S R E S O U R C E I S I N C O N T R AV E N T I O N O F T H E C O P Y R I G H T AC T ( N O. 9 8 1 9 7 8 )
FO O N R
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Table of Contents
O I C
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PL NO
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PL FO
FOREWORD
ON
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ON SE CT
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P SE
ForewordPL I ON A M LE
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
E T S P
About
R
R the English Experience.C
E AM
...........................................................................................................................6
S
O S
FOur LE
approach...........................................................................................................................................................7
T P
NO Using this resource.A.M I ON N
...............................................................................................................................................8 P LE
S AT TI
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AM
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
I C A S
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N R P
BackgroundTI
O to the novel OR RE
C A F O R I ON
LI T
Author
P
background
N OT T
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COMMENTARY
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R Author biography................................................................................................................................................
N P
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Author quotes: The author in her own words........................................................................................... C AT
15
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T E
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LITERARY ANALYSIS
S context C N
Historical
L E SE FO
PWriting The Handmaid’sLTale T
E in West Berlin ...............................................................................................
NO
25
A M P N
S The United States AinMthe early 1980s ...........................................................................................................
IO 27
S C T R
E
America in the 1600s .........................................................................................................................................
N F O28
S O OT 29
LITERARY ESSAY
The Salem witch trials L E TI N
.......................................................................................................................................
C
N P
T IO A M SE
A S E
L IC
Literary context
PL N
P A M IO
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
S
R Speculative fiction.N.............................................................................................................................................. N
I O S EC 31IO
T A T
Science fiction:
I N P LE
CA The ‘literature of ideas’........................................................................................................ IC 32
L
DystopianE PLfiction.................................................................................................................................................
TI
O
AM EP 33
R C A S R
R
Feminist LI OR
science fiction..................................................................................................................................... 35
FO E P F
O T Literary allusions and possible
R
R influences: The Bible
O N OT
N and Nineteen Eighty-Four........................... 38
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Enrichment task...................................................................................................................................................
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Introduction
N to the novelFO SE FO
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I O LE NO
TSynopsis..................................................................................................................................................................
N P 44
E M
S Major characters..................................................................................................................................................
SA 46
Social hierarchy
I ON of Gilead.................................................................................................................................
I ON I ON 52
Timeline E O N
E CT E CT 54
CofT events...............................................................................................................................................
S T I S S
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Themes. LE LI
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IO................................................................................................................................................................... 57
CT P P N
Fast AM RE
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E S R
PL Enrichment task...................................................................................................................................................
FO
FOREWORD
63
M T I ON
SA N NO CT I ON
Critical commentary O S E T
A TI L E EC
Preparation C P S
P LI O N M LE
I A
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
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Reading novels for academic T S P
analysis......................................................................................................... 69
R C A M
RDetecting patterns of meaning SE S
FO
and form.................................................................................................. 69
L E
T P literary terms............................................................................................................ 71E
NO ON
Glossary of important
A M I N P L
S A T O M
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INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
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C A SA
Summaries and analyses P I
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Using this R
section................................................................................................................................................ 72
A TI F O R
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L T A TI
IC I. Night.....................................................................................................................................................................
FO 72
P N O T C
COMMENTARY
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CRITICAL
II. Shopping............................................................................................................................................................ I74

P
RE C AT 87
III. Night...................................................................................................................................................................
I
I N F OR
ON Room..................................................................................................................................................
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IV. Waiting
T O T R E 90
C I
CT NO
SENap.....................................................................................................................................................................103
OR
LITERARY ANALYSIS
V.
E S E F
PL VI. Household......................................................................................................................................................106
L E OT
M P N N
SA M IO
VII. Night...............................................................................................................................................................111
A T
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VIII. Birth Day.......................................................................................................................................................117
N F OR
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LITERARY ESSAY
IX. Night. . L E TI
...............................................................................................................................................................130
C N
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X. A SE
IOSoul Scrolls......................................................................................................................................................132
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IC XI. Night.................................................................................................................................................................147
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R S N
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XII. Jezebel's.........................................................................................................................................................150
IO
T A T
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XIII. Night..............................................................................................................................................................174
IC
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XIV.EP TI AM EP
Salvaging......................................................................................................................................................176
A S R
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RXV. Night...............................................................................................................................................................186
F
T RE OT
Historical Notes..................................................................................................................................................188
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Enrichment tasks...............................................................................................................................................192
T C C AT
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Literary
N analysis FO SE FO
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C N P LE
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O NO
S E M
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Narration and structure...................................................................................................................................201
ON
CharacterNanalysis..............................................................................................................................................205
I O I ON I
Themes.
E O N
E CT E CT
CT .................................................................................................................................................................217
S T I S S
E A E E
Symbols.................................................................................................................................................................230
PL LI
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FO O N R
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IO LE LI
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Motifs.....................................................................................................................................................................233
CT P P N
Important AM RE
SE quotations......................................................................................................................................236
LE S R
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FOREWORD
PEnrichment tasks...............................................................................................................................................244
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BACKGROUND
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Essay writing techniques................................................................................................................................260
R
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Annotated essay examples............................................................................................................................267
T P LE
NO
Practice essay
ON
questions.................................................................................................................................271
A M I N P LE
Examination preparation. S AT TI
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...............................................................................................................................278
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
I C A S
PL LI
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Revision reading quiz.......................................................................................................................................280
E
N R P
Suggested
TI R RE
O further reading.............................................................................................................................284
C A F O
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LI T
Acknowledgements
P OT T
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IC
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Foreword
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AboutCAthe
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I M house that specialisesLinE developing
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The English Experience is an independent South African publishing
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BACKGROUND
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high-quality T
English and Life Orientation educational resources S for IEB educators and students.P The team
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The world-class English Experience team includes highly experienced RE educators, some with C ATover
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LITERARY ANALYSIS
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LITERARY ESSAY
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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INTRODUCTION
the characters and their
TO THE NOVEL
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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NO TItasks and essay topics. TI
extensive chapter-specific FO questions, enrichment A A
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O ON examination readiness O
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BACKGROUND
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FOWe recommend workingEthrough the Background to the novel section first so that students become
T PL and the context of the with an introduction LtoE
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of the experiences that helped shaped M
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
perspectives and inspired her to write

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LITERARY ANALYSIS
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LITERARY ESSAY
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ATIntroduction to the novel
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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INTRODUCTION
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SA C OR
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LITERARY ESSAY
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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Key to using T the boxes in this resource: A T
I CA N P LE IC
L
E PL TI
O
AM EP
R A
Definition / Glossary
C S Quirky Fact R
O R
Provides the P LI
meanings of words F OR
Fun, interesting, extraneous
F
T REused in the text N information OT
ON
and terms
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O
T
F
C AT C AT
I I
NO Information E PL N
Checklist
E PL
O
R or
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C TI A list of items or activitiesR R
N FO
facts about a topic
SE required to completeFaOtask
I O O T E satisfactorily T
T N P L N O
C
SE A M
Alert S Quote
ON to pay attention or of which you ON from the novel ON

Something to which you need An interesting or important
I I I
CT CT CT
quotation
E need to be aware IO
N E
S S E S
E AT E E
PL LI
C PL PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
T
Background to the novel

O I C
C TI PL
E
PL NO
SE M RE
E SA R
PL FO
FOREWORD
ON
AM OT CT
I
S N ON
ON I
Author
C ATbackground
I
P LE SE
SE CT
I
PL
In The Handmaid’s
ON
Tale, author Margaret
I
Atwood has created
A M a powerful and disturbing LE novel that
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
E
explores T S P
R the notions of identity,Cfreedom, power, sexuality, religion, gender roles, storytelling
A M and memory
R E
S theocracy. In this section, we present a short biography S
FO set in a near-future patriarchal
L E
of the author,
T followed by a collectionPof her comments and observations N regarding the novel, what inspired her to writeE
NO it and the issues sheAM I O N PL
S wished to explore in theATtext. O M
TI
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
L IC
C A SA
P I
Author N biography RE E PL
O
ATI OR Margaret Eleanor
R
R Atwood was born inNOttawa in Canada
I C T
F O T IO
L O on 18 F
November 1939 to Carl A
Edmund and Margaret
P N T C
COMMENTARY
I
RE NO Atwood. For much L her early childhood, she, ON
CRITICAL
Dorothy Pof I
along with her mother and REolder brother, Harold Leslie C AT(her
R I
I ON N sister, Ruth, was born F Olater, in 1951) would accompany
E PL Carl
T O T R
C TI O
Atwood – an entomologist – on his months-long research
SE R
LITERARY ANALYSIS
C N O
E SE expeditions in northern Canada. During F these months in
PL E T
O workbooks for her
© Gordon Hay (margaretatwood.ca)
A M PL the wilderness, Margaret wouldNobtain

N
S M IO
SA
children so they would not fall behind in their schoolwork.
T
E C Atwood was nearly a teenager N F
before she began attendingOR
S O OTat Victoria
LITERARY ESSAY
L E school full-time. After

C TI school, Atwood studied N
N P
T IO A M SE of Toronto, graduating in 1961, and
College, University
A S L E
IC then shePcompleted a master’s degree at Radcliffe College,
E P L
HarvardA M University, graduating ON1962.
Iin
T
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
R S N
I O N
S EC she formed a relationship IO
In 1968, she married
T American writer Jim Polk. After their divorce in 1973,
A T
with another I CAwriter, Graeme Gibson. N They were together until Gibson P LE passed away in 2019.IC They have
L
E PL
one daughter, Eleanor ‘Jess’ Atwood
O
TI Gibson, who was born AinM1976. EP
R C A S R
O R
P LI F OR
F
O T RE
Entomologist: OT
N insects. Pictured is entomologist Nancy Miorelli ON
R a scientist whoO
I studies N
N O
F tweets pictures of herself A
who T bugs on her face using the hashtag #FaceBug to counter
with ATI
Tcommon fears and misconceptions C about the creatures. C
NO P LI P LI
N
RE T IO RE
R R
N FO S EC FO
O T T
C TI N O P LE NO
S E M
SA
© Nancy Miorelli
© Nancy Miorelli
I ON I ON I ON
E CT O N
E CT E CT
S T I S S
E A E E
PL LI
C PL PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
O C T
C TI PL
E A prolific writerPLI NO
E
SE M R as a child, but it was not until she was
Atwood began writing
E SA R
PL FO she started to write inOearnest.
a teenager that For Atwood,
FOREWORD
N
M T I
SA CT
being aOwriter was something that occurred naturally. N
N IO
ON E
S the football field on the
She explains that she was ‘crossing T
ATI LE I wrote a poem in myShead EC
I C way home from school [inP1956].
L O N M and after that writing wasLEthe only
EP TI A
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
and then I wrote it down, P
R C S M
A
SE
thing I wanted to do.’
F OR E
S
OT PL
AtwoodNself-published her first work – a collection of E
© Cranbrook Academy of Arts
N OM N– five years later. In 1964, PL

TI titled Double Persephone
SA
poetry O
A TI collection, was published AM
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
I
TheC Circle Game, her second A S
E PL LI
C
N R by the Cranbrook Academy
P of Arts. Atwood has since
I O R R E
C AT FO O R I ON
been a prolific writer. Her published works includes novels,
LI T
P N OT short fiction,F poetry, children’s books,Agraphic novels and
T IC
COMMENTARY
REAn O L television, radio and ION
CRITICAL
extract from Margaret’s poem “Letters, Towards and non-fiction.
N She has also written
P
Away”, published in The Circle Game. E
theatre scripts and has editedRseveral books. Some of C AT
her
I
work has also been I ON adapted for the screen. N The novels Surfacing and FTheORRobber Bride were, for instance,
PL
T E
producedEas IO
C films in 1981 and 2007 Trespectively, OT
while The Handmaid’s Tale was first adapted
R
R as a film
LITERARY ANALYSIS
S C N
E
for television
L SE her novel Alias Grace was adapted as a seriesTfor
in 1990. More recently, FONetflix, while
TheP
M Handmaid’s Tale was adapted LE for Hulu. P NO
SA N
T AM
IO
Atwood has won numerous S awards for her work.
E C She has
N F OR
S including IO OT
been shortlisted for the Booker Prize several times,
LITERARY ESSAY
L E T
N
for The Handmaid’s Tale in 1986, and she P won the prize in C N
T IO A M SE
2000 for
A The Blind Assassin and again
S in 2020 for the sequel E
IC Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments (she shared the prize
toLThe PL N
P A M IO
E T
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
R with Bernardine Evaristo, S She
I O N author of Girl, Woman, Other).
S EC I ON
also won the ArthurTC. Clark award for science fiction for The A T
I CinA1987. N P LE IC
Handmaid’s Tale L
E PL TI
O
AM EP
R C A S R
O R
P LI F OR
F
T Her fiction has imagined RE societiesON OT
N O
O R I N I ON
riddled with T
Fmisogyny, oppression,
C AT C AT
I I
NO
and environmental havoc.PLThese
E N E PL
O
© Dark Horse Comics
visions now feel all Rtoo R real.

C TI R
R
N - Rebecca Mead, The FO SE FO
O T New Yorker T
C TI N O P LE NO
S E M
SA
Yet her work has N not always been well-received. The One of Atwood’s graphic novel series is the humorous N
Owas banned from high schools in San superheroIadventure, O N Angel Catbird. In the novels,Ogenetic
Handmaid’s Tale I I
T
EC because of its references ONto sex and the use between E E CT inmerging
CTanimal/human hybrids after accidentally
engineer Strig Feleedus becomes embroiled a war
Antonio,STexas
T I S DNA with that of a cat and an owl. S
E A E his
E
PL
of Christianity IC
as a means of oppression.
L
Atwood respondedL
P PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
O writing about the necessity C T
TI
to these claims,
LE of her warning
P LI NO
C P
SE
readers M crises. She wrote, ‘If youRE
about possible future social
A
E a person heading toward
see S a huge hole in the ground, R
PL FO
FOREWORD
M is it not a friendly act to warn him?’ T I ON

SA NO CT ON
ON SE CT
I
Indeed, MargaretTI Atwood once commented that ‘Nothing LE
makes meIC
A
more nervous than people who say, “It can’t P SE
L ONanywhere, given the AM E
Phere. I PL
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
E
CT S
happen ” Anything can happen
R M
R
right circumstances’ when E
speaking
S about The Handmaid’s SA
FO L E
T Tale. Although this novel
P is dystopian in nature, N
Atwood
E
NO
© Shelly Grimson
M O PL
SA
has pointed out that TI practices
many of the laws and social
A I ON M
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
she writes about are not entirely fiction:ICthey either have

L C AT SA
happened in the past or there are modern
E P equivalents. L I
N R P
TI
O
OR RE
C A O R F I ON
LI T
P ‘It scares
N OTme. But I have to write T
F it.’ Atwood’s agent, Phoebe A Larmore, describes
IC quite ill that year, and N
COMMENTARY
E O that novel. She recalls, ‘I hadLbeen

CRITICAL
P than I did. I asked her whatTIO

seeing Atwood while she was writing
R N E
CA
Margaret came and sat on my sofa, and I think she looked worse
R I have to write it.”’ I
N was happening. She said, “It’s the new novel. It scares me. RBut
IO N FO E PL
T
E C TI
O OT R
R
LITERARY ANALYSIS
S C N
L E SE FO
P Early influences LE T
A M P N NO
S Atwood’s parentsAM loved the outdoors and IOencouraged their children to spend time outside.
T
S
This appreciation of the natural world EisCreflected in Atwood’s work. N In Cat’s Eye, for instance,
F OR the
S T
IOwell. A concern with theOdestruction
LITERARY ESSAY
protagonist’s family spend much ofLtheir E time in the wildernessTas

N P C N
IOnatural environment isAalso
of the
T M evident in her dystopian SEnovels, including the MaddAddam trilogy,
A S E
L ICas well as The Handmaid’s Tale. PL N
P Another aspect of her upbringing that perhaps also A M IO childhood presumption
E T
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
R S influenced her work is her N

of equality betweenI O N
men and women. In the wilderness, Atwood’s S EC would raise her children
mother IO
T A T
CA no attention to theNusual conventions of raising
as equals, Ipaying P LEgirls. Indeed, as AtwoodICobserves,
L
E PL TI
O
AM EP
R C A S R
O R
P LI F OR
F
T RE N OT
N O
O R I O N I ON
T
F
C AT C AT
I I
NO E PL N E PL
O
R TI R
© Margaret Atwood (margaretatwood.ca)
© Margaret Atwood (margaretatwood.ca)
R C R
N FO SE FO
O T T
C TI N O P LE NO
S E M
SA
I ON I ON I ON
E CT O N
E CT E CT
S T I S S
E A E E
PL LI
C PL PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
T
O wore pants […] because
‘In the woods,Iyou
L E if you didn’t wear pants L
C
N OTsocks
Iand tuck the tops into your
P
Cget blackflies up your legs’P. Moreover, as journalist ERebecca
SE
you would M R Mead suggests, it is perhaps
A
E early years in the forestSthat endowed her […] with R a critical distance on codes of femininity
‘Atwood’s
PL FO
FOREWORD
N
T
–Man ability to see those codes as cultural practices worthy of investigation, not asIO
necessary conditions
SAto be accepted unthinkingly. T
N ’ NO E C I ON
O S T
ATI L E EC
C
This ability to Iexamine the world around P reflected in Atwood’s S
L O N her in close detail is clearly M L E work.
P I A
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
RE critic, Francine Prose C
As writer and T observed, Atwood is ableS to use fiction as ‘a meansMofPexploring
has
and O R
dramatising ideas’. One ofStheseE ideas is that of morality. Although Atwood notes SA that it may
F LE with
T
perhaps be difficult to engage P
NOmoral issues ‘withoutApreaching M too I ON N P LE
S AT TI
O
AM
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
much and reducing the characters I C A S
L C
to mere allegories’, when the issues EP
N P LI
R
TI
in question O are prominent, then R RE
A
‘theICcharacters will act within
O
F and
– O R I ON
T
P L
N OT that T
F
IC
A
COMMENTARY
ON
Ebe acted upon by – everything O L
CRITICAL
R N P I
surrounds them.’ This influence of
RE C AT
I
ON
social context is evident in her fiction. OR PL
© Isolde Ohlbaum
T I N F E
OT
In The Handmaid’s
C Tale, for instance,IO R
E T R
LITERARY ANALYSIS
S C N
the protagonist
L E is confronted with
SE
a FO
T
M
P
changed society, and it is within
P LE this NO
S Anew context that she M
must survive. N
IO Atwood writing The Handmaid’s Tale in Berlin in 1984.
SA C T
OR
S E N F
O OT
LITERARY ESSAY
Writing about women L E
C TI N
N P
IO
Many ofTAtwood’s protagonists areAfemaleM – such as Offred in The SE Handmaid’s Tale; Grace Marks in Alias
A S E
L and Marian McAlpin in The Edible Woman.
IC Iris Chase in The Blind Assassin; Elaine Risley in Cat’sPEye;
Grace;
E P L
A M ON the repression of
Iand
T
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many of these works have also engaged with issues S such as gender equality
R
women. For these T I O N
reasons, Atwood’s work has often been celebrated as Sfeminist EC literature; however,ION
A L E C AT
C LI in the
Atwood cautions
P LI against generalising or I ON
idealising women – a tendency
M
P she believes is evident
P
RE C AT SA RE
R LI FO
R
FO Half-HangedEP Mary – a family connection?
O T The Handmaid’s
R
R Tale is dedicated to MaryNWebster. Possibly
O N OT ON
N O T I I
AT
related to the Atwoods, Webster was accused of witchcraft in
FMassachusetts in the 1680s. A
Hadley,T I C As Atwood explains, ‘The I C
townspeople didn’tNO like her, so they strungEher PLup. But it was before the age N E PL
of drop hanging, and she didn’t die. SheR dangled there all night, and inI theO R
R down, she was still alive.’ Webster,T
© Sarah Lindstrom (artstation.com)
morning, when they came to cut theObody C R

Napparently lived for 14 more F following her unsuccessful SEhanging, FO
whoO T years T
C
I
Tsubsequently earned the moniker
N O ‘Half-Hanged Mary’. (ThisPstory LE is reflected NO
S E in Atwood’s 1995 narrative poem, “Half-Hanged Mary”.) MThe author explains
that The Handmaid's Tale is also dedicated to Mary Webster SA ‘because she is an
example of a female
I
N person wrongly accused. But she is slightly a symbol of N
Othey I O’ I ON
CT CT CT
hope because didn't actually manage to kill her. She made it through.
E O N E
S I S E S
E A T E E
PL LI
C PL PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
O some types of feminismE
narrative Iof I C T
CT PL PL NO
that E
‘women are better thanMmen’.
S RE
E says that she has ‘always been SA R
PL FO
She
FOREWORD
ON
SA
M against the idea that women were OT CT
I
N N I ON
Victorian angels,
T IOthat they could do SE CT
E
A
no wrong’I. CRather, common themes PL SE
L N M E
P are that women canIObe
SA PL
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
in herEwork
R CT M
R
supportive, E
but they can undermine
S SA
FO
one another, or even L E
actively work
O T P N E
N Mfor instance, she O PL
SA
against each other;
ATI ON M
TI
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
explains that, in dictatorships, one

LI
C
C A SA
EP
of the ways those in power control L I
ON R EP
TI
subordinate OR is
groups such as women R
ON
CA
I by ‘creat[ing] a hierarchyOwhere
T some
F
F OR TI
L A
EP N OT C
COMMENTARY
L I N
CRITICAL
R members of the group have power O

N EP ATI
over the others. You get those people R I C
N OR L
© NinaSchulzeDesign (DeviantArt)
to controlIOtheir own group for you’
T N. F EP
TI
O
C is reflected in her fiction. OT R
SE OR
This belief
LITERARY ANALYSIS
E C N
InE The Handmaid’s Tale, forSinstance, F
PL E OT
PL
M the Aunts control the Handmaids and N N
SA M IO
SAensuring that they
are responsible for
C T R
SE FO
comply with their new role. ON T
LITERARY ESSAY
E I
PL EC
T NO
ON M
TI SA
S
I C A
P LE
L M N
EP Women’s rights are human A
rights because women T IOare human.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
R S N
I O N
It's not a hard concept. S EC IO
T A T
I CA N P LE IC
L
E PL O
- Margaret
TI
Atwood, The IrishMTimes
A EP
R C A S R
O R
P LI F OR
F
T Environmental activist RE N OT
N O
O R I O N I ON
Atwood is not only
T C AT
F concerned with the environment in her writing, but she is also recognised
C AT as
I I
NO
an environmental activist. Her Twitter
E PLthread is commonly filled PL
N with posts about environmental
E
O
initiatives and climate change awareness,
R
R and she has also
C TIbeen involved in promotingR
R awareness
through
N other forums. She has FOalso written extensively about
SE the topic in an essay FO ‘It’s not climate
titled
O T T
C TI change – it’s everything N P LE
Ochange’ (2015), given interviews NO activist; engaged in
as an environmental
S E conversation with Greta Thunberg on BBC Radio M 4 in 2020 and participated in the Imagination and
SA
Climate Futures Initiative (2014). Her office, O W Toad (an anagram of her surname), also follows green
I ON are detailed on her website.
policies, which I ON I ON
E CT O N
E CT E CT
S T I S S
E A E E
PL LI
C PL PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
O C T
Author
SE
C quotes: The author in her
TI
M RE
own words PL
E
PL
I
NO
SA
WhatEare Margaret Atwood’s perspectives
L
on the issues raisedRin The Handmaid’s Tale? What did she hope
FO of quotes from interviews
FOREWORD
to
M
P
convey through the work? This section consists of a selection
T I ON with the author
SAand extracts from essaysN written by her on topics related T
NO to the novel. C IO
N
TI
O SE C T
C A
P LE SE
L I
O N On writing: M LE
EP TI SA
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
P
R C A M
‘Writing is (…) a kind of sooth-saying, a truth-telling. It
OR SE S
is a naming of the world, a reverse incarnation: the flesh
F E
OT PL becoming word. It’s also a witnessing. Come with me, the E
N M I ON PL
SA writer
A ON is a story I have to tell
T is saying to the reader.IThere M
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
IC there is something you T SA is
© Sunday Times Style Magazine UK (thetimes.co.uk)
P Lyou, I CA need to know. The writer

L an I-witness, the one to whom
O N RE both an eye-witness E Pand
TI R R happens, and the one N who makes
FO
personal experience
C A O R IO
L I T experience F T
personal for others. The writer
A bears witness.
EP NO T C
COMMENTARY
I
L as self-expression.’ – ION
NOwitness is not the same
CRITICAL
R Bearing
P
Extract from Second Words,RaE collection of essays Cby AT
R I
I ON Margaret Atwood
N FO PL
CT O OT RE
TI
SE R
LITERARY ANALYSIS
‘[Everyone] ‘writes’
N in a way; that is, eachOperson has a
C
E F SE
PL E ‘story’ – a personal narrative – which isTconstantly being
A M P L replayed,N NOtogether again. The
revised, taken apart and put
S AMnarrative change as a Tperson
significant points in Sthis IO ages – what may have been tragedy at 20 isR
C
SE with Mary Morris forOThe
seen as comedy or nostalgia at 40.’ – Interview N Paris Review FO
T
LITERARY ESSAY
E I
PL EC
T NO
I ON M S
On history
AT and truth: SA LE
IC P
P L
‘History is a myth. There isn’t anything in the sky called
A M I ON
RE“History”. I hate to breakN this to you. It’s something Speople CT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
N
IO T IO SE
make up. (They’reATsupposed to make it up out of things E is a myth. ThereCA
C History
PL
I
that really happen,
L but sometimes they Idon’t ON even do that.)’ M P LI
P isn’t anything in the sky
E interview with Andrew
– ExtractRfrom T
A Tate for High Profiles
C SA RE
LI called “History”. OR I hate
F OR P F
RE but it doesn’t necessarily
‘It’s true that that’s what you saw,
T N
to break this T to you.
O
N mean that thing was there. O R ’ – Interview with MollyIOYoung It’s N
something
O
people I ON
T
F
C AT C AT
for Vulture I make up. I
NO E PL N E PL
O
‘There may not be one Truth—there
R
R may be several
C TI R
R
truths—but saying that is not toFO say that reality doesn’t E FO
O N T S T
C TI ’ – Interview with Marilyn
exist.
N OBerlin Snell for Mother Jones
P LE NO
S E M
SA
On gender roles: N N N
I O I O I O
CT
'I noticed fromT looking at my notes that I started actually thinking about
CT
[the book] in 1981. What had
E C O N E
S
just happened? I
Ronald Reagan hadTbeen elected, and the religious E
S right was on the rise inSthose years,
E
L Eighties, […] that is when A E LEthe home.” And
thePearly
L IC people started sayingPthings
L like “Women belongPin
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
IO
I started thinking, E are you going to get them
“Well, if they do, how I back in there?” […] InOthe T Thirties, C
T L L N
P
Cthe Depression, it was considered EPnot permissible, once you got married,
SE
during M bad manners R and
for
L SA a woman. You wereOsupposed
E you to have a job if you were R to give up that job so that some man
FOREWORD
M
P F
could support his family. Then it was the FortiesTand “Step up, gals, roll up I ON
your sleeves. We need
SA you to work at a factory, O C T N
N have a victory N
garden”, do all of those things. E
Women were doing all kindsI Oof
O S T
ATI would have in the Thirties: driving trucks, earning
things they never L E salaries. A very big socialECstir-up,
IC and an equally big unsettling P S
L
fermentation, N of previously M
received sexual mores. How L E
can I put this?
P IO A
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
E T S P
A lotRof partying while the bombsC were falling!’ – Interview with Tessa Stewart forARolling M Stone
R SE S
FO L E
T ‘[W]e got the birth control
P pill about the mid-Sixties, and then, not coincidentally, the miniskirt and,
N O
not coincidentally, A Mthe so-called sexual revolution. I O N
A lot of thinking N
went on around that: P
ShouldLE
S AT TI
O
AM
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
I C A S
E PL LI
C
N Step up, gals, roll R up your sleeves: ‘Rosie thePRiveter’
TI
O R used to recruit female workers RE for the
ON
is a famous poster
A O
F industries during World R
C American defence O War II in the T I
LI OT workers were neededTtoFreplace the men A
© J. Howard Miller (Wikimedia Commons)

P 1940s. Women
N IC
COMMENTARY
E O L ON
CRITICAL
R who had enlisted to fight in the armed N forces. P I

RE C AT
I
I ON N F OR PL
T E
E C TI
O OT R
R
LITERARY ANALYSIS
S C N
L E SE FO
T
M
P
P LE NO
S A M N
IO
SA C T
OR
S E N F
O OT
LITERARY ESSAY
L E
C TI N
N P
T IO In many ways, the A Mminiskirt became an expression SEof the 1960s sexual revolution and feminism.
A The iconic skirtSsymbolised the desire of young
E
L IC PL women to escape the restrictions
N
of traditional
P female roles and sexual mores. Its M
provocative
A and rebellious raisedI O
hemline was regarded as
E T
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
R S N
EC
daring, fun and liberating.
I ON S T IO
T A
I CA N P LE IC
L
E PL TI
O
AM EP
R C A S R
O R
P LI F OR
F
T RE N OT
N O
O R I O N I ON
T
F
C AT C AT
I I
NO E PL N E PL
O
R
R
C TI R
R
N FO SE FO
O T T
C TI N O P LE NO
S E M
SA
I ON I ON I ON
E CT O N
E CT E CT
S T I S S
E A E E
PL LI
C PL PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
women behave
T IOlike men? How did menLbehave?
E I
Should you haveLwide-open OT that
freedom, or would
N
C
turn into EaCdifferent form of oppression?
P
P In the Fifties you wereEsupposed to say no, and in Seventies,
S A M R
E S
you Lwere supposed to say yes, and if you didn’t, then you Rwere a prude. Sex, drugs, and rock & roll,
FO
FOREWORD
M
P
that T
was the undercurrent of the Seventies. A huge amount I
of feminist writing tookON place — some of
SAit pretty extreme, someNof it historical. Then arrived T
NOthe Eighties and Ronald E CReagan: “This has gone ION
O S T
TI ” And The Handmaid’s Tale came out of that.’ – Interview
too far. Let’s roll itAback. E with Tessa StewartE C
for
L I C N PL E
S
Rolling Stone P O A M I L
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
P
RE T MS
‘In a O R
feminist dystopia pure and S EC
simple, all of the men would have greater rights than all A
S of the women.
F
ItTwould be two-layered inPstructure: L E top layer men, bottom layer women. But Gilead is the usual kind
O
N of dictatorship: shapedAlike M a pyramid, with the powerful I ON of both sexes at the N apex, the men generally P LE
S ATdescending levels of power O
TI and status with menSand AM
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
outranking the women at the same level; then I C A
L C men must serve in the ranks
women in each, all the way down to the
N E Pbottom, LI
where the unmarried
P
R
O
TI awarded an Econowife.
before being
O R’ – Extract from an essay written RE by Margaret Atwood N for Literary Hub
C A F R I O
LI O T FO AT
P N T C
COMMENTARY
RE Former American president, RonaldNO LI ON
CRITICAL
Regan P I
AT
© Warner Bros (Wikimedia Commons)

(pictured) was known for being anti-abortion and RE I C
I
N
famously
Owho
quipped, ‘I've noticed that everyone
N F OR PL
T is for abortion has already been born’ . He E
describedE TI
C himself as a ‘born-again Christian’ O and supported OT R
R
LITERARY ANALYSIS
S C N
E in American schools, questioned
prayer
L SE scientific evidence FO
T
M
Pof climate change, opposed
P LE publicly funded health care,
NO
S A supported capital punishment,
M and dramatically N
expanded
O
the ‘war on drugs’ being
SA waged by the AmericanCgovernment TI
(largely against its own citizens). E N F OR
S O OT
LITERARY ESSAY
L E
C TI N
N P
T IO
On dictatorships: A M SE
A S E
L IC PL about the future always
‘Stories N have a what if
P A M I O
RE CT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
N S premise, and The Handmaid’s Tale has several;
N
© The Nancy Spero and Leon Golub Foundation for the Arts
I O E
for instance: if youSwanted to seize powerTin IO
T A
I CA N the United States,
P LE abolish liberal democracy, IC
L
E PL TI
O and set up AMa dictatorship, how would EP you go
R C A S R
O R
P LI about it? What would be your
F OR cover story?
F
O T RE N
It would not resemble any form
O T of communism N
R O N O
N
FO A TI or socialism: those would be too unpopular. ItATI
T C C
LI
might use the name of democracy as an excuse
NO P P LI
Nliberal democracy: that’sEnot out
RE
for abolishing
T IO R
R of the question,
C though I didn’tRconsider it
N FO SE in 1985.’ – Extract fromT an
possible FOessay written
O T
C TI N O P
by
LEMargaret Atwood for Literary
NO Hub
S E M
SA
‘Nations never build apparently radical forms of government on foundations that aren’t there already;
thus China replaced I ON a state bureaucracy with a similar state bureaucracy I ON under a different name, I ONthe
USSR replaced E CT the dreaded imperialOsecret N police with an evenCmore
E
T
dreaded secret police,E CT and so
S T I S S
forth.L’ –EExtract from an essay written A E E
C PL
by Margaret Atwood for Literary Hub
P LI PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
IO Hitler or Goebbels who
‘It was either
T L E said if you tell the big lie
L I often enough, people will
N OTbelieve it. C
MakeEthe M
P We saw that. And it’s not
C lie big, and [tell] it often.
R EPa question of left or right – so-called left
S
L E
regimes have done the same SAthing. It’s a question of O R
totalitarianism or not totalitarianism.’ – Interview
FOREWORD
P F N
M with Tessa Stewart for Rolling Stone T IO T
SA NO C IO
N
ON SE T
‘It is also true that
A TI in situations where people have not had any power, L E and suddenly they get EC
power,
C P got power, and can getE somebody S
some people
P LI are going to abuse O that
N power. Finding out you’ve M L
I A
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
fired, E when you haven’t had anyT – that can be a pretty heady S feeling. I mean, let’s allPdance around
theR
R
guillotine as we chop ECthe heads of the aristocrats. Here’s my short version:
off S AMif you’re going to
S
FO E
L sure it’s the truth. That’s a good maxim.’ – Interview with Miranda Swayer
T speak truth to power,Pmake
N O
for The Guardian AM I ON N P LE
S AT TI
O
AM
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
I C A S
E PL LI
C
N Decapitation machines R have been P
TI
O R RE
ON
used to execute people for centuries,
A O
F device (pictured) O R
C but the modern
T I
LI T
popular during the French T F
© Roger Vollett (The Image Works)

P became O
N CA
COMMENTARY
I
E O L ON
CRITICAL
R Revolution of the 1790s. Dr Joseph-Ignace Guillotin N P I

was opposed to capital punishment, but proposed RE C AT
I
I
N
the revolutionary
Oapproach
government adopt a more
N F OR PL
humane T to beheading ‘enemies of the E
E C - since decapitation by axe
state’
O
TI and sword was OT R
R
LITERARY ANALYSIS
S C N
L E often botched and caused SEadditional suffering. FO
T
M
P He was horrified when his
P LEname became synonymous NO
S A with the machine he
M helped to develop. N A crowd gathers to watch a criminal being executed by
IO
SA C T guillotine in Paris in 1939.
OR
S E N F
O OT
LITERARY ESSAY
‘Well ofNcourse, no repressive regime L E

C TI“Hi folks, I’m a repressive N
O P ever comes in by saying,
E regime and
I M S
C ATgoing to really take away
I’m SAyour freedom.” They always L E say, “Listen, the country is a real mess, and
LI we have to do something about it, and we’re going P
M to help make things much N better.”’ – Extract from
E P A T IO
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
R interview with Studs N Terkel S N

I O S EC IO
T A T
‘My ever-present
I CA question, since I Nwas born in ’39, is: P LE IC
L to be totalitarianismIOin the United States, M L
If therePwere
E A T S A R EP
what R Cwould be the slogan? What
R would it look like? What LI R
O P
F would be the excuse? EBecause they all come in with: FO
O T
“We’re going to make R
R
things so much better, O
but Nfirst, we
N OT ON
N O I I
have to get ridTof F those people.”’ – Interview
C AT with Tessa C AT
O I I
Stewart forNRolling Stone
E PL N E PL
O
R
R
C TI R
R
N FO SE FO
O T T
C TI Like many books, N O The Handmaid’s P LE NO
S E M
Tale began with the question,SWhat A
if?OI Nguess I was tired of having ON ON
I I I
E CT
people say, “It can’t happen
O N here”.
E CT E CT
I
© Banksy
S T S S
E A E E
PL LI
C PL PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
‘I thought it was
T IO a very strange sort LE L I
N OT C
C me to be writing. Also,P EP
SE
of book for M R
I was L Eafraid people would think SA it R
FO
FOREWORD
M
was
P
merely paranoid. Like many T I ON
SAbooks, The Handmaid’s T
N Tale began NO E C I ON
O S T
with the question, ATIWhat if? I guess L E EC
I C P S
I was tired P ofL having people say, “It ON
I A M LE
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
© discogangsta (DeviantArt)
E P
R
can’t happen here.” They were right
E CT S
AM
R S S
onlyFOif you accepted their definition
LE
T P
NOof “it”. “It” could meanAM Russian-style
I ON N P LE
communism or Germany S under AT TI
O
AM
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
I C A S
Hitler, but what if we were looking
E PL IC
Lwolf
at the wrong N R
“it”; what if while we were busily staring down the E P at the door, another one was
I O R R
creeping
C AT over the back fence? Once FO any democracy startsOcurtailing
R freedom in the name
I ON of freedom,
I land us in trouble. What T
it L
P may
N OT if you wanted to takeT over F the US today? What flag
IC
A could you wave
COMMENTARY
E O L N
CRITICAL
R successfully? The Handmaid’s Tale is one answer toN these “What ifs?”’ – Interview P with Penguin UK IO
RE AT
‘Like the American N Revolution and the French Revolution and the O R major dictatorships ofLIC
three the
O
20th centuryTI[…] and like the New England
P
F it, Gilead has utopian Eidealism
C I ON Puritan regime before
T
O its ever-present shadow, R
E T a high-minded principle, R
LITERARY ANALYSIS
flowingSthrough its veins, coupledCwith
E N O sublegal
E S F
PL E opportunism, and the propensity of Tthe powerful to
A M P L
indulge N in behind-the-scenes sensual NOdelights forbidden
S M O
SA
Once any democracy TI
to Ceveryone
E
else. But such locked-door escapades must
N F OR
starts curtailing Sremain hidden, for theIO regime floats as its raisonTd’être
LITERARY ESSAY
L E T O
freedom N in the name of P C
the notion that it is improving the conditions ofNlife, both
T IO A M SEand like all such regimes, it depends
freedom,
A it may land Sus physical and moral;
L E
L IC upon its true Pbelievers.’ – Extract from Nan essay written by
P in trouble. A M IO
E T
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
R MargaretS Atwood for Literary Hub
N O
C
SE ON
TI E ATI
A
LI
C
ON PL L I C
EP ATI S AM R EP
R C
OR P LI FO
R
F
OT RE N T N
OR O NO O
N
F ATI ATI
T I C I C
NO EP
L
EP
L
R I ON R
OR CT OR
N F SE F
T IO
N OT P LE N OT
C
SE M
SA
N N N
© Werner Horvath
O O O
C TI N C TI C TI
SE O SE SE
E ATI E E
PL I C PL PL
M PL M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
O I C T
C TI PL
E On religion and
PL theocratic oppression:
NO
E
SE M R
‘I think that religion is one of those things that is probably
E SA R
PL O art – like the brain pattern
built in,Flike that makes you
FOREWORD
O N
M T I
SA CT
feelOsad when you see somebody crying in a movie. N
N IO
ON It may just be part of being S E human. It’s not a T
question
TI E C
I C A of whether people P are going to have religion SorE not, so
L
L O N
then it becomesAaMquestion of “What kindPare LEthey going
EP TI
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
R C S M
OR SE
to have?” And who is going to try to SAgrab hold of that
F E and manipulate it for their own ends? Because all of our
OT PL
N M ON
emotions
I are manipulable, there’s no question.’ – Extract
N LE
SA T O P
CAfrom interview with Andrew TI Tate for High Profiles AM
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
L I A S
C
EP LI
© Godless Magazine
N ‘[I]f religion is anPevolved adaptation, it’s no good to tell

R
IO R RE
C A T F O people they shouldn’t
O R do it. People have
I ON a predisposition
LI T
P N OT to believe
T
F things they can’t actually
C A prove. In good
COMMENTARY
I
RE NO L unifying and motivating; ON
CRITICAL
circumstances, that can be very I

P
Anti-papal image from the Russian magazine, Godless, in bad circumstances it can REunfortunately be manipulated C AT
R I
ONwritten by Marx, Lenin, and Darwin. PL
in 1934. It depicts the Pope as a spider supervising the
I N and can do a lot of F Oharm. So […] it’s not a question of
burning of books
T O T R E
C
The magazine was funded and distributed by I
the
Tpower
atheist
whether “religion”O is “good” or “bad”. It’s aRquestion of how
Soviet E
LITERARY ANALYSIS
S government, which sought to wrest C and N O they using it to

E
influence
L away from the Church. SE people are using it and to what ends.FAre
T
M
P
P LE increase their own affluence orNO to further their military
S A M O N
SA C TorI political aims? That often happens. Or are they R using
O
Religion is the opium of SE it to achieve a relationship O N with a numinous world
T
F that
LITERARY ESSAY
I
N the people. P LE they can’t point toTas existing in solid objects?OWhat is that
C N
I O M hammer being S Eused for? Is it being used to build a house
C AT - Karl Marx SA or to murder LE a neighbour?’ – Extract from interview with
L I P N
EP AndrewAM Tate for High Profiles TIO
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
R S
I O N
S EC I ON
T
C AT theocracy, this one would select a few LE
‘Like the original
IC
A
I
passagesLfrom the Bible to justify N its actions, and it wouldP L
O
EP towards the Old Testament,
leanRheavily A TI not towards the SNew.AM R EP
R ruling classes alwaysLmake
Since
IC sure they get the best and OR
F O P F
T rarest of desirable goods RE and services, and as itN is one of the OT
N O
O R I O N I ON
axioms of the novel
T C AT
F that fertility in the industrialised West has
C AT
I I
NO PL
come under threat, the rare and desirable would include fertile
E N E PL
women – always on the human wish list, one way or anotherO
R
R
C TI R
R
– and reproductive control. Who
N FO shall have babies, who
SE
shall
FO
O T T
TI claim and raise those babies,
O who shall be blamed LEif anything NO
© GracieGebhard (DeviantArt)
E C N P
S goes wrong with those babies? These are questions
A M with which
human beings have busied themselves for a Slong time.’ – Extract
from an essay
I ONwritten by Margaret Atwood for Literary Hub ION I ON
E CT O N
E CT E CT
S T I S S
E A E E
PL LI
C PL PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
‘[Y]ou quite IOfrequently have, in E
T L L I C
N OT
C [situations] like that.P EP
SE
totalitarianism, M R
These L SAbut
Erules are for everybody else, R
FO
FOREWORD
M
we
P
can have our dacha, our imported T I ON
SAFrench wine, we can have T
N our orgies, NO E C I ON
O S T
we can have whatever ATI we want. It’s L E EC
C P S
just that otherP LI people can’t; they ON M LE
I A
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
E P
have to R live virtuously and obey our
E CT S
AM
R S S
FO
command. The popes were notorious
LE
T P
NOin the Renaissance, ofAcourse.
M Virtue
I ON N P LE
for everybody else,Sbut they were AT TI
O
AM
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
I C A S
quite lavish and had mistresses and
E PL LI
C
children they N then appointed toR P
IO R RE
churchATpositions. We’d call it abuse
C F O of
O R I ON
LI ’ – Interview with Molly T
power.
P N OTYoung T
F
IC
A
COMMENTARY
E O L N
CRITICAL
R for Vulture N P IO
RE C AT
‘Recently, someone N said, “Religion R LI
IO N FO P
T
doesn’t radicalise
C people, peopleIO
OT RE
© Victo Ngai
SEreligion.” So, you canEuse CT R
LITERARY ANALYSIS
N
radicalise
E S FO
anyPLreligion as an excuse Lfor E being T
M P NO
SArepressive, and you Acan M use any I ON
religion as an excuse S for resisting CT R
SE FO
People have a predisposition ON
to believe
OT
LITERARY ESSAY
TI
repression; it works both ways, as it E
Nbook. So that was one setPL things theyC N
SE can’t actually prove.
does in theO
ATI
of inspirations. S AM
’ – Interview with Emma E
IC PL
L
Watson
P for Entertainment Weekly M I ON
RE SA CT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
O N
SE ON
TI ATI
IC A
N P LE I C
The Russian word dacha L
E PL is usually translated asTIO AM EP
R A
C . S R
LI and R
R ‘summer residence’
F O During the P
17th
E FO
T 18th centuries, the RussianRaristocracy T
O R social and I ON NO O N
N used their dachas O
F
for
AT ATI
© Victor Gabriel Gilbert (Wikimedia Commons)
T
cultural gatherings, which were usually I C I C
accompanied N byOmasquerade balls and PL L
firework displays. R E IO
N
R EP
R T
N F O
S EC F OR
T IO
N OT P LE N OT
C
SE M
SA
ON N
ON O
CT
I
N CT
I
C TI
S E I O S E SE
E AT E E
PL LI
C PL PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
IO I C T
On feminism:
CT PL
E
PL NO
E
SE wanted to write TheAM
‘[Atwood]
R
R
Handmaid’s Tale, she documents in her 2005 book Moving Targets, as a
E S
PLcounterpoint to speculative works such as NineteenFEighty-Four
O that had sidelined
N women characters
FOREWORD
M T I O
SA – to create “a dystopia CT
from the female point Oof view”; however, she clarifies,
ON
“this does not make
N N E I
O a ‘feminist dystopia,’ except insofar as giving a woman
The Handmaid’sITale T
S a voice and an innerClife will
AT L E E
always be considered
I C feminist by those who think women oughtPnot to have these things”.’ –SInterview
L N E
EP Gilbert for The AtlanticIO AM PL
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
with Sophie
T S
R C AM
OR SE S
‘[I]f offered a position of power within a relatively powerless
F E
OT PL position, some people will take that. People say, “WhyE
N M I ON N do you have the female PL
SA ATdo you have Aunt Lydia?”, O“Why M
TI to women?” And I saySbecause
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
IC Aunt being so controlling A A

P L I C
N RE they would be! That’s
E PL how such a power structure would
O R
ATI FO
operate, that’s
R
R how they’ve operated inNthe past: You give
O
L I C T somebody FO a bit more power overAthe TI others, and they will
EP NO T C
COMMENTARY
Iwomen
O L ON
CRITICAL
R take
N it. So, it’s not a case of all being angelic. We
I
P
RE are human beings, IaCmixedAT
© Dan Leydon
know that’s not true. Women

R
I ON N lot. I tried to be true
E PL with
FOto human nature.’ – Interview
CT TI
O Emma Watson O T Entertainment Weekly R
for
SE R
LITERARY ANALYSIS
C N
LE SE FO
P E OT
AM PL N N
S AM IO
[G]iving aS woman a voice and
E CT an inner life will always be considered
OR
S N F
OT
IO to have these things.
LITERARY ESSAY
feminist by those whoLthink

E women oughtTnot
N P C N
T IO AM SE
E
CA S
PL
P LI M ON
On reproductive rights: I
RE SA CT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
N
toIOpay for the orphans and SE ON
‘Who's going T
E ATI
A
C
the dead Iwomen,
L
because that's Nwhat
O PL L I C
P
you'reEgoing to have. And I'm waiting
ATI for
S AM R EP
R C
I the family R
R first lawsuit. I'm waitingL[for]
the
FO P
E the state, and FO
T of the dead woman toRsue T
O Ra lawsuit that says “If ION NO O N
N I'm also waiting for
F O
AT ATI
you force me O Tto have children I cannotI C I C
afford, youNshould pay for the process. PL EP
L
R E I ON R
They should pay for my prenatal O R care. CT OR
F
N should pay for my, Totherwise, very SE F
T IO
They
O LE OT
© Barbara Kruger (WikiArt.org)
C expensive delivery, theyN should pay for my P N

SE health insurance, they should pay for the AM
S
upkeep of O N child after it is born”. […]
this N O N
O
I
CT the concern seemsOtoNcut off
That's where C TI C TI
with S E
TI your first SE SE
E these people. Once you Atake E E
PL I C PL PL
M PL M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
O I C T
TI the window with you.PAnd
breath, [it's] out
C LE it is really PL NO
a form ofEslavery to force women to
S AM
have children RE
E S
thatLthey cannot afford and then to say that they R[I]t is really a form of slavery
FO
FOREWORD
P N
M
have to raise them. […] If you're drafted into the T to force women T IO to have
SAarmy, the other situation N in which the state NO
seizes children that E C they cannot IO
N
O S T
A
control of your body, TI at least you get three meals a afford andL E then to say that EC
IC a place to sleep. So, if you're P S
day, clothing, L
and ON going theyM have to raise them. L E
P I SA
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
E P
R to women, pay up.’ – Margaret
to do that
E CT Atwood, A M
R S S
FO during a panel at a BookCon
2017, E conference
T PL N E
NO M O N there is no talk of male PL
SA ATI 'As in the Bible,
I O M
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
I C ATThat’s
sterility. not acknowledged. S ASo
L C
N EP LI forbidden, in fact. So, if a woman
that’s
P
R
TI
O
OR REdoes not have a child, that N is her fault,
C A F R I O
LI OT FO and she is considered
AT
to be incapable
P N T C
COMMENTARY
RE O LI
of doing so although in fact it may be
ON
CRITICAL
N P I
the man –Ebut you’re not allowed to
R C AT
R’ – Extract from interviewLwith I
I ON N
say that.
FO P
CT O T Terkel
Studs RE
TI NO
SE OR
LITERARY ANALYSIS
C
E SE F
‘The Handmaids themselves are a
PL E O T
AM PL N
pariah caste within the pyramid:
S M I ON
SA CT
treasured for what they may be
OR
SE able toNprovide – their fertility –Fbut
O T
LITERARY ESSAY
E TI Opossess
ON PL untouchables
C otherwise. To N
TI M SEone is, however, a mark of high status,
A SA E
LI
C PL just as many slaves N or a large retinue
© myudamageeee (DeviantArt)
P M I O
RE SA CT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
of servants always has been.’ – Extract
N N
O E IO
ATI from an Sessay written by Margaret
E AT
L I C
ON PL for Literary Hub
Atwood IC L
TI M P
R EP A
‘Since the regime operates under SA RE
I C
OR PL OR
the guise of a strictFPuritanism, these
F E T
T R
NO
women are not considered
O ON delight as well as children.
R a harem, intended to provide
I NO They are functional ION
AT by Margaret Atwood for Literary Hub
F’ – Extract from an essay written
rather than decorative. AT
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‘[I]n several countries we’ve seen regimesE that have taken childrenOaway N from their mothers and P
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N also in Poland underTthe Nazis. The Nazis took little S E F O
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Polish
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S ’ – Extract from interview with Studs Terkel
N
‘[Salvaging] isTaIOterm I lifted from the Philippines, where, under the I O N
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one’s political
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E A E E
PL
interview with Studs Terkel
LI
C PL PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
TI
O E OT I C
C PL
The SS (‘Schutzstaffel’) was the elite paramilitaryEcorps of the Nazis (Nazi Party) in Germany
N PL
SE from the 1920s A M
to the 1940s. Its black-uniformed R
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E S
PL FOmilitary powers. A programme
FOREWORD
soldiers’ and wielded immense police and

O N called Lebensborn -
M T I
CT
a neologism meaning ‘fountain of life’ - was set up within the SS in 1935. Its purpose was to N
SA increase the birthrateN of ‘racially pure’ Aryan babies NO and create a ‘master race’ inEaccordance with Nazi eugenics.IO
The programme T I O S
provided funding to SS members to have large familiesEand recruited ‘racially pure’ young
E CT
women Ito CAhave sex with SS officers (typically
N already married) in the PLhope of producing additional E
S Aryan
L M L
P such as Nazi supporter Hildegard IO A who volunteered to join thePprogramme
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
children, Trutz (pictured below left)

RE graduating from school. ItCisT estimated that 20 000 babiesS were bred through the programme
after M during
R S E (1933-45). The programme intensified during World WarSIIAand thousands of
FO foreign children (pictured
the 12 years of the Third Reich
T P LEbelow right) were abducted in German-controlled countries like Poland and placed
NO with ‘suitable’ German
A M families, while SS personnel I ONwere encouraged to impregnate N foreign women.
P LE
S AT TI
O
AM
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
I C A S
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N R P
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ON
© German Federal Archives (Wikipedia)
A F O R
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E O L ON
CRITICAL
R N P I
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I C
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LITERARY ANALYSIS
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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I O N
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Enrichment
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PLExercise 1: Visual literacy FO
FOREWORD
N
AM T IO OT
S Consider the following cartoon and answer the
N N questions that follow:EC I ON
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Text 1 CA P L S
P LI O N M LE
I A
BACKGROUND
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E P
R
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AM
R S S
FO LE
© Madam & Eve (Stephen Francis & Rico)
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INTRODUCTION
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1.1 WhatOis
I
N‘freedom of religion’?
N F OR PL (2)
T E
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__________________________________________________________________________________ R
R
LITERARY ANALYSIS
S C N
L E S E FO
P __________________________________________________________________________________ T
M P LE NO
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IO
__________________________________________________________________________________
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OR
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__________________________________________________________________________________
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L E
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N P
__________________________________________________________________________________
T IO A M SE
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L IC1.2 What does the student, Thandi, seem to assume PL ‘freedom of religion’ means?
N (1)
P A M IO
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
R S N
I O N
__________________________________________________________________________________
S EC IO
T A T
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__________________________________________________________________________________
I N P LE IC
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__________________________________________________________________________________ R
O R
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O T 1.3 What does Thandi REquestion in frame 3, and N what does her questioning OT of this ambiguity O orN
N O R I O N I
vaguenessFhighlight?
T C AT C AT (3)
I I
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__________________________________________________________________________________
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O
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__________________________________________________________________________________
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__________________________________________________________________________________
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__________________________________________________________________________________
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__________________________________________________________________________________
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__________________________________________________________________________________
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Consider the following cartoon and answer LI :
E the questions that follow NO
CT PL P
SE AM RE
Text E2 S R
PL FO
FOREWORD
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I
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BACKGROUND
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RE C M
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TI
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LI
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COMMENTARY
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1.4 ON
What is represented by the broken chain in the cartoon? OR P LI (1)
C TI I ON T
F
R E
E T O
__________________________________________________________________________________ R
LITERARY ANALYSIS
S C N
L E S E FO
__________________________________________________________________________________ T
M
P
P LE NO
A M N
S __________________________________________________________________________________
IO
SA C T
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E about his situation? TIO OT (1)
LITERARY ESSAY
1.5 What does the man’s outfit suggest
N P L C N
IO M SE
__________________________________________________________________________________
T A
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__________________________________________________________________________________ N
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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L does the cartoonIO L
AM P
1.6 What P message convey? (3)
E A T S R E
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__________________________________________________________________________________ R
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__________________________________________________________________________________
N
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__________________________________________________________________________________
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I I
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__________________________________________________________________________________
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__________________________________________________________________________________ R
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__________________________________________________________________________________
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__________________________________________________________________________________
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__________________________________________________________________________________
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__________________________________________________________________________________
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O following cartoon andEanswer the questions that C T
Consider Ithe LI follow : NO
CT PL P
SE AM RE
Text
E 3 S R
PL FO
FOREWORD
ON
AM OT CT
I
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ON SE CT
I
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LI N M E
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TI
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BACKGROUND
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RE C M
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SA ATI ON M
TI
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
LI
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LITERARY ANALYSIS
S EC N
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1.7 What visual SAclues convey the precariousness
C TI of the man’s position? R (2)
E F O
S ON T
LITERARY ESSAY
__________________________________________________________________________________
I
E O
N PL E CT N
I O
__________________________________________________________________________________
M S
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I P
__________________________________________________________________________________ N
E PL A M IO
T
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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__________________________________________________________________________________ N
I O N
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T A T
I CA N P LE
__________________________________________________________________________________
IC
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__________________________________________________________________________________
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R C A S R
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F 1.8 What message does
T RE the cartoon convey? N T (3)
N O
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I ON
T
F
C AT
__________________________________________________________________________________
C AT
I I
NO PL
__________________________________________________________________________________
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__________________________________________________________________________________
LI PL
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FO O N R
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1.9 O tone of the message ‘Happy
What is Ithe E Freedom Day’? Provide OT (2)
C
LI reasons for your answer.
E CT PL E P N
M R
__________________________________________________________________________________
S A
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PL FO
FOREWORD
__________________________________________________________________________________
M T I ON
SA__________________________________________________________________________________ T
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O S T
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I A
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__________________________________________________________________________________ P
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1.10 Describe how each S of the three cartoonsAunderminesT or challenges O
I the idea of freedom visually, M
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
and comment on the similarity of the I C
messages conveyed by A
all T
three. S A(7)
E PL LI
C
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__________________________________________________________________________________ P
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Critical commentary
O I C
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PL NO
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PL FO
FOREWORD
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I
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ON I
Preparation
C ATI
PL
E
SE
SE
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BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
Reading
RE novels for academic
CT M
A
When O Rreading a novel that you areSE required to analyse for academic purposes, it is bestSto approach the
F LEthan you would if reading a novel for pleasure. The following are a few tips
T
text in a slightly different way
P E
NOto keep in mind when reading ON
AM novels for academicTIanalysis. N PL
S A O M
TI
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
• Eliminate distractions LI
C
C A SA
EP L I
N R
It mayOsound obvious, but make sure you are EP
ATI attention when you read.OR Often when R
ON
OR
paying F
IC are reading, our attention TI
P Lwe
N OT wanders and T F
C A
COMMENTARY
E I N
R we do not really take in what it is that we areNO L
CRITICAL
O
EP ATI
reading. Be sure that when you are reading a R I C
N OR L
IO
novel for Tacademic purposes, your N attention F EP
E C I O
T distracted OT R
OR
LITERARY ANALYSIS
staysSfocused and that you areCnot N
E
byEyour phone, television, Sfriends or family F
PL LE OT
A M members. P N N
S AM T IO R
• Make notes and S EC
highlight
FO
S ON T
LITERARY ESSAY
Make notes in the page margins as you E read. I
N L
EC
T NO
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Marking
T IO important passages asAyou
M read them S
will
IC
Ahelp you save time whenSyou are looking
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L
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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O SE ON
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• Discover and
L
C
I confirm meanings N
O PL LI
C
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RE
Underline unfamiliar words so that
C
A
AT you can look up theirSdefinitions RE of their
and make a note
R
meanings. LI OR
FO EP T
F
T R N
NO• Look for themes, motifs O R and symbols I O N O
I ON
Keep the themes T
Fof the novel in mind as you
C AT are reading and keep asking yourself how these C AT
I I
NO explored, conveyedEand
themes are being PL developed in the narrative. N Make notes of any recurring
E PL
motifs and symbols and what theseRrepresent in the text. TI
O R
R C R
Detecting patterns of meaning and
N FO form SE FO
O T T
TI
Detecting
C patterns ofNOmeaning and formPLE NO
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S Remember that you are reading for meaning (whatAis being said) and for form (how it is being conveyed).
S
Literary analysis isN about detecting patterns in the text and determining N how these patterns convey
I O I O I ON
CT CT
particular messages. The following are a few questions to keep in mind when detecting patterns of meaning
E O N
E CT E
and formSwhen reading novels for academic
T I analysis. S S
E A E E
PL LI
C PL PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
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IOof meaning I C T
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PL NO
E is the text saying?) M
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FOREWORD
M
P
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SA • What happens Nin the narrative, NO CT I ON
O
and in what Iorder?
T SE CT
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TI
O
SA PL
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
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R C M
SE
• RWhat are the recurring themes
O
in the SA
F narrative? LE
T P N E
NO • What messageAisMbeing conveyed? IO PL
S about what is happening T ON M
CA in TI
INTRODUCTION
• How do you feel

TO THE NOVEL
I A SA
the story? PL L I C
ON RE EP
I R R
AT
Patterns of form FO OR ON
I C TI
OT
L (i.e. how is it being said?) F A
P N OT C
COMMENTARY
E LI N
CRITICAL
R N P I O
• Who is the narrator of the text? When or on what
RE C AT
I
OR
occasion(s) is this narration taking place?
ON PL
© Eduardo Estrada
• How does T I the point of view from Nwhich the story F E
E C TI
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R
LITERARY ANALYSIS
S
is being told affect our C
understanding? N
L E E
Sdeveloped FO
• How are the characters throughout T
M
P
P LE NO
S A the text? How doMthey interact with one another, N and why?
IO
• Is the narration SAsequential or achronological?C T Are there flashbacks or flash-forwards? Why R
O is the
E N F
narration structured in this way? S IO OT
LITERARY ESSAY
L E T
• What C N
N symbols and motifs recur Pin the text and how do theyEamplify or subvert the themes of the novel?
T IO AMheadings tell us aboutEthis S narrative and how we should interpret it?
• A What do the title and chapter S
L IC PL N
P A M IO
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
R S N
I O N
S EC IO
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L
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N our brains areOshallow.’ T
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T
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C AT C AT
I - RICHARD BAXTER - I
NO E PL N E PL
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C PL PL
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PL NO
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SE GlossarySof
AM importantRliterary
RE terms
PL O
FOREWORD
F ON
AM OT CT
I
S N ON
ON SE CT
I
TI in the narrative who is
antagonist: a character irony: a perceptible inconsistency (sometimes
LE straightforward
A
C main foe of the protagonist.
presented as the
I humorous) in an apparently
P SE
PLa very typical or common example
I ON of a statement or situation
A M which, given its particularLE
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
E P
R type of person or thing. CT
archetype: context, takesS on the opposite meaning orM
O R
particular
S E significance. SA the
In the case of dramatic irony,
F E
PLliterature in which the character’s
T bildungsroman: a genre of reader or audience may know more about the
NO protagonist, usually an M
A adolescent, undergoes I ON situation or circumstances than the
N P LE
spiritual, intellectual,Smoral, psychological and/ AT character and is, consequently, IO able to recognise a AM
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
C T
or social growth throughout the course of the
P LI sharply different or
I
A
contrasting
C
perception of the S
narrative and, in doing so, achieves maturity. E Also situation from the L character.
knownIO
N R EP
OR
as a ‘coming-of-age’ story. metaphor:Ra Figure of Speech in which one
AT R O N thing is
F I
L IC
catharsis: T through which
the often painful process
O
taken
F O
to represent or symbolise something
AT else, in
P a character heals, usually through
N T to transfer particular associations
order
IC or qualities
COMMENTARY
the release of N
RE strong or repressed emotions. O L
CRITICAL
O
N P TI
on to the thing or idea being represented.
RE
paradox: a statementRthat is so obviously untrue I C A
connotation: an N idea, association or feeling that is PL
evoked by Tthe IOuse of a particular word, in Naddition FO it leads the reader to consider
or contradictory that E
EC meaning.
to its literal TI
O OT in which it may be considered
alternative contexts
R
R
LITERARY ANALYSIS
S EC N
accurate; or a situation, person or thing O
L E S Fthat
Pcontext: the ‘things around the E text’; the particular combines contradictory features or T qualities.
A M circumstances that form the P Lsetting for a narrative
N NO
S M IOpoint of view: the position or vantage point
SA
event, statement or idea.
T
dénouement: the climax or finale of a narrative E C from which the events of a story are presented
N F OR
S to the reader.
IO OT
LITERARY ESSAY
in which the various strands of the plot are L Edrawn Tmain/central
N P protagonist: C
the character in N
together
T IO or resolved. A M SE
the narrative.
A the choice of words used.S E
L IC
diction: PLthe way in which words, phrases
syntax: N
P discourse: written or spoken communication or, in A M IO
and
E T
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
N of a particular subject S
R clauses are arranged to form a sentence.
O
literary terms, the treatment
I S EC I ON
T theme: the central message,
E idea or insight of A T
CA
within the narrative.
I N a literary work. P L IC
L
PL who contrasts starkly with
foil: a character
E
O
TI another AM EP
R usually the protagonist,Iin
character, C A
order to S R
O R
emphasise P
the particular qualitiesL or traits of the F OR
Fother character.
T RE N OT
O R
N form: the structure or Odesign of a particular literaryT I O N I ON
T
F
C A C AT
I I
NO
work.
E PL N E PL
O
genre: in literary terms, a particular andR
R C TI R
R
distinguishable category of writingO
FO
which
O N distinct, common conventions
employs T
F that are SE T
C
I
Trecognisable N
across all works Oof the same type. P LE NO
S E M
ideology: a system of beliefs or ideals which often SA
ON democracy (political), capitalism, ON

forms the basis for a political or economic policy
I
such as apartheid, I ON I
socialism E C T
(economic). O N
E CT E CT
S T I S S
E A E E
PL LI
C PL PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
O C T
Summaries
SE
TI
C andManalyses PL
E
RE
PL
I
NO
E SA R
PLUsing this section FO
FOREWORD
N
AM OT T IO
S Working through the novel chapter by chapterNensures that a solid foundation
N E C of knowledge is laid, Iand ON
then graduallyTand IO effectively expanded. Students are not required to deal S T
C they
A L E with the entire novel until E
have worked IC through it in a methodical, step-by-step manner. P S
L O N M L E
EP TI SA
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
P
EachRchapter and sub-sectionEisCsummarised and analysed separately. Extensive glossaries A M are included,
R S S
FOand learners are requiredEto engage with the content directly through chapter-specific questions. At the
L
T P tasks that, together with the wide selectionLofE
NO end of the summaries, ON
M there is also a series of Ienrichment
A
S in the Literary essayAsection,
rigorous essay topics T ensures that students I ONtackle the novel in its entiretyM
P
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
and are prepared for the final examination. LI

C
CA
T SA
P I
N RE E PL
O
TI OR R
ON
I.
C ANight F O R
T I
P LI OT – 16) T
F A
Chapter One (pp.N 15 IC
COMMENTARY
E O L Glossary ON
CRITICAL
R N P I
Summary RE pungent (p.5): strong,AT
C
The novel O N with the protagonist, who is unnamed
begins O R pervasive
P LI
at this C TI explaining that ‘we’ slept
point, I
F
ON in what had been a OT palimpsest (p.5): something REreused
SE gymnasium. The narrator CT imagines the basketballN ORvisible traces
LITERARY ANALYSIS
or altered that still bears

school’s
E S E F
PLgames and school dances
of its earlier form T (originally a piece
E that were held there and O
M PL N15). Those
of parchmentNwhere later writing
SA reminisces how ‘[w]e A M yearned for the future’ (p. I O has been superimposed over earlier
T
S
memories then give way to the narrator’sEcurrent C situation: writing)
N F OR
S O OT of
LITERARY ESSAY
TIflowers
she and others try to sleep in armyEcots ‘set up in rows, garland (p.5): a decorative wreath
N between so [they] could L
P not talk’ (p. 15). She E C N
withIO spaces M
T A S
A
describes the ‘army-issue S
blankets, old ones that still L E
said insatiability (p.5): characteristic of
I C P N
having an unappeasable or voracious
P L U.S.’ (p. 15) and how the ‘Aunts’ with ‘electric cattle M prods O
A I
RE slung on thongs from
appetite
CT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
N their leather belts’ (p.

S16) would N
I O E
flannelette
S (p.5): type of cotton
T IO
T between the cots. Outside the building
patrol the rows
I CA N P LE resembling flannel ICA
material
are guardsP L with guns patrolling the
T I O fields. Those women M
A E PL
E
keptRinside the building would,
R I CAwhen the ‘Aunts’ were not S looking, stretch their arms R
R towards each
L O
FOother and whisper their E P ‘Alma. Janine. Dolores. Moira. June’ (p. 16). F
names:
O T
R
R
O N
N OT ON
N O I I
T
F
C AT C AT
I I
NO E PL N E PL
O
R
R
C TI R
R
N FO SE FO
© Renee Nault (Penguin)
O T T
C TI N O P LE NO
S E M
SA
© Paramount Pictures
I ON I ON I ON
E CT O N
E
T
Cbeing E CT dance (prom)
S I A high school gymnasium used as the venue for a promenade
S gymnasium in the
E A T (pictured left) and S E
E an artist’s impression of the repurposed
PL LI
C novel (picturedLabove).
P PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N OT
N ATI FO
Analysis TIO L E L
C
I
N OT
In theseSE
C
opening pages, the reader M
Pis introduced to a
R EP
L
changed E world. Clues such as blankets SA that ‘still said U.S.O’R
FOREWORD
M
(p.
P
15) and the narrator’s focus on what the past T
F
was I ON
SA T
like show that the world N presented in this
NO has
chapter E C I ON
O S T
undergone substantial ATI change. This contrast between past L E EC
S
© The Electrical Experimenter Magazine (Wikipedia)

C P
and presentPis LIinitially revealed through O N the description M LE
I A
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
E P
R
of the building’s CT
previous use juxtaposed
E with its current
S
AM
R S S
use:FOwhile the gymnasium was LE used for basketball games
T P
NOand school dances before, A M it now appears to beIO N to
used
N P LE
house a group of women. S It seems that these women AT are
TI
O
AM
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
I C A S
not there by choice. The fact that there are
E PLother women LI
C
N R
who carryOelectric cattle prods ‘patrol[ling]’ (p. 16) the rows P
I R RE
of beds
C A Timplies that the womenFO sleeping in the cots are R
O I ON
LI T F AT
prisoners.
P This impression is O reinforced by the fact thatTthe
N IC
COMMENTARY
E O L ON
CRITICAL
R women in the cots ‘weren’t allowed out, except forN [their] P I
RE C AT
walks, twice daily, two by two around the football field I
I ON now by a chain-link N F OR PL its
which was enclosedT fence topped 1917 advertisement E
for a cattle prod promoting
E C wire’ (p. 16). These images O
TI portray a school ability OTto coerce and control ‘unruly’ cows.
R
R
LITERARY ANALYSIS
with barbedS C N
E O
turnedL E into a prison, with the Swomen inside as the captives (with the exceptionTofF the patrolling
M
P
Aunts). At the end of the P LE we learn, in addition to freedom of movement,
chapter, NOsimple desires such
A
S as touch and being called M O N
SA by their own namesCare TI also denied these women.
E N F OR
S O OT
LITERARY ESSAY
Questions L E
C TI N
N P
1. How T IOdoes the narrator createAM a continuity between SEpast and the present in this opening
the
A S E
L ICchapter, and what is the effect of doing so? PL N (2)
P A M IO
E T
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
S
R __________________________________________________________________________________ N
I O N
S EC IO
T A T
CA
__________________________________________________________________________________
I N P LE IC
L
E PL TI
O
__________________________________________________________________________________ AM EP
R C A S R
O R
P LI
__________________________________________________________________________________ F OR
F
T RE N OT
N O R O
__________________________________________________________________________________
O I N I ON
T
F
C AT C AT
I
__________________________________________________________________________________ I
NO E PL N E PL
O
R
__________________________________________________________________________________
R C TI R
R
N FO SE FO
O T T
2. TI Provide a synonym for ‘yearned’
C N O .
P LE N O (1)
SE__________________________________________________________________________________
M
SA
ON ON ON
__________________________________________________________________________________
I I I
CT N
__________________________________________________________________________________
E O E CT E CT
S T I S S
E A E E
PL C PL
__________________________________________________________________________________
LI PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
O the implications of theEstatement ‘we still had our C T
3. WhatIare LI bodies’ (p. 16)? NO
(2)
CT PL EP
SE AM R
__________________________________________________________________________________
R
E S
PL__________________________________________________________________________________
FO
FOREWORD
M T I ON
SA __________________________________________________________________________________ T
N NO E C I ON
O S T
ATI L E EC
__________________________________________________________________________________
C P S
P LI O N M LE
I A
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
E P
CT S
__________________________________________________________________________________
R
R
E S AM
S
FO__________________________________________________________________________________
LE
T P
NO A M I ON N P LE
[5]
S AT TI
O
AM
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
II. Shopping I C A S
E PL LI
C
Chapter N Two (pp. 19 – 23)R P
TI
O R RE Glossary
Summary
C A F O
O R I ON(p.9):
archaic
LI Chapter Two opens withOthe T narrator (whose nameFis only AT
P N T ICold-fashioned, obsolete N
COMMENTARY
E O L
CRITICAL
R O
much later, on page 96, revealed to be Offred) Ndescribing pier-glass
E P (p.21): a large mirror
A TI
the items in the bedroom. She notes that the chandelier usuallyR used to fill space betweenIC
N R
O
has beenTIremoved, the window ‘onlyNopens partly’ (p. 19), FO
windows
E PL
O T Rthat is in
EC picture on the wallChas TI no glass – all to preventNO decorum (p.23): behaviour R
LITERARY ANALYSIS
theSframed
L E woman in that room from
the SE‘open[ing]’ (p. 20) an escape
keeping with good taste FO and propriety,
T
P LE
etiquette
A M in herself. P N NO
S AM T IO
S
When the bell rings, Offred pulls on her E C She describes her outfit, which is all in red, other
gloves.
N F ORthan
S IO and down the stairsOtowards T
LITERARY ESSAY
the white wings that surround her face.

L E She walks out of theTroom the
N P C N
T IO There, Rita, a ‘Martha’A, M
kitchen. is making bread. Offred thinks
SE of how Rita disapproves of her, of who
A is in the red dress – she Sonce overheard a conversation E
PL
she between Rita and Cora during which Rita
L IC N
P suggested that the narrator had ‘debase[d] herself’ A M (p. 22) because she could IO have chosen to go to
E T
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
R S N
the ‘Colonies’ (p.O
I
N instead.
22)
S EC IO
T A T
I CA N Offred imagines sitting P LEat the kitchen table with ICCora and
L
E PL TI
O
Rita, talking about AM‘aches and pains, illnesses, EP our feet, our
R C A S R
O R
P LI backs, all the different kinds of mischief
F ORthat [their] bodies,
F
T RE like unruly
N children, can get upTto’ (p. 22); however, she
N O
O R I
knows O that this will not NO because ‘[t]he Marthas
happen I ON
T
F
C AT C AT
I are not supposed to fraternize with us’ (p. 23). I
L then
She
NO P L P
N she ‘used to tease himEabout being
RE thinks of Luke andOhow
T I R
R pedantic’ (p. C
23) to ensure that the R
produce is fresh and
N FO S E F O
IO OT T
of good E quality.
T N P L N O
C
SE A
Rita Mgives the narrator tokens, which ‘have pictures on
S
them, of the things they can be exchanged for’ N (p. 23)
ON N
© emcguire (Flickr)
I O I O
C T N
– in this case, ‘twelve
C TI eggs, a piece of cheese, C Ta […] steak’
SE O SE Offred to ‘[t]ell them who SEit’s for and then
E ATI (p. 23) – and tells
E E
PL LI
C they won’tL mess around’ (p. 23).
P PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
Analysis TIO L E L
C
I
N OT
C P EP situation. As she is sitting in the
The detailsSE provided in this chapter M offer insights into the narrator’s R
room, L Enaming and describing each SA piece of furniture, itOseems R as though Offred’s world has closed
FOREWORD
M
in
P
around her and it is perhaps for this reason – that T
she
F
is confined without I ON or entertainment
activity
SA T
– that she has resorted N to such a close inspection
NO of the room. In her description E C of the room, it I ON
IO S T
becomes clear that A TOffred is understood to be a suicide risk; the chandelierL E from which she could hang
S EC
C P
herself has P LI removed, she cannot
been O Nclimb out of the M LE
I A
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
E P
window,Rnor can she use glass toEcut CTherself. To deal with S
AM
O R S S
herFcircumstances,
T
which seem
P LE trying enough to tempt
NOher to suicide, we are told A Mthat ‘Aunt Lydia’ has encouraged I ON N P LE
her to ‘[t]hink of it as Sbeing in the army’ (p. 19).AT O
TI AM
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
I C A S
E PL LI
C
Other indications
N are provided thatRsuggest the world P
O time ‘is measured Rby bells’ (p. 20); the RE
TI
has changed:
A FO R ON
C O T I
LI Rita and the narratorOwear
dresses
P
T are similar in that they
T
F A
N IC
COMMENTARY
E O L ON
CRITICAL
R are long and concealing; people are called by titles
N (for I
P
example, Martha, Commander and the Commander’s RE C AT
R I
Wife); and tokens I ONare used instead of money. N Yet, in spite The titleFofO‘Martha’ is probably a reference toPLuke
E
L 10:
T 38 – 42 in the Bible. While Jesus speaks with Martha’s
of this changed
E C world, the narrator appears TI
O resolved: she sister, OTMary, Martha is concerned withRdomestic
R tasks.
LITERARY ANALYSIS
S C N
E to last’ (p. 19).
‘intend[s]
L SE FO
T
M
P
P LE NO
A
S Questions M N
IO
SA C T
OR
E N F
1. Why do you think the narrator refusesSto call the room ‘my room’ IO (p. 20)? T (2)
LITERARY ESSAY
L E T O
EC N
I ON M
P
__________________________________________________________________________________ S
C AT SA LE
I P
__________________________________________________________________________________ N
E PL A M IO
T
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
S
R __________________________________________________________________________________ N
I O N
S EC IO
T A T
I CA
__________________________________________________________________________________
N P LE IC
L
PL TI
O
__________________________________________________________________________________
E AM EP
R C A S R
R LI
__________________________________________________________________________________
O P F OR
F
T RE N OT
O
N 2. Why might the narrator O R feel that ‘thought must I O be rationed’ and that N
‘[t]hinking can hurt your I ON
T
F
C AT C AT
chances’ (p. 19)? I I (2)
NO E PL N E PL
O
R
__________________________________________________________________________________
R C TI R
R
N FO
__________________________________________________________________________________ SE FO
O T T
C TI N O P LE NO
E__________________________________________________________________________________
M
S
SA
__________________________________________________________________________________
I ON I ON I ON
CT CT CT
__________________________________________________________________________________
E O N E
S I S E S
E T
__________________________________________________________________________________
A E E
PL LI
C PL PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
3. O the narrator mean when
WhatIdoes OT
E she says Aunt Lydia isLI‘in love with either/or’ (p.20)? C (3)
CT PL EP
N
SE AM R
__________________________________________________________________________________
R
E S
PL__________________________________________________________________________________
FO
FOREWORD
M T I ON
SA __________________________________________________________________________________ T
N NO E C I ON
O S T
ATI L E EC
__________________________________________________________________________________
C P S
P LI O N M LE
I A
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
E P
CT S
__________________________________________________________________________________
R
R
E S AM
S
FO __________________________________________________________________________________
LE
T P
A I ON
NO __________________________________________________________________________________
M N P LE
S AT TI
O
AM
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
I C
__________________________________________________________________________________ A S
E PL LI
C
N R P
O clues are given regarding
4. TIWhat O R permissible behaviour RE and roles for womenN in this society in
A
C this chapter? F O R IO
L I T F AT (4)
P N O T C
COMMENTARY
RE __________________________________________________________________________________
NO LI ON
CRITICAL
P I
RE C AT
I
OR
__________________________________________________________________________________
I ON N F E PL
T
TI
O OT
__________________________________________________________________________________
E C R
R
LITERARY ANALYSIS
S C N
E SE
__________________________________________________________________________________
L FO
T
M
P
P LE NO
A N
__________________________________________________________________________________
S AM T IO
S C
__________________________________________________________________________________
E N F OR
S O OT
LITERARY ESSAY
L E TI
__________________________________________________________________________________
C N
N P
T IO A M SE
__________________________________________________________________________________
A S E
L IC PL N
P M
__________________________________________________________________________________
A IO
E T
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
R S N
I O N
__________________________________________________________________________________ S EC IO
T A T
I CA N P LE IC [10]
L
E PL TI
O
AM EP
R C A S R
O R
P LI F OR
F
T RE N OT
N O
O R I O N I ON
T
F
C AT C AT
I I
NO E PL N E PL
O
R
R
C TI R
R
N FO SE FO
O T T
C TI N O P LE NO
S E M
SA
I ON I ON I ON
E CT O N
E CT E CT
S T I S S
E A E E
PL LI
C PL PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
O C T
Narration
SE
C and structure
TI
M
PL
E
R E PL
I
NO
A
OR
WhatEis the author trying to say?SHow are we encouraged to react to the ideas presented in the novel?
L
FOREWORD
In
M
P F
this section, we examine some of the literary devices,Twriting techniques and structural I ON elements that
SAthe author, Margaret Atwood, T
N uses to convey the message NO of her novel. E C I ON
O S T
A TI L E EC
C P S
P LI O N Narration M LE
I A
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
E P
R
E CT S
The Handmaid’s Tale is narrated AMin the first
R S S
FO L E person by Offred, who speaks of both her
T P in Gilead and her LE
NO A M I ON experience as a Handmaid N P
S AT earlier life in America; I O however, as readers find M
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
LI
C
out in the final
T
CAchapter, titled ‘Historical Notes’ SA ,
P I
N RE Offred would
E PL only have recorded her story after
O
A TI F OR the R
R
fact, thus even the ‘present’ ON in the novel
C O T I
P LI OT T isF being told from a later A perspective. This,
N IC
COMMENTARY
E O L N
CRITICAL
R N together with otherEdevices P used in the novel, IO
makes it clear that ROffred’s story is a construct C AT
R I
I ON N (a theme F
that Owill be addressed briefly E PinL this
T O T R
E C TI sectionNO and more fully in the Themes, R Motifs
LITERARY ANALYSIS
S E C O
E S and Symbols section from Tpage 217 of this F
PL E O
A M PL N resource). The narrative N is non-linear as well
S M IO – as is evident in the tale’s structure – and theR
SA C T
SE narrator herself, N whose real name is never FO
O OT
LITERARY ESSAY
L E revealed, C TI often unreliable, withholding
is N
N P
IO M SE information or deferring her
© Loui Jover
T A relevant
A S E
L IC PL
revelations, or even‘ma[king] N[things] up’(p. 275).
P A M I O
RE CT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
N S N
I O S E
T IO
T A
I CA discussing narrative point N P LE (who is speaking) and the IC
When of view, the narrative voice L
E PL focalisation (from whoseTperspective
IO M to be considered; for example,
the story is told)Aneed EP
R a story which is toldIC
A S
in the first person (using the pronoun ‘I’) is narrated andR R
focalised by
O R L That character is, thus, both the speaker and the person O
F P
the same character.
EA story which is told in the second person is narrated byT one F from whose
T perspective the story is told. R N character to
N O another character O
(using Rthe pronoun ‘you’), for I O
instance, an author narrating to N
his
O
or her audience. I ON
T
F
C AT C AT
I I
NO The narrative point of Eview PL in terms of ‘distance’ from N the reader E PL
O
R
R
C TI R
R
N FO SE FO
O T T
TI LE
FURTHER
O NO
CLOSER
E C N P
S M
SA
I ON I ON I ON
E CTSecond Person First Person O N CT Third Person Omniscient
Third Person Limited
E E CT
S T I S S
E A E E
PL LI
C PL PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
201
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
O I C T
C TI PL
E
PL NO
SE
Non-linear narrative
A M means that the RE
L E events in the Snarrative are not told in R
chronological order. Unlike in linearFO
FOREWORD
P ON
SA
M OTa CT
I
ON
narrative, in which the plot follows
N N I
linear timeline (beginning,
IO
middle and end) and where
it is clear thatTone event or decision causes a subsequent
SE CT
E
CA in a non-linear narrative, SE
© Professor Sandcastle
event orIdecision,
L N the events are PL E
M
toldEP I Othe
SA PL
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
out of chronological order and links between

R events are often unclear.CReaders T M
SA
various are required to
R SE and often make their
FO pay close attention to the Enarrative
T own connections. PL
NO M N E
SA TI
O
ON PL
A TI M
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
LI
C
C A SA
P Structure L I
ON RE EP
TI R The novel is divided
R into sections, which are subdivided into
N
C A FO R
chapters.OAlternating sections are titledIO ‘Night’ – except for
L I T F AT
EP NO T IC narrative of her presentN
COMMENTARY
Section
O V, ‘Nap’. Although Offred’s
L
CRITICAL
R O
N
is constantly interrupted by E Pher memories of the past,
A TI it
R
R (or before her ‘Nap’)L–ICduring
ON
is predominantly at O ‘Night’
I N F herself to escape into her P
CT O T
which times she allows RE memories.
TI NO
SE OR
LITERARY ANALYSIS
C
E SE
Those memories are usually of her F
T time at the Rachel
PL E O
M PL and Leah Centre and of Moira, Luke,
N N Offred’s mother, and
SA M I O
SA C TOffred’s unnamed daughter. The narrative often indicates
OR the
S E this shift to Offred’s N
memories by changing tense F
from
O OT Seven,
LITERARY ESSAY
L E present to the past C TItense; for instance, in Chapter

N
N P
T IO A M SEof Section III, ‘Night’, Offred lies on her bed
the first chapter
A S E
PL ‘Where should I go?’ (p.
© Ruth Meharg
L IC and thinks, N 49). She then pictures

P M O
RE SA sitting on her bed, and
Moira, TIrecalls their conversation:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
N C
Ebed, I said. If you’d make IitOyouN
I O ‘You’re getting ashes on my S T
T A
wouldn’t have I CA this problem, said Moira’ N (p. 49). Similarly, in ChapterP LEThirteen, which comprises IC Section
L O L
M recalls how ‘[i]n the afternoons
V, ‘Nap’E, P
in the present, Offred is lying
A TI down on the rug, when S Ashe R EP [at the
R C
O R we lay on our beds for
Centre]
P LI an hour in the gymnasium, between three and four F
R They were giving
O[…]
F us a chance to get used to
T RE blank time’ (p. 82). N OT
N O
O R I O N I ON
This switching between
T
F past and present tense
C AT is not always consistent, however; for instance,Clater AT in
I I
Chapter Thirteen,NO Offred switches back E PLto the present tense, even N
though she is still thinking
E PLof talking
O
to Moira in the Centre. One paragraph
R
R finishes in the past tense
C TI – ‘[t]hat was all we said’ R
R
– and the next
reverts
N to the present – ‘[i]tT makes FO me feel safer, that Moira SE is here’ (p. 83). This use FOof tense switching
O T
C TI serves several purposes. N O
In this case, the present tense
P LE creates a feeling of immediacy.
N O The reader thus
SE experiences this scene in the present, as OffredAdid, M which creates suspense. Similarly, the present tense
S
is used in Chapter Thirteen, when Offred is remembering how she and Luke attempted to escape to
Canada with I
N
Otheir daughter: ‘I’m running, with her, holding her hand, I ON pulling her, dragging her I ONthrough
CT she’s only half awakeObecauseN CTso she wouldn’t cry or say T
Canything
S E
the bracken, I S E
of the pill I gave her,
S E that
E give us away, she doesn’t A T E present tense in
would
PL IC know where she is’P(pp. LE 86-87). While the use PofLthe
M P L M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
IO
this instance conveys
T a sense of urgency,Eit also effectively
L L I C
N OT
C the distinction between
begins toEblur M
P past and present,
R EP
S
reality
L Eand memory. That sense of SAthese boundaries beingOR
FOREWORD
M
P
permeable is reinforced in the next paragraph, in which T
F
I ON
SAOffred says, ‘The bell wakes O T
N me […] I sit up, on Nthe rug, E C I ON
IO S T
wipe my wet faceATwith my sleeve. Of all the dreams, this L E
S EC
C P
LI 87). In this example, Offred
is the worst’P(p. O N seems to be M LE
I A
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
E T S P
R
R these events in the C
experiencing
E present because she is
S AM
S
FO
dreaming. In other examples, E
L
she is awake, yet she switches
T P
NOto the present tense anyway.
A M In those cases, it seems I ONthat, N P LE
S
even when Offred is awake, AT worlds,
she is living in different
TI
O
AM
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
I C A S
characterised by different timeframes. She seems
E PL trapped in LI
C
P
© Myrotique (Deviantart)
her head, andN past and present begin to R blur together. This
O
TI creates a sense that the R RE
technique
C A F Oreader too is trapped in
O R I ON
LI head, trying to stay sane T
Offred’s
P N OT in the endless repetition T
Fof
IC
A
COMMENTARY
E O L ON
CRITICAL
R the days and coping with the loss of her family, her freedom N P I
RE AT
and her way of life.
N R IC L
TI
O FO P
C I ON T RE
StoriesSEare constructs T NO R
LITERARY ANALYSIS
E EC
S of the novel is its emphasis that story is a construct.TWhile all tales are FO
The PLsecond predominant feature E
A M
created, The Handmaid’sMTale PL makes this feature apparent N to the readers. In other NOwords, the narrator
S IO
ensures that the readers SA know they are experiencing C T a story that she is telling. She does so through
OR
S E N F
imagining an audience and by explaining that IO
E her story must be ‘reconstruct[ed]’ T in
(p. 277); for example,
LITERARY ESSAY
L T O
EC telling […] It isn’t a story I’mNtelling. It’s
ON P
Chapter 7, Offred says, ‘I would like to believe that this is a story I’m
I M S
T I’m telling in my head,SAas I go along. […] But if it’sEa story, even in my head, I must be telling
also aAstory
C
toI someone. You don’t tell a story only to yourself. There’s
it L PL always someone else.NEven when there is
P A M IO
E T
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
R N S no one’ (p. C It appears that OffredON
51).
O E
S story was fiction, but itTisI
ATI wishesEthis A
I C N P L it is ‘real’ for her; however,IC it
not, since L
E PL TI
O
AisMalso a ‘story’ in the sense P
Ethat
R C A S R she is
R I R
FO E PL FO presupposes
narrating it, which in turn
O T
R
R
O N
N OT
that there is an audience. Yet although
ON
N O I I
T
F
C AT Offred admits that her experience is
C AT
I I
NO PL
both real and has been narratedLas a
R E ON she does not believeRthat
story,
I EP this
O R
E CTtale will have an audience, O Rbecause at
N F S F
© Mark Henson
IO O T E this point, there is no Tone to whom she

T N P L N O
C
SE A M can tell it. The fact that it is revealed
S in the ‘Historical Notes’ that Offred
recorded theseItapes N
O after those experiences may indicate that either I
N did not believe that anyone
Oshe I ON
CT to them, or that nobody
would everElisten O E CT
N was there with her to experience CT – i.e.
her life as a Handmaid
E
S I
T time. S S
there wasE no one she could tell atAthe E E
PL L IC PL PL
S AM R EP S AM S AM
203
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
O I C T
C TI PL
E
PL NO
that has been created. E
SE
A construct is something
M
A R
E In literary S
terms, it means that the story thatR is
PL FO and
FOREWORD
ON
being told has been constructed actively
M T I
SA O points in CT ON
deliberately. In other words, at various
N that the narrator is activelyN I
the narrative, it is clear
O working to tell
TI she tells the reader that she cannot remember SE CT
LE SE
a story. Whenever
A
preciselyIC
what happened, or invents events N that did not happen, P E
PL that is she activelyIO selecting what parts of her A
M
PL
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
or demonstrates
E
R are included in the C
T S M
SA
experience
R S E story, she is making it clear that
O
© Ambrosii Holbein
the story she is telling is something that has to be constructed.
F E
OT PL N E
N M O PL
SA ATI ON M
TI
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
LI
C
C A SA
P L I
ON RE EP
A TI F OR R
R N
Oafter
C O T I
LI T
Indeed, that revelation in the ‘Historical Notes‘ – that
F Offred is telling her story the fact – goes
P O T C A
N
COMMENTARY
RE
some way towards explaining why Offred is soOaware of why she has to reconstruct LI her experiences,N
CRITICAL
O
N
which means that her narration is not always reliable; for instance, E P
after one memory in A TI
Chapter
R C
O N 7, Offred thinks, ‘ButOthen R what happens, but then
P LI what
C TI I ON
F
happens?’ (p. 51).T In Chapter 40, Offred explains R E ‘I’m not
SE CT NO OR
LITERARY ANALYSIS
E S E sure how it happened; not exactly. All

F I can hope for is
L T
M
P
P LE a reconstruction’ (p. 277). She also
N O apologises for the
SA M N
fragmented nature of her narration in Chapter 41: ‘I’m sorry
A T IO
S
E C [this story is] in fragments, like a body caught in crossfire
N F OR
S or pulled apart by force. O But there is nothingOTI can do to
LITERARY ESSAY
L E
C TI N
I ON M
P E
change it’ (p. 281).
S
C AT SA LE in the process of that reconstruction, Offred
I P
Additionally, N
E PL A M IOin her story; for instance,
T
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
R has Shad to decide what to include

I O N
in Chapter 41, she says, S
‘I’ve
C
Etried to put some of the ON
Igood
T E A T
I CA N things in [the story] as P Lwell’ (p. 281). Some details L IC
have been
E PL TI
O
added afterwards: AM‘In fact I don’t think about EP anything of
A
© Agnes Toth
R C S R
O R
P LI the kind. I put it in only afterwards. O
F
R I should have
Maybe
F
O T RE thought about that, at the time, but
N O T I didn’t. As I said, thisN
R 152). Similarly, when Offred O describes the first time N she has sex with Nick, she O
N is a reconstruction’O(p.
F A TI A TI
says afterwards,
N OT ‘I made that up. It didn’t C
LI happen that way. Here’s what happened' (p. 275). IC her
LAfter
P N P
RE RE
second description, she says, ‘It didn’t happen that way either’
T IO (p. 277).
R C R
While
N some information is added, FO other information is S Eomitted – most, notably,Fher O real name. The
O T T
C TI narrator says, ‘My name N Oisn’t Offred, I have another P LE name, which nobody NOuses now because it's
S E forbidden. I tell myself it doesn’t matter, your M name is like your telephone number, useful only to
SA
others; but what I tell myself is wrong, it does matter. I keep the knowledge of this name like something
ONtreasure I’ll come back to dig up, one day’ (p. 96). The N
hidden, some I I ONreason Offred withholdsIOher name
maySbe
T
ECto avoid identification Iand ON perhaps recapture. After E CTall, none of the names Eshe CTprovides in
T S S
E A E E
PL
her narrative are shown
L IC
to be true in the
PL
‘Historical Notes’ . She could also
PL
be trying to survive by
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
O C T
Symbols
SE
TI
C
M
PL
E
R E PL
I
NO
A
OR
Symbols
E are objects, characters, S shapes or colours used to represent something else, usually an abstract
PLidea or quality. Symbols usually represent something Felse
FOREWORD
M T by association, resemblance
I ON or convention, and
SA provide subtle cluesNto the deeper layers of meaning T
NO in a literary work. There E C are numerous symbols used I ON
O S T
in The Handmaid’s
A TI Tale, including the garden, the colour red, the Eyes, L Ethe Wall and the Red Centre. ECIn this
C P S
section, we
P LI examine some of the more O N prominent symbolism used M by Atwood in the novel.LE
I A
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
P
RE C T S
A M
TheR garden SE S
FO At several points in theL Enovel, Offred comments upon
T P
NO the garden, which A Mshe explains is the ‘domain I ON of the N P LE
S AT Joy tends TI
O
AM
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
Commander’s Wife’ (p. 24). In that garden,CSerena

L I A S
C
to various flowers, such as daffodilsEP
N
and tulips. She notes
P LI
R
that,IOfor the Wives like Serena Joy, R a garden is somethingRE
C A T
to ‘order and maintain and F
O
care for’ (p. 24). Yet, whileOthat R I ON
LI garden must ostensibly T
P N OTserve as something Tthat F
the IC
A
COMMENTARY
E O L N
CRITICAL
R N P I O
Wives can nurture and control – perhaps in place of the
RE C AT
I
OR
children so many of them do not seem to have – Offred
I ON N F E PL
T
also believes that ‘[t]here is something O subversive about T R
EC of Serena's, a sense TofI buried things burstingNO R
LITERARY ANALYSIS
thisSgarden C
L E SE light, as if to point, to say: FO
upwards, wordlessly, into the T
M
P
P LE NO
A N
© Yelena Revis
Whatever is silenced will clamour to be heard, though
S AM T IO
silently’ (p. 163).SThe images presented suggest
E C that new
N F OR
S O OT
life and growth cannot be controlled entirely, that nature
LITERARY ESSAY
L E
C TI as a symbol of bothNreproduction
N
has a purpose and intention of P
its own. Thus, the garden serves
T IO A M SEa gardener attempting to subdue natural
and
A rebellion – and perhaps S implies that the regime isElike
L ICimpulses that will ultimately refuse to be dominated PLor suppressed. N
P A M IO
E T
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
R S N
I O N
S EC IO
The colourAred T A T
I C N P LE ICAs Offred
L
PL
The colour red is often mentioned in the novel, usually in relation to the Handmaids.
E T IO M
Amy EP
describes,
R A
almost her entire outfit ‘except the wings around
C S face is red: the colorRof blood, which
O R
P LI defines us’ (p. 20). In this regard, the F ORcolour is symbolic
F
O T RE N and would appear toOindicate
of fertility T their function asN
R I O N O
N
F O
A T
Handmaids: to give birth, which itself is a bloody process, A TI
T C C
NO P LI and is linked to or associated with the menstrual P LIcycle.
N
RE T IO RE
O R The colour red C also seems to be a mark Rof shame in the
N F S E F O
T novel. Historically, red has been associated with sexual
T IO O L E O T
E C N desireP and, by extension, women N who commit sexual
S A M
sins.
S Offred alludes to this when she explains that Rita’s
ON ON ON
frown ‘isn’t personal: it’s the red dress she disapproves of,
I I I
© Viktor Sheleg
E CT O N and what it stands

E CT
CTfor. She thinks I may beEcatching, like a
S T I disease or anySform of bad luck’ (pp. 21 –S22). Red perhaps
E A E E
PL L IC PL PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
highlights theIOambiguous sinfulness of Ethe Handmaids’ functionLin C T
I a Puritan theocracy likeOGilead.
T L N
C EP
PWives, who call the Handmaids
SE
Rita’s disapproval is mirrored by theM R ‘[l]ittle whores’ (p. 127), which
A R , from Mary Magdalene to Hester Prynne
S women living in ‘sexualOsin’
E the association of red with
reflects
PL
FOREWORD
F N
M Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.
in T IO T
SA NO C IO
N
I ON SE T
EC
At other times, theTcolour red is linked to danger and violence – the blood exposed by violence, such
A L E
C
as the red ‘smileI of blood’ (p. 44) on the hanged man. These two images P – fertility and violenceE– seem S
L O N M L
P I A
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
E
to come together in the image of the T tulips: the stems are a 'darker S crimson' and look 'as ifPthey have
R C AM
R (p. 24). It is perhaps also
beenOcut' SE telling that, when the flowers produce seed pods,SSerena Joy cuts
F off, preventing the flower LE from fulfilling its reproductive purpose.
T
them P
NO A M I ON N P LE
S AT TI
O
AM
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
The Eyes I C A S
The Eyes are the secret police of Gilead, E PLthe branch of LI
C
N R E P
O R
the regime
A TI tasked with internalFOsecurity. As their name R
R ON
andIClogo suggests, their role O T I
OT
is one of surveillance, Fin
P L T A
N IC
COMMENTARY
Ethat they spy upon the populace and seize, torture O and L ON
CRITICAL
R N P I
kill those suspected of dissent. The Eyes watch without RE C AT
I
being seen, either
I ON from behind darkened N
windows or
F OR PL
T E
glasses, orCbecause they are undercover.
E TI
O The Eyes are OT R
R
LITERARY ANALYSIS
S C N
a source
L E of fear for Offred, who SE
fears them after her FO
P with Ofglen. LE
T
A
conversation
M P N NO
S M O
SAreminds Offred of anCeye TI is the
OR
Another symbol that
plastered-over portion of her ceiling from S E which a N F
O OT
LITERARY ESSAY
L E TI
© Chuck Baird
chandelier N used to hang. As Offred eventuallyP learns, the
E C N
T
chandelier IOwas removed when herApredecessorM committed E S
A S
IC by hanging herself from it. At that point, there PL
ON
suicide
L
P A M I
E T
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
R seems to be a shift from N it being a symbol that reminds S her of constant surveillance to a source of N
C
comfort. She thinksTIthat that woman is now ‘safe’ (p. 225) or ‘protected’ (p.SE
O 225) in death. T IO
LE A
I CA N P L IC
The Wall E PL TI
O
AM EP
R C A S R
O R
P LI The Wall functions as a symbol of power and F ORwarning, given
F
T RE N to display the bodies O ofTdissidents or rebels.
ON
O that it is used
N O R I O N I
T
F Offred
C AT also wonders at what lies behind the Wall, in what C AT
I I
NO E PLused to be a university, Nperhaps Harvard. Universities P L are
R traditionally viewedTas IOplaces that promote free REspeech,
R R
N FO critical thinking, and
S EC open discussion – actsFwhich O are now
O T E T
C TI N O considered Lforms
P
of treason. The contrast
N O between the
SE previousMuse of that building and the purpose for which
A
it is Scurrently being used seems striking. That change
© Rogério de Moraes
I ON seems to illustrate the regime’sI ON intention: to stifle debate I ON

E CT O N and critical thinking,Cand
E
T
perhaps also to indicateE CT that
S T I S S
E A knowledge is ofEvalue no longer: obedience E is.
PL LI
C PL PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
231
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
The Red T I OCentre
L E L I
N OT
C
EC
TheSconversion of the high schoolM
P
to the Red Centre R EP to demonstrate both the social factors
seems
A
L E motivated the regime S
that and the changes that itFhas OR brought about. OffredN notes that the school
FOREWORD
P O
M
SA was perhaps one of OTof children’ (p. 125), which TI was one of the pressures
ON
those closed owing to a ‘lack
N N E C I
that drove the Sons O of Jacob to act, as well as being the reason forSthe creation of the Handmaids.T
ATI L E EC
The schoolIC also offers insight into parts of history that are now erased: P the parts that speak of S‘yearning’
PL (p. 15) and ‘love’ (p. 125). I ONIronically, it remains a placeA M of education – indeed, OffredLE directly
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
(p. 15),E‘sex’ P
R
compares the ‘movies’ they were E CT shown at school to thoseS shown at the Red Centre AM (pp. 129 – 130);
R S S
FOhowever, what is taughtLdiffers E starkly: learning about ‘the rest of the world’ (p. 129) has been replaced
T P
NO with a type of re-education, A M or indoctrination, I
N
Oduring which women are forced to prepare for a new
N P LE
role that requiresS a new type of knowledge, AT such as knowing not TtoIOspeak to the Wives ‘unless AMthey
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
I C A S
asked you a direct question’ (p. 26). PL LI
C
N R E P
TI
O R RE
C A F O
O R I ON
LI T
P N OT T
F
IC
A
COMMENTARY
E O L ON
CRITICAL
R N P I
RE C AT
I
I ON N F OR PL
T E
E C TI
O OT R
R
LITERARY ANALYSIS
S C N
L E SE FO
T
M
P
P LE NO
S A M N
IO
SA C T
OR
S E N F
O OT
LITERARY ESSAY
L E
C TI N
N P
T IO A M SE
A S E
L IC PL N
P A M IO
E T
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
R S N
I O N
S EC IO
T A T
I CA N P LE IC
L
E PL TI
O
AM EP
R C A S R
O R
P LI F OR
F
T RE N OT
N O
O R I O N I ON
T
F
C AT C AT
I I
NO E PL N E PL
O
R
R
C TI R
R
N FO SE FO
O T T
C TI N O P LE NO
S E M
SA
ON ON ON
© Genieve Figgis
I I I
E CT O N
E CT E CT
S T I S S
E A E E
PL LI
C PL PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
O C T
Motifs
SE
CTI
M
PL
E
R
PL
E
I
NO
A motif A
is a repeated or recurringSelement within a text, suchRas an image or a phrase, that has symbolic
LE FOviolence, the garden and
FOREWORD
M
P
significance. Examples of motifs used in the novel include T I ON flowers, clothing,
SAand language. T
N NO E C I ON
O S T
ATI L E EC
Violence IC P S
P L
I O N
A M LE
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
Images of violence
E pervade the novel. P
R
BeforeR Offred seems to encounter E CT S
AM
S S
any FOscenes of violence herself, LE the
T P
NOlanguage she uses toAM describe her I ON N P LE
S AT TI
O
AM
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
surroundings seems to indicate the C
L I A S
C
violent nature of that society. Offred EP LI
© Faith Ringgold
N R P
mentions
TI
Othe ‘electric cattle prods’ R RE
wielded
C A by the Aunts, who ‘could F O
O R I ON
LI be trusted with guns’ (p.O16); T F AT
P
not N she T IC
COMMENTARY
E O L N
CRITICAL
R speaks about the ‘escapes [that] you can open inNyourself, given a cutting Pedge’ (p. 20); her clothesTIO
RE I
A
Con
are ‘the colour ofNblood’ (p. 20) and, as Offred is leaving on her walk, she R notes the ‘darker crimson’
IO look at though they have N O
FOffred E PL
C T
the flowers, which
IO been ‘cut’ (p. 24). WhenT leaves for her walk,
R Ofglen
E T O R
LITERARY ANALYSIS
tells herSabout the ‘war’ which is ‘going
E S EC well’ (p. 31) and, at theNcheckpoint, Offred saysFthat O ‘[l]ast week
PLshot a woman, right about
they
L E here […] they thought she was hunting for a bomb. OT They thought
M P(p. 32). N N
SAshe was a man in disguise’ A M IO
T
S
At the Wall, the reader, like Offred, is fully confrontedE C with the violent N nature of the regime. Offred F OR
S O which Offred says make OT the
LITERARY ESSAY
describes the bodies hanging on hooks. L EThere are bags over the heads,
C TI N
N P
men ‘[seem]
T IO like dolls on which the A Mfaces have not yet been painted SE […] [O]n one bag there’s blood,
A S E
which
L IC has seeped through the white cloth, where thePLmouth must have been.N It makes another
P
mouth, a small red one, like the mouths painted withAthick M brushes by kindergarten IO children. A child's
E T
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
R S
idea of a smile’ (p. 44). I
N
OSimilar violence suffuses the brutal rituals of the regime, S EC such as the SalvagingsION
and Particicutions. AT
L E C AT
C LI
P LI I ON M
P
P
Moreover, REOffred herself seems fixated C AT on the idea of stealing SAa knife (e.g. p. 59; p. 110). RE After her
first O R to the Commander’s study,
visit P LI she thinks that she could ‘kiss him, here alone F
R
O[…] and put my
F E T
T R
ON ON
arms around him and slip the lever out from the
NO O R I NO I
T
F
C AT sleeve and drive the sharp end into him suddenly, C AT
I I
NO E PL
between his ribs. I think about the blood coming
N E PL
O
R TI
out of him, hot as soup, sexual, over my R hands’
R C R
N FO (p. 152). EShe also describes her own
S FO image as
O T T
C TI N O being
P LEcovered in blood (p. 21) N Oand compares the
SE M radishes to ‘[li]ittle Aztec hearts’ (p. 220), a
cut
SAreference to human sacrifice. All of these images
ON N
ON how Offred is affectedIO
© Renee Nault
I seem to demonstrate I by the

E CT O N regime, andEalso CT perhaps reflect her Eown CT anger
S T I S S
E A and E
helplessness. E
PL LI
C PL PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
233
FO O N R
OT ATI FO
I
The Handmaids’ ON clothing LE
N
L I C OT
C T P P N
SE describes her outfit asAM
Offred being concealing: the ‘skirt RE is ankle-length’ and the ‘sleeves are full’
E 20). She wears gloves and S a veil, as well as ‘whiteOwings’ R
PL
(p. (p. 20) around her face. The purpose of
FOREWORD
M this clothing seems to reflect her status as a T

F
‘chaste vessal’, one which I ON what those outside
restricts
SA T
the household can N see of her.
NO E C I ON
O S T
A TI L E EC
C P our wings, our blinkers, S
P LI seems to limit Offred’s
Yet the outfit
O Nvision as well. She says, ‘[g]iven
M L E it’s hard
I A
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
P
RE up, hard to get the full
to look
C Tview, of the sky, of anything’ S (p. 42). The outfit seems
A M designed to
R
further isolate the Handmaids. SE Figuratively, they are not able to get a ‘full view’S of anything, which
FO E
L are intentionally kept in ignorance, which is supported by the fact that
T perhaps implies that Pthey
N O
they are not allowed A M to read. Literally, they seem I ON to be prevented from N looking other people inP LE
the
S AT IO AM
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
C
eye, which perhaps prevents them fromI forming connections with A Tothers. Indeed, as OffredSobserves
L C
when she sees Ofglen’s reflection in
N E Pthe shop window, ‘[t]here’s P LI a shock in this seeing; it’s like seeing
O R E meeting of eyes holds danger’ (p. 178),
TI
somebody R (p. 178). What's more,R‘this
naked, for the firstOtime’
C A F O R I ON
LI T in that the
F women seem to be T
transgressing,
A overcoming
P N O T C
COMMENTARY
I clothing, which couldN

RE theOlimitations presented by Ltheir
CRITICAL
O
N
invite further transgression. E P
In this case, it does A
seem TI to
R C
O N foreshadow exactly O R
that, as Ofglen tests Offred P LbyI asking
C TI I ON if she believes that T
F
God ‘listens’ (p. 180) to R
the
E
machines.
E T O R
LITERARY ANALYSIS
S C N
L E SE FO by their clothes,
Yet just as these women are constrained T
M
P
P LE O
theyNalso seem to be defined byNthem. When Moira swops
S A M IO Handmaid’s outfit for the clothes of an Aunt, she
SA C Ther
O R is
E F
S able to escape. She Itells ON Offred that ‘[i]n that O brown
T outfit
LITERARY ESSAY
E
N PL I just walked right
E CTthrough [the Red Centre]’ N (p. 258) and
I O M S
C AT SA through the
L E city. Similarly, Offred passes for a Wife when
P LI she wears P
M one of Serena Joy’s blue O Ncloaks. These instances
A I
RE
© Janna Klävers
T difference between these

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
N seem S to imply that the only C real N

I O women is what they wear: S E
other factors, such as T
status,IOare
T A
I CA N LE
perhaps artificially imposed.
P IC
L
E PL TI
O
AM EP
R C A S R
O R
P LI F OR
F
T RE N OT
N O
O R I O N I ON
T
F
C AT C AT
I I
NO E PL N E PL
O
R
R
C TI R
R
N FO SE FO
O T T
C TI N O P LE NO
S E M
SA
I ON I ON I ON
© Renee Nault
E CT O N
E CT E CT
S T I S S
E A E E
PL LI
C PL PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N NOT ATI FO
LanguageTIO L E L
CI
N OT
C P EP
SE
Offred frequently thinks of words M and their meanings. R
E SA R
OnPL the one hand, her preoccupation with languageFisO
FOREWORD
M T I ON
SA T
NO ON
presented as a means to stay rational and sane; for instance,
N E C I
Offred gives the example O of a ‘litan[y] [she] use[s] to S T
A TI L E EC
compose [herself]’: C she says ‘I sit in the chair and think about P S
P LI It can also mean the leader O N M LE
I A
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
the word chair.E of a meeting. It P
can also
Rmean a mode of execution. E CItT is the first syllable in S
AM
R S S
FO It is the French wordLfor
charity. E flesh’ (p. 122). On the other
T P
NOhand, Offred seems toAM recognise how languageIOisNused
N P LE
S to stay in power. She seems AT aware TI
O
AM
INTRODUCTION
by the regime as a tool
TO THE NOVEL
I C
© Betty Tompkins
A S
that people can be influenced by the way
E PLthey are forced LI
C
N R P
IO
to use language. One example is the R use of capitalisation RE
for each
C
T
A role in Gilead like Martha, O
F Wife and Angel and theOR I ON
LI rituals, such as the Ceremony T
P
new N OT and Birth Day. This Ttechnique F lends the socialIC A
categories and rituals
COMMENTARY
E O L ON
CRITICAL
R authority, which in turn makes them seem immutable. N It does not seem likely P I
AT
that a Handmaid could
RE I C
OR
ever become a Wife, for example. They can,
I ON N F E PLterm
T however, be declared Unwomen. The latter
E C TI
O OTto a second example ofRcontrol: R
LITERARY ANALYSIS
S E C then N
points O the
E S F
PL L E regime is able to remove labels
OT that one would
M P N
N usually use to identify oneself: in the case of
SA M I O
SA CT Unwomen, women who disagree with the
OR
© Matthew Dibble
S E regime are made N F

IO to be perceived as unnatural. OT
LITERARY ESSAY
L E T
C N
ON P For the Handmaids, the removal of their names
I M S E
AT SA servesE to remove a key aspect of their identity.
L I C
Moreover, replacing their name with the possessive ‘Of’ PL
followed by the Commander’s N name seems to
P A M IO
E T
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
R strip them of their individuality. S N
I O N
S EC IO
A third example isAthe T way that greetings, cars, and the names A T
I C N P LE IC
L
PL
of shops reflect biblical usages. This seems to be a way of
E IO
Twhich AM EP
reinforcing R that Gilead is a theocracy, A in turn is perhaps S R
R by the regime to giveLitself IC OR
F O
an attempt P legitimacy by appealing F
T the authority of religiousREideas. It also explains why N men, OT ON
Oto
N who are seen as protectors O R I O N I
T
F of the home, are called
C AT Guardians C AT
or Angels, whileNO I I
women, who are meant to
E PL serve and look N E PL
O
after the household, are called Marthas,RWives or Econowives.
R C TI R
R
Yet language
N from the Bible hasFO also been manipulated,Sas E FO
O T T
TI observes on page 102.
Offred
C N OThis points to a fourth example: P LE NO
E
S control of the written word. Bibles are lockedAup, which M
S
prevents those who are not in power from seeing that the
I ON some of verses. Indeed, if others did have I ON I ON
© Ricky Romain
regime has changed T

EC Bible, that contrary knowledge ON would perhapsSE
CT E CT
access toSthe
T I S
E A E E
PL C PL PL
cast doubt on the authority of the regime to rule.
M P LI M M
SA RE SA SA
235
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
O C T
Annotated
SE
C essay examples
M
TI PL
E
RE
PL
I
NO
E SA R
PL topic 1:
Essay FO
FOREWORD
ON
M
SAWrite a well-structuredN essay in which you examine OT
N how identity and individuality C T I
are treated in ON
Gilead. IO S E
[30]
C TI
T LE
I CA P SE
PL I ON A M LE
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
E P
R Notes on the essay
E CTtopic: S
AM
R S S
FO • This question
L E requires you to consider what identities and how much individuality is
T permitted to be expressed in Gilead.
P
NO • This A M should focus specifically
analysis I OonN
the attitude of the regime N towards the uniqueness P LE
S AT TI
O
AM
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
and independence of the populace.
I C A S
• Key words include ‘examine’
E PL, ‘identity’, ‘individuality’ andL‘treated’
IC . You should try to use some
N R P
RE
of these words in the essay itself.
IO R
C A T F O
O R I ON
LI T
P N OT T
F
IC
A
COMMENTARY
E O L ON
CRITICAL
R Essay: N P
Comments I
RE C AT
In Gilead, N people are assigned roles, first according OR Note the structure of thePL I
to gender,I O then according toOstatus. N Moreover, each F introductory paragraph:Ethe
C T I T R
person
E is expected not only T to fulfil the dutiesNOof thesis statement isRindicated in
LITERARY ANALYSIS
S E C bold (this is the O
main argument
Ethat role but also toScomply with the rules in place F
PL that govern the behaviour E of each class of people.
to which weTwill refer
A M P L
N throughoutNO the essay). The
For that reason, M identity appears to be IO something
Introduction
S underlined sentences provide

that is created SA and conveyed by the C Tregime rather than a ‘preview’ of the argument, as R
O
developed through an individual’s E
S experiences, interests N these are the topics that willF
O be discussed in the body OTof the
LITERARY ESSAY
and relationships. This essay L Ewill examine how colour,
C TI N
N P
SE and
essay.
T IO and names are usedAM
role to create and limit identity
CAindividuality. In so doing, S this essay will aimLEto show
I
L how management of identity and the suppression P N
M of
E P A T IO
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
R individuality are N techniques used to impose S control N
over the populace I O in Gilead. S EC IO
T A T
I CA N P LE IC
L
PL
As Offred observes, she is O
TI defined by the colour AM P the
RE
In the second paragraph,
E A
R That colour pointsICto the key function of Sher
red. sentence in bold indicates the
RThis is the point
R L O
FO role, which is childbirth. Yet the Handmaids, who are topic sentence.
T all identified as such, R EP are not alone in the way that with which
F
T this paragraph
N
NO they are identified O R by colour. As Offred I O also notes, O
N The quotations and
will deal.
I ON
Marthas wear T
F
green, the Wives wear C ATblue, and the examples from the text supportAT
I claim being made by theIC
Commander NO wears black. ThisEPuse L of colour creates the PL
O N topic sentence. The underlined
E
a visual distinction among the R groups, in that theTIway sentences form the analysis R
Body
people are primarily identified

R in Gilead appears Eto be C R
FO O point
or elaboration of this
N S and explain its Frelevance to
T IO by colour; for instance, O T on her walk to theE shops,
L the thesis O
T
statement. Note
E C Offred observes that N ‘[t]here are otherPwomen with how direct N quotations can be
S A M
baskets, some in red, some in the dull S green of the integrated in different ways; in
Marthas, N some in the striped dresses, red and blue and N this paragraph, the quotes are
green and I O cheap and skimpy, that mark the women ofIO incorporated into the sentence I ON
CT
theEpoorer men. Econowives, O N they’re called’ (pp. 35–36).
E CT grammatically.
E CT
S T I S S
E A E E
PL LI
C PL PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
OT ATI FO
I ON E
N I C T
Essay
T (cont'd): PL PL Comments NO
S EC M R include E
E The roles indicatedSAby these various colours R Take note of the ‘T-E-A’
PL O
Commanders, Angels, Guardians, Wives,F Aunts, Marthas structure
FOREWORD
ONsentence – Evidence
of this paragraph
M and Handmaids. These roles seem strictly T defined; T I
SA NO with bearing EC– Analysis). The sentence in ION
(Topic
for instance,N the Handmaids are tasked
childrenT IO
while the Marthas are household servants. E
S bold is the topic sentence;
E CT
A L S
L IC
Furthermore, the women’s N roles seem restricted M
Pto the quotations and examples
E
P IO L
SA
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
P and the
provide evidence;
REthe household. ThatCTseems clear in Aunt Lydia’s M
underlinedAsentences are the
vision of each woman
R SE in a household ‘performing her analysis of S this point. Providing
FO appointed task’, LEbecause she asks, ‘Why expect one
T woman to carry P out all the functionsN necessary to
page references may not be
E
NO A M I O N possible in an examination L
P
the serene S running of a household?’
T (pp. 173–174). O context, but you should stillM
A TI
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
C A
LI C A alert your examiner toSthe
N EP P LI fact that you are quoting or

R
TI
O
OR RE paraphrasing from the novel.
C A F R I ON
LI This erasure of OTindividuality seems compounded by FO T
As inAthe previous paragraphs,
P N T ICsentence in bold is the
COMMENTARY
E the use of names in the novel; novel for O instance, in the L ON

CRITICAL
R the
N P I
Historical Notes section, it is revealed that the names RE topic AT
sentence; the quotations
C
Body
I
OR
and examples provide
the Aunts use are in fact ‘derived from commercial
I ON N F PL
evidence; and the underlined
E
products
T available to women in the immediate pre-
E C
Gilead period, and are
IO
Tthus familiar and OT
reassuring
sentences are the
R
R analysis of
LITERARY ANALYSIS
S C N
FO
this point.
E to them’ (p. 323). SThe E Handmaids too have different
P L E followed by the name of the T
A M names, namely L‘of’
P N NO
S CommanderMto whom they are assigned. IO From Offred’s
A T
S
account, it is apparent that she
E C cannot use her real
N F OR
name because ‘it's forbidden’ S (p. 96). The effect IO on
OT
LITERARY ESSAY
Offred is clear: she says,L E ‘I tell myself it T

doesn't
N P C N
T IO matter, your name isAMlike your telephone number, SE
A useful only to others; S but what I tell
E
L IC PLmyself is N
P wrong, it does matter’ (p. 96). Thus, A Mthis is a method IO
E T
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
R of erasingNthe Handmaid’s identity.SMoreover, because C N

they take I O on the Commander’s name and are not given SE T IO
T A
a new I CAname of their own, Nit seems as though the P LE IC
L
PL
Handmaids are meant to O
TI be indistinguishable S–Athere M is P
E A
R nothing about themICthat is their own, and which they RE
R
can use to assert Ltheir individuality. OR
FO P F
T RE N OT
N O
O R I O N I ON
It seemsF evident that the regime
T C AThas discouraged The concluding paragraph T
sums up the argument, IC
A
expressions
O of individuality L I
in order to assert its
N
control over the population. E P In addition, by providing N drawing on words and
E PLphrases
R – and ensuring thatTIthere O used in both theRquestion and
people with a new identity R C R The sentence
the introduction.
N is no escaping that F O
identity, given their E
clothes and F O
S
Conclusion
in bold indicates a concluding

IO titles –the regime O T is forcing the citizens E to comply T of the thesis
T N P L O
restatement
N
C and accept these new roles. It is M possible that the
SE
statement.
A
regime’s reasons for using suchS techniques is that
it hopes
I ON that superficial compliance will eventually I ON I ON
result
E CT in internal acceptance O N of one’s place, which
E CT in E CT
S turn perhaps removes I any cause for rebellion.
S S
E A T E E
PL LI
C PL PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
N N OT ATI FO
IO I C T
Essay topic
CT
2: PL
E
PL NO
E
SEthe following statementAby
Consider M former South African president,
R
R Nelson Mandela, and write an
E S
PL in which you comment on the way the regime inFGilead
essay O seems to approachNeducation, and for
FOREWORD
O
M
SAwhat purpose: ‘Education is the most powerful weapon
N OT that you can use to change C TI the world.’ [30] N
O N E T IO
I S
AT L E
S EC
C P
P LI Notes on the essay topic: O N M LE
I A
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
E P
CT S
• This question requires you to discuss the approach of the regime to education.
R M
R S
• This analysis shouldE focus specifically on how citizens are educated orSA re-educated,
FO the purpose LEof the education available, and how this relates to the statement provided in
T P
NO the question.
A M I ON N P LE
• Key S words include ‘comment on’ AT, ‘education’, ‘purpose’, ‘powerful’ O
TI , ‘weapon’ and ‘change’ . M
INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
C
You should try to use someLofI these words in the essay itself. A S A
P I C
N RE E PL
O
A TI F OR R
R
ON
C O T I
P LI Essay: OT T
F Comments A
N IC
COMMENTARY
E O L ON
CRITICAL
R Although very little insight is given into N how Gileadean Note P that the first paragraph I
E the context of the A
T
society functions outside of Offred’s experiences, Rdescribes C
I
I ON
some indication is given into how citizens are educated
N F OR topic posed in the questionL
(education P
in Gilead). ItEthen
– or, Tin the Handmaids’ case,O re-educated. Moreover, T R
C TI treats past symbols O previews the argument
SE way in which the regime OR by
LITERARY ANALYSIS
the C N
Eof education, such as E
S school and universities, also
that will be presented
F
PL provides some clues E OT in the body
describing the topics that
Introduction
M P L regarding its attitudes towards will be N

discussed
SA M N
education. This A essay will thus examine IO how past and of the essay (the underlined R
current systems S of education intersect C T in the novel, sentences) and concludes
E N with the thesis statement orF
O
S
first by focusing on the Red ECentre, then on the O main argument of the essay OT
LITERARY ESSAY
university. Then, education L
in general will be examined
C TI N
N P
SE
(indicated in bold).
to
T IOillustrate the regime’s A Mapproach to education
I CA– namely, that obedience S is more desirable than
P LE an
N
E PL educated populace, and education is discouraged A M IO
T
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
R because it may N lead to rebellion and change. S N
I O S EC IO
T
C AT LE CA
Ithe
Through I Offred’s observations, N it becomes clear P
that L
PL O In the second paragraph,
theERed Centre – where the A TI prospective Handmaids S AM EP the
sentence in bold indicates
R
R C – was previously a high
O Rare housed and re-educated
P LI topic sentence:R
with which O
this is the point
F paragraph
this
F school. Offred describes E how they ‘slept in what T
T R N Aunt Lydia will deal.
O quotations and
The N
O had once been the R gymnasium’ (p. 15), how O N from the text support IO
N O I examples
speaks to them F in a ‘classroom’ (p.AT58) and how ‘ the claim being made by the A
T
T
[o]nce aOweek we had movies’ which I C they watched I C
N P L topic sentence. The underlined
PL
in ‘the Domestic Science room’ (p. 129). Yet unlike O
E N sentences form the analysis E
R TI at or elaboration of this R
Body
the education one would R have traditionally received C R point

Na school in America,Tthe O
F women at the Red Centre E and explain its O
relevance
F to
O S T
TI are instead subjected LE how
the thesis statement. Note
N O to propaganda and taught P NOquotations can be
E C how direct
S to fit into this new society by submitting to the M
SA
integrated in different ways;
requirements of the regime. in this paragraph, the quote is
N N incorporatedN
O O grammatically O
C T I
N C T I into the sentence.
C TI
SE O SE SE
E ATI E E
PL LI
C PL PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
FO O N R
OT ATI FO
I ON E
N I C T
Essay
T (cont'd): PL PL Comments NO
S EC M Rknowledge E
E Similarly, it seemsSas A though any skills and R Take note of the ‘T-E-A’
L O
the Handmaids may have learned prior toF the formation structure of this paragraph
FOREWORD
M
P
of Gilead have become undesirable in Tthe present, as I ONsentence — Evidence
(Topic
SA T
seen in the N repurposing of the NO
university by the regime. E C— Analysis). The sentence inION
IO S bold is the topic sentence; C T
AT
The grounds have been converted into a building where
L E E
the quotations and examples
IC
prisoners are kept, tortured and questioned, while Pthe provide evidence; E
S
L O N M L and the
P around the grounds
TI is used to display the SA bodies underlined sentences
BACKGROUND
TO THE NOVEL
Wall P
REof people killed within
are the
C those Walls. Indeed, some of analysis of A M point. Providing
this
R SE S
FO those hanged onEthe Wall have been killed as a result of a page reference may not be
L
T the educationPthey received, such as possible in an examination
N doctors who have context, but you should still LE
NO M O
performedAabortions – the men hanging
S A TI with a placard N alert your examiner to the P
O M
C foetus’ (p. 44). ThisATI fact that you are quoting
INTRODUCTION
showing ‘a drawing of a human

TO THE NOVEL
I S Aor
E PL
university-turned-prison highlights the priorities Iof
L the
C paraphrasing from the novel.
regime. Whereas education
N R could otherwise be Pseen as
O
TI desirable owing to Fthe OR change it can bring Rabout RE in the
C A
world, education is perhaps seen as a threat
O in Gilead – I ON
LI T
P for that very OT
reason.
N T
F
IC
A
COMMENTARY
E N
NO PL
CRITICAL
R O
E A TI
It makes sense that people in Gilead would not be R Note how this paragraph C
Body
taught
O N anything that would cause them to disagreeOR expands on the points
P LImade
C TI or challenge the regime;
with I ON for example, women
regime T
F E
(apart in the previous paragraph
R to
E T O R
develop the main argument
LITERARY ANALYSIS
S from Aunts) are not E Callowed to read, whichNprevents

FOThe sentence in
L E them from having access to information other than
S of the essay.
T
P LE are told. Even the Bible, which provides theNquotations
boldOis the topic sentence;
M that which they P and examples
SA the basis Aof M the laws and customs I ONin Gilead, is kept provide evidence; and the
locked away,S perhaps to preventCTcitizens from realising underlined sentences areOR the
that the regime has been selective SE in what it usesON analysis of this point. F
OT
LITERARY ESSAY
from scripture, and L E

sometimes even amends it. TI
Evidence
C N
N P
T IO of this is provided when A M Offred says of oneSEof the
E
I CA Beatitudes: ‘I knewS they made that up, PIL knew it was N
E PL wrong, and they left things out too, but
A M there was no IO
T
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
R way of checking’
N (p. 102). Rather, itS seems as though C N
the Handmaids
I O are prevented from questioning any of SE T IO
T A
these
I CAlaws, as Offred observes N
when she says that
P LE IC
L
E PL
Ofglen’s question, ‘Do you O think God listens […]
TI ‘[i]n the past […] Shave AM been
to
EP
R these machines?’ wouldA R
C
O R a trivial enough remark,
P LI a kind of scholarly speculation. F OR
F [But] [r]ightRnow E it’s treason’ (p. 179).
O T
R O N
N OT ON
N O I I
It appears F that the key trait theATregime wishes to It is sometimes useful to AT
T I C C
instillOin its populace is unquestioning
N P L obedience, which support your conclusion
P LI with
the regime has, at least inEthe case of women, deemed
R I ON E the text
a relevant quote from
R
godly, given ‘the woman R [should] learn in silence T
C with argument. The
that encapsulates your main
R concluding
all subjection’ (p. 235). O
F That obedience would E O
ON be subverted byOprevious S perhaps paragraph Fsums up the
Conclusion
I T models of E
education, in which T
E CT the knowledgeNand skills required toMcriticise PL the regime NO drawing on words
argument,
S and phrases used in both the
would be developed. The regime is SAopposed to change question and the introduction,
- demonstrated
N in the way it enforces obedience andN N way.
but restated in an original
I O
punishes dissent - which is evidently the reason I
whyO I Oindicates
CT N CT or
The sentence in T
bold
Etraditional forms of educationO have been abolished E a restatementEofCthe thesis
S T I S statement.E S
E repurposed. A E
PL LI
C PL PL
M P M M
SA RE SA SA
A NEW WAY TO EXPERIENCE ENGLISH
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THE COMPLETE GUIDE AND RESOURCE FOR GRADE 12

“There is nothing in The Handmaid’s Tale that didn’t happen somewhere.”

The Handmaid’s Tale

II. Shopping............................................................................................................................................................ I74

perspectives and inspired her to write

At the end I ONthe summaries, there is also a series of enrichmentIOtasks

ON to pay attention or of which you ON from the novel ON

Background to the novel

A M PL the wilderness, Margaret wouldNobtain

L E school full-time. After

N OM N– five years later. In 1964, PL

visions now feel all Rtoo R real.

M is it not a friendly act to warn him?’ T I ON

she writes about are not entirely fiction:ICthey either have

E O that novel. She recalls, ‘I hadLbeen

P than I did. I asked her whatTIO

protagonist’s family spend much ofLtheir E time in the wildernessTas

R S influenced her work is her N

© Margaret Atwood (margaretatwood.ca)

morning, when they came to cut theObody C R

explains that, in dictatorships, one

R members of the group have power O

P Lyou, I CA need to know. The writer

© J. Howard Miller (Wikimedia Commons)

R who had enlisted to fight in the armed N forces. P I

© Warner Bros (Wikimedia Commons)

© Roger Vollett (The Image Works)

R Revolution of the 1790s. Dr Joseph-Ignace Guillotin N P I

‘Well ofNcourse, no repressive regime L E

R interview with Studs N Terkel S N

N ‘[I]f religion is anPevolved adaptation, it’s no good to tell

circumstances, that can be very I

S government, which sought to wrest C and N O they using it to

IC Aunt being so controlling A A

know that’s not true. Women

feminist by those whoLthink

C expensive delivery, theyN should pay for my P N

soldiers’ and wielded immense police and

children, Trutz (pictured below left)

• How do you feel

ON democracy (political), capitalism, ON

and are prepared for the final examination. LI

or altered that still bears

N their leather belts’ (p.

© The Electrical Experimenter Magazine (Wikipedia)

the white wings that surround her face.

out of chronological order and links between

L E present to the past C TItense; for instance, in Chapter

L IC and thinks, N 49). She then pictures

IO O T E this point, there is no Tone to whom she

E S E sure how it happened; not exactly. All

R has Shad to decide what to include

Commander’s Wife’ (p. 24). In that garden,CSerena

E CT O N and what it stands

I ON seems to illustrate the regime’sI ON intention: to stifle debate I ON

I seem to demonstrate I by the

M this clothing seems to reflect her status as a T

I clothing, which couldN

T difference between these

N seem S to imply that the only C real N

S E regime are made N F

regime has changed T

S underlined sentences provide

people are primarily identified