1. Who turned her in?
2. Fill in the blank: The conclusion is ________________.
3. What is the worst part of Gilead?
4. When did you know Offred was done for?
5. Fill in the blank: Offred is ____________________.
6. What is the most powerful line in this novel?
Hehe...you can do it!
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ReplyDelete1. Now that she has escaped from Gilead, Offred will be taken to different locations in the Underground Femaleroad until she (hopefully) crosses the border. "Not that we need one, sir, but all is in order" (294).
ReplyDelete2. The conclusion is optimistic...though the ending is open ended, the reader is left with optimism that Offred is on her way to escaping. "And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light" (295).
3. The worst part of Gilead is that many are brainwashed so that though they might have opposed the society once, they now become complacent and comfortable which is the key to Gilead's success. "'You ought to make an effort...' She pauses. 'To clear your mind of such...' She pauses again. 'Echos'" (284).
4. Throughout the book I never believed Offred was done for, but I instead remained optimistic that she would eventually escape.
5. Offred is lucky because so many things could have gone differently leading up to her escape which could have ended instead in her death. "'She hanged herself,' she says. 'After the Salvaging. She saw the van coming for her. It was better'" (285).
6. "Truly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations" (271). I think this is the most powerful line because it is a clear warning to the reader to take a look at today's society and ask ourselves what rights or freedoms we have given up because of a "few compensations."
1. Who turned her in? No one turned her in because the Commander and Serena Joy are obviously surprised, “[Serena Joy] wasn’t the one who called them, then. Whatever she had in store for me, it was more private,” and Nick is trying to help her and even uses the bond they have formed to say, “Trust me” (294).
ReplyDelete2. Fill in the blank: The conclusion is confusing because the reader has to chose her own end for Offred since Offred doesn’t even know what is going to happen as she says, “And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light” (295).
3. What is the worst part of Gilead? The worst part is that women are put against women so that no friendships or trusts can be formed as shown in the Salvaging when Offred places her “hand on [her] heart to show [her] unity with the Salvagers and [her] consent, and [her] complicity in the death of this woman” (276).
4. When did you know Offred was done for? I still don’t completely believe that Offred is done for, but I knew a change was going to occur for better or for worse once Ofglen didn’t show up to meet Offred to go shopping: “She looks wrong…She isn’t Ofglen” (282).
5. Fill in the blank: Offred is a coward because even though she tries to break the rules sometimes she is always afraid and worried about her own safety as shown when she rejoices Ofglen’s suicide, “So she’s dead, and I am safe, after all” (286).
6. What is the most powerful line in this novel? “I never did know her real name. That is how you can get lost, in a sea of names” (283). This is one of the most disheartening quotations in the novel because it shows that the society has power over its subjects, and it is as if nothing can be done to escape this world or find those you trust.
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ReplyDelete1. "It's all right. It's Mayday. Go with them. He calls me by my real name" (293). Nick has helped Offred escape from this society; he has created a pretend arrest in order to free her.
ReplyDelete2. "Whether this is my end or a new beginning I have no way of knowing: I have given myself over into the hands of strangers, because it can't be helped. And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light" (295). The conclusion is frustrating because I wanted a clear cut answer to whether or not she escaped from Gilead or not, but it leaves room for hope because her destination is unknown.
3. "Now there are sounds, gasps, a low noise like growling, yells, and the red bodies tumble forward and I can no longer see, he's obscured by arms, fists, feet" (280). The Particicutions are the worst part of Gilead because they force the women to kill and torture another human being.
4. "But it's too late to think about that now, already their feet are on the dusty- rose carpeting of the stairs; a heavy muted tread, pulse in the forehead" (293). I thought Offred was done for after this because there was no possible way for her to escape or any time for her to kill herself in order to avoid getting taken by the Eyes.
5. "I resign my body freely, to the uses of others. They can do what they like with me. I am abject" (286). Offred is annoying because she has no drive to do anything about her current situation, and she is constantly going back and forth on whether or not she has hope of escaping.
6. "I want to keep on living, in any form. I resign my body freely, to the uses of others. They can do what they like with me. I am abject. I feel, for the first time, their true power" (286). Offred has finally given up and therefore is able to feel the complete power the society has over its broken victims.
1. The new Ofglen turned her in.
ReplyDelete"She isn't one of us. But she knows" (285).
2. The conclusion is that the resistance has control of one of the black vans and when Ofglen turned Offred in, Nick told the resistance to pick her up instead.
"As I'm standing up I hear the black van... 'It's all right. It's Mayday. Go with them.'...I see the two men standing behind him " (293).
3. The worst part of Gilead is never knowing who to trust or how long you have to live.
"I should have taken things into my own hands while I had the chance...I should have paid attention...but it's Nick who pushes open the door... I can't place that, unless he's one of them. There was always that possibility. Nick, the private Eye" (293).
4. I knew Offred was done for when she started talking about the former Offred.
"Behind me I feel her presence, my ancestress, my double, turning in midair under the chandelier, in her costume of stars and feathers, a bird stopped in flight, a woman made into an angel, waiting to be found. By me this time...your life has value to no one. I want it finished" (293).
5. Offred is looking for her past in the present and never stops to think that it could be in her future.
"I could set fire to the house for instance. I could bundle up some of my clothes, and the sheets, and strike my one hidden match. If it didn't catch, that would be that. But if it did, there would at least be an event, a signal of some kind to mark my exit"(292).
6. The most powerful line in the novel is "Nolite te bastardes carborundorum" (292).
This is because it has a connection to many of the important characters, for example: the comander who tries to make the line less significant to Offred by telling her it is meaningless and juvienile(powerful taking power from the weak), the previous Offred because she wrote it to give the next handmaid hope and determination, and Serena because she is one of the bastards trying to grind her down.
1. Who turned her in? She was saved by Nick and Mayday because Serena had a different fate in store for Offred, death by her hand. “Just like the other one…you’ll end up the same” (287)
ReplyDelete2. Fill in the blank: The conclusion is __stressful__. “Whether this is my end or a new beginning I have no way of knowing” (295)
3. What is the worst part of Gilead? Taking the babies from their natural mothers. “We stand between Janine and the bed, so she won’t have to see this…she’s crying helplessly, burnt-out miserable tears” (127)
4. When did you know Offred was done for? Offred gives in after she has sex with Nick because it puts her at her most vulnerable state, she completely gives herself to a man and enjoys it. “This is betrayal. Not the thing itself [sex] but my own response” (263)
5. Fill in the blank: Offred is __pushover__.
6. What is the most powerful line in this novel? “I would like to be ignorant. Then I would not know how ignorant I was” (263). I think that this line speaks to all humans as an analysis of their own decisions and actions; being ignorant closes your eyes.
1. Nick turned her in because he knows so much about her. When he comes into Offred’s room at the end, she says “I can’t place that, unless he’s one of them” (293).
ReplyDelete2. The conclusion is inconclusive. The last line of the novel is “And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light” (295). What is that supposed to mean?
3. The Colonies that have to clean up after the battles. “In the Colonies, they spend their time cleaning up…The other Colonies are worse, though, the toxic dumps and radiation spills” (248).
4. I thought Offred was done for when she was taken away, but I knew that she is OK again at some point when I read the “Historical Notes”, which discuss the tapes on which Offred has recorded her story. “Within this footlocker…were approximately thirty tape cassettes” (301).
5. Offred is intelligent. When she talks to the new Ofglen, she thinks “But I haven’t done anything…All I did was know” (285). She knows what she knows, but she knows she cannot tell anybody. She mentions the password to Ofglen and says no more about it.
6. The most powerful line in this novel is at the end of the “Historical Notes”. “Are there any questions?” (311) is powerful because, by the end of the novel and certainly by the end of the “Historical Notes”, the reader has many questions.
1. She is not actually turned in; Nick has helped her to be pretend-captured so that she would not be caught after Ofglen was going to be taken.
ReplyDelete"'I need to see your authorization,' says the Commander. 'You have a warrant? '…'Not that we need one sir, but all is in order,' says the first one again. 'violation of state secrets'" (295).
2. The conclusion is hopeful; she has a chance if she ever had anything with Nick.
"'It's all right. It's Mayday. Go with them.' He calls me by me real name" (293).
3. The worst part of Gilead is the loss of affection and numbing of emotion and love.
"The Commander is behind her, the sitting room door is open. His hair is very gray. He looks worried and helpless, but already withdrawing from me, distancing himself. Whatever else I am to him, I am also at this point a disaster" (294).
4. Offred is not done for.
5. Offred is no longer alone.
"I expect a stranger, but it’s Nick who pushes open the door, flicks on the light."
6. "Nolites te bastardes carborundorum"
This is the most powerful line in the novel because it is repeated over and over and it helps her to persevere.
1. Nick turned her in. “It’s alright. It’s Mayday. Go with them” (377).
ReplyDelete2. ..is that Offred finds safety. “He calls me by my real name. Why should this mean anything? (376).
3. The worst part is the uncertainty of not knowing your future. “And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light” (378).
4. I knew Offred was done for when she was at the wall with Ofglen. “This isn’t a term I remember. I’m surprised you do” (365).
5. Satisfied. Earlier in the novel she says, “If I were caught there would be no quarter, but I’m beyond caring” (347).
6. “You would look at the man one day and you would think, I loved you, and the tense would be past, and you would be filled with a sense of wonder, because it was such an amazing and precarious and dumb thing to have done” ( 292). This quote completes my image of Offred and so I think it is the most important.
1. She has escaped, finally- there are even eyes who are apart of the Mayday brigade, because she ends the novel with the word light. “And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light” (295). And she’s helped into the van, “take me by the elbows to help me in” (295).
ReplyDelete2. Anticlimactic, because she leaves it open still undecided as to which road she has taken. “It’s double doors stand open…And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light” (295).
3. The worst part of Gilead is the guilt of the color red that follows these handmaids everywhere, slowly eating away their confidence, leaving them as the subordinate. “Red is so visible’” (292). “Outside the light is fading. It’s reddish already” (291).
4. I came to my conclusion that Offred is saved when Nick “flicks on the light” and says, “ It’s all right. It’s mayday. Go with them” (293). Offred questions the light, but in the end it’s always good.
5. Offred has given up. “It’s no time in particular” and “He’s already withdrawing from me” (294).
6. “ That is what gets you in the end. Faith is only a word, embroidered” (292). In a society where reading is banned, to give up on the word faith, means giving up all together.
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ReplyDelete(About my number 4, I mean that I knew the van would come for her...that she would be made to leave the house. I don’t think she’s being taken to her demise.)
ReplyDelete1. Nick turned Offred in as a way of helping her escape. "'Nick's engineering of her escape… He could, of course, have assassinated her himself, which might have been the better course, but the human heart remains a factor… she might be pregnant by him"(311).
ReplyDelete2. The conclusion is very open ended and frustrating, yet it is hopeful even to the very last in its uncertainty. "Whether this is my end or a new beginning, I have no way of knowing… And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light"(295).
3. There can be no chance of an upper hand or unity when peers kill peers and women kill women. "Now the official procession is approaching the stage: three women, one Aunt in front, two Salvagers in their black hoods and cloaks a pace behind her"(274).
4. "'I trusted you,' she says 'I tried to help you'"(287). She was doomed, she and the Commander had been found out, and hell hath no fury like a Commander's Wife scorned.
5. Offred is brave, scared, shameful, stupid, and amazing.
6. "Don't let the bastards grind you down." It has always been a source of inspiration and hope, a silent rebellion for Offred when she needed something to believe in the most-it helped her believe in herself.
1. I believe that if she was turned in it was by Nick, because, even though he says to "trust" him, she knows she cannot be assured that this will hold true; her gut instinct, which is probably leading her in the right direction, is not to trust him. "'Trust me,' he says; which in itself has never been a talisman, carries no guarantee" (294).
ReplyDelete2. frustrating, because after all this time of wondering what will become of her the reader is left without any sense of knowing for sure what her fate will be since Offred herself does not even know. "I have no way of knowing" (295).
3. The worst part of this place is how almost every person is going behind the backs of each other in order to attain love, which is looked down upon in this place. "Love, said Aunt Lydia with distaste. Don't let me catch you at it. No mooning and June-ing around here, girls. Wagging her finger at us. Love is not the point" (220).
4. Although I think that it must have been Nick if she was turned in, I don't think she actually was turned in; I think she is going to get out of this place based on her last line, which puts her choice of leaving this place as her last and final thought. "And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light" (295).
5. trying; throughout the novel she continues to try to make things better for herself, try a relationship with God, and at least think of possible ways to try and escape this place. "It's the least you can do" (255).
6. "Dear God, I think, I will do anything you like" (286). This is the most powerful line because it shows just how desperate Offred really is throughout her suffering.
1. “it’s Nick who pushes open the door…Nick, the private eye…wispers. ‘It’s all right. It’s Mayday. Go with them.’” (293)
ReplyDeletePeople knew that Offred wasn’t abiding by the rules, and they knew that Nick was the private eye at that residence, so he turned her in to keep himself safe, but he made sure that she was taken by the right people so she would be safe too.
2. The conclusion shows that Offred knows when to stop worrying about what is going to happen to her because she knows that there is nothing more she can do about the situation. “And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light” (295).
3. The worst part of Gilead is that they abolish the legality of touch.
“It would be better…if he would touch me” (261)
4. Before I knew that it was Nick that came to get her, I thought that she was done for when she realized that she had told the new Ofglen that she was “one of them” but that Ofglen wasn’t.
“Now I feel cold…What she is doing is warning me. She isn’t one of us. But she knows.” (285)
5. Offred is trying to make the most out of her situation, living from excitement to excitement.
“Ofglen is giving up on me. She whispers less, talks more about the either. I do not feel regret about this. I feel relief.” (271)
6. “Dear God, I think, I will do anything you like. Now that you’ve let me off, I’ll obliterate myself, if that’s what you really want; I’ll empty myself, truly, become a chalice. I’ll give up Nick, I’ll forget about the others, I’ll stop complaining. I’ll accept my lot. I’ll sacrifice. I’ll repent. I’ll abdicate. I’ll renounce” (286)
This is powerful because it shows us so much about Offred's true character - that she will do anything to avoid discomfort, even if it means "selling out."
1. She is going to a better place, or at least to a safe place; she's headed somewhere there is light. "And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light"(296).
ReplyDelete2. The conclusion is incomplete without the historical notes, with many questions left unanswered.
3. The worst part of Gilead is that people lose their identity. "I am Ofglen,' the worman says. Word perfect. And of course she is, the new one, and Ofglen, wherever she is, is no longer Ofglen. I never did know her real name. That is how you can get lost"(283).
4. I knew Offred was done for when she was taking risks with the new Ofglen and was not getting positive responces out of her. "Ofglen may talk, aout me among others. She will talk. She won't be able to help it"(285).
5. Offred is like a child in a world full of adults; she is very restricted and is not trusted to do the right thing on her own.
6. "Everything they taught at the Red Center, everything I've resisted, comes flooding in. I don't want pain I don't want to be a dancer, my feet in the air, my head a faceless oblong of white cloth. I don't want to be a wingless angel, I want to keep on living, in any form. I resign my body freely, to the uses of others. They can do what they like with me. I am abject. I feel, for the first time, their true power"(286). This line was powerful because it made me feel anger toward the society for breaking her.
1. Nick turned Offred into the Eyes. "It's all right. It's Mayday. Go with them," Nick tell Offred to do what they say because he knows that they aren't going to hurt her since her called her in (376).
ReplyDelete2. Offred is being released from this awful society and freed into a safe, non-Republic of Gilead area. "And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light," Offred thought as she got into the truck. She obviously knew that since Nick set her up to this, that it wouldn't be a trap but instead a way out (378).
3. The worst part of Gilead for Offred and the other Handmaids is how they are watched constantly. At the Salvaging they are put in the front to kneel on cushions, "where everyone can keep an eye on us," (351).
4. At the beginning of chapter 46 when Offred was "at the window, waiting," I knew something was going to happen to her. She too knew something was up, and sat there trying to kill the suspense (373).
5. Offred is constantly thinking about what is about to happen and is always wondering what is about to come and always thinks the worst. She starts to feel faint then she says, "That is what gets you in the end," which clearly means she knows what is about to happen with the Eyes coming, but thinks that they are going to kill her (375).
6. "Don't let the bastards grind you down," or "Nolite te bastardes carborundorum," are the most powerful lines in the novel because they come up constantly and she thinks about it throughout the novel. The line always lifts her spirits (373).