The Handmaid's Tale- C27

The Handmaid's Tale- C27

1. summary

   • Offred and Ofglen go shopping on a hot summer day. They pass the fish store, Offred remembers how there was an ice cream store on the street where she used to bring her daughter.
     • Offred and Ofglen have become more familiar, and Ofglen is slightly more outgoing. The Wall is empty of bodies, but still frightening for its potential. Offred thinks about the university campus, now belonging to the Eyes.
       • The two Handmaids pass a chain store called Soul Scrolls. Customers, including Serena Joy, can remotely order one of five prayers, which the machines pronounce aloud and print onto paper. In the window glass, Ofglen makes eye contact with Offred. Ofglen wonders in a whisper to Offred if God cares about the prayers, a dangerous and rebellious question. Offred says no, allying herself with Ofglen’s blasphemy.
         • Offred and Ofglen continue to talk. Ofglen seems knowledgeable about where and how it’s safe to talk. Then Ofglen offers Offred a chance to “join us,” and Offred learns for the first time that there’s a secret, organized Resistance.
           • Offred and Ofglen fearfully watch the approach of a black van with the winged eye symbol painted on it. Two Eyes come out, grab a man on the street, somehow knock him out, and put him in the van.

2. narrator

   • Offred's reaction to the arrested man shows her lack of empathy towards other rebels. She cares most about saving herself.
   • forgetting the past 'i can't remember the name'
   • she is 'so excited..can barely breathe' about the alliance with Ofglen

3. other characters

   • Offred and Ofglen 'are more comfortable with one another' and of glen has given up some of her 'melancholy'
   • Offred and Ofglen trust each other completely, Offred says she will not tell anyone about the resistance
   • Ofglen is brave and knows what she is doing when Offred panics silently 'keep moving'

4. plot development

   • Offred and Ofglen see each others 'eyes, directly' for the 'first time', there is 'risk, suddenly in the air between' them
   • Ofglen and Offred decided to trust each other and 'have crossed the invisible line together' and Ofglen asks her to 'join us'
   • regime has police like 'shark on the prowl', they knock out and arrest an 'ordinary looking man'- watch closely to rebellion acts
   • after the man is knocked out and taken away people act 'as if nothing has happened'- learned to accept the regime's ways as they do not want it to happen to them

5. setting

   • it is the summer as is 'warm and humid'
   • the old university now belonging to eyes have 'arched doorways' 'Romaneque effect'
   • 'the sun is free' to be 'enjoyed' still

6. themes

   • rebellion- The organized Resistance shows that Gilead doesn’t have mind control over everyone as well as it seems to over Offred. Some people are willing to risk more to achieve more.
   • gender roles, large ice creams had 'name of a man'- bigger things connotated with males
   • gender roles- stores 'carrying things for men are still open' but women's shops have been 'closed down'

7. literary devices

   • field specific lexis of captivity 'searchlights' 'barbed wire' 'hooks'
   • alliteration of 'soul scrolls'
   • anaphora 'i could scream...run away..turn'
   • verb phrase 'laugh, shout, hug'
   • simile 'hope is rising in me, like sap in a tree'- feels alive

8. dystopian features

   • the murals that Offred describes really do exist in Widener Library at Harvard, highlighting that Gilead and the real world are both violent and nationalistic.
   • regime does not even allowed people to wear summer suited clothes 'sundress-and-sandals weather, once'
   • regime taking away identity offred and ofglen 'siamese twins'
   • handmaids are like 'rat in a maze'- trapped but have illusion that they are 'free'
   • the soul scrolls are read out in a 'toneless metallic' way 'repeating the same thing over and over'- eerie and dystopian
   • regime does not care about rebels, no mercy 'like a sack of mail'

9. context

   • the fish population seems to have suffered from environmental problems 'sea fisheries were defunct several years ago'
   • theocracy- The Soul Scrolls concept shows how far the seemingly God-based theocracy has deviated from meaningful religion. Praying is impersonal, mechanical and transactional
   • theocracy- ofglen questions if 'God listens' which is 'treason'