English Question

Directions: Please find TWO passages from the novel and complete each of these steps on each passage you find. Ideally these three are from p.49-82 but it’s okay to include some from before.

“What does it say” Step 1: Choose a golden line from this section of reading – a line or two from the novel, whether spoken by a character or stated by the narrator, that you think has special meaning or strikes you as important. Copy the line(s) with quotation marks and a page number.

“What does it mean” Step 2: Describe what this line means. Explain the context of where this line came from and what it means for whomever to say it

“Why does it matter? Step 3:  Describe why this quote matters to the novel. Try not to repeat what you said in Step 2, but instead connect it to larger themes in the novel .

• Then, repeat with one more passage for a total of TWO passages.

Example: (note: the colors are just to show the different steps; you do not to change the color of your font)

Step 1: “Then I find I’m not ashamed after all. I enjoy the power; power of a dog bone, passive but there” (22).

• Step 2: This line comes from Chapter 4, when Offred, the main character, describes when the a Guardian (like a Guard), looks her up and down and she describes how she caved into it a little bit and “moves [her] hips up and down.” Here she is saying she initially felt ashamed about doing this but realized she is not ashamed of what she is doing because she enjoys feeling the power.

Step 3: What this passage really shows is how powerless Offred is in her role as a handmaid. She feels so at will to other’s demands, forced to do things she doesn’t want to do, I believe she has no independence or individuality. This act then, which originally feels shameful, is actually an act of power and reclaiming her femininity. Any choice she makes that she feels she is making of her own volition, is power, especially if it deals with her femininity or sexual identity. I think this is a key theme in the novel, the idea of power and powerless, especially in regards to sex and gender. Obviously handmaids and the other women in the novel have the least power, but handmaids, in my opinion have the least of the least. Of course, then, she would find any way in which to find moments of power and independence in attempt to reclaim her identity as a woman.

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