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| Atwood, Margaret: The Handmaid's Tale
Atwood, Margaret: The Handmaid's Tale
Study Guide to Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid`s
Tale (1986)
Introduction
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Epigraphs,Chapter 1,
Chapter 2, Chapter 3,
Chapter 4, Chapter 5,
Chapter 6, Chapter 7,
Chapter 9, Chapter10,
Chapter 11, Chapter 12,
Chapter 13, Chapter 14,
Chapter 15, Chapter 16,
Chapter 17, Chapter 18,
Chapter 19, Chapter 20,
Chapter 21, Chapter 22,
Chapter 23, Chapter 24,
Chapter 25, Chapter 26,
Chapter 27, Chapter 28,
Chapter 29, Chapter 30,
Chapter 31, Chapter 32,
Chapter 34, Chapter 35,
Chapter 37, Chapter 39,
Chapter 40, Chapter 41,
Chapter 42, Chapter 43,
Chapter 44, Chapter 45,
Chapter 46,
Historical Notes
Many readers are surprised to hear Atwood`s novel labeled science
fiction, but it belongs squarely in the long tradition of near-future dystopias
which has made up a large part of SF since the early50s. SF need not involve
technological innovation: it has been a long-standing principle that social
change can provide the basis for SF just as well as technical change. The
Handmaid`s Tale is partly an extrapolation of Rachel Carson`s Silent
Spring, attempting to imagine what kind of values might evolve if
environmental pollution rendered most of the human race sterile. It is also the
product of debates within the feminist movement in the 70s and early 80s. Atwood
has been very much a part of that movement, but she has never been a mere
mouthpiece for any group, always insisting on her individual perspectives. The
defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment, the rise of the religious right, the
election of Ronald Reagan, and many sorts of backlash (mostly hugely
misinformed) against the women`s movement led writers like Atwood to fear that
the antifeminist tide could not only prevent further gains for women, but turn
back the clock. Dystopias are a kind of thought experiment which isolates
certain social trends and exaggerates them to make clear their most negative
qualities. They are rarely intended as realistic predictions of a probable
future, and it is pointless to criticize them on the grounds of implausibility.
Atwood here examines some of the traditional attitudes that are embedded in the
thinking of the religious right and which she finds particularly
threatening.
But another social controversy also underlies this novel. During the
early 80s a debate raged (and continues to rage, on a lower level) about
feminist attitudes toward sexuality and pornography in particular. Outspoken
feminists have taken all kinds of positions: that all erotica depicting women as
sexual objects is demeaning, that pornography was bad though erotica can be
good, that although most pornography is demeaning the protection of civil
liberties is a greater good which requires the toleration of freedom for
pornographers, however distasteful, even that such a thing as feminist
pornography can and should be created.
The sub-theme of this tangled debate which seems to have particularly
interested and alarmed Atwood is the tendency of some feminist anti-porn groups
to ally themselves with religious anti-porn zealots who oppose the feminists on
almost every other issue. The language of "protection of women" could slip from
a demand for more freedom into a retreat from freedom, to a kind of
neo-Victorianism. After all, it was the need to protect "good" women from sex
that justified all manner of repression in the 19th century, including confining
them to the home, barring them from participating in the arts, and voting.
Contemporary Islamic women sometimes argue that assuming the veil and
traditional all-enveloping clothing is aimed at dealing with sexual harassment
and sexual objectification. The language is feminist, but the result can be
deeply patriarchal, as in this novel.
Without some sense of the varying agendas of mid-20th-century feminists
and the debates among those agendas this novel will not make much sense. Women
who participated in the movement from the late sixties and early seventies
responded to this novel strongly, often finding it extremely alarming. Younger
women lacking the same background often found it baffling. Ask yourself as you
read not whether events such as it depict s are likely to take place, but
whether the attitudes and values it conveys are present in today`s
society.
Atwood`s strong point is satire, often hilarious, often very pointed.
Humor is in short supply in this novel, but it is a satire nonetheless. Atwood`s
love for language play (apparent in the anagram of her name she uses for her
private business "O. W. Toad") is a major feature of the protagonist of this
novel. Her jokes are dark and bitter, but they are pervasive.
There are numerous biblical references in the following notes. You
shouldprovide yourself with a Bible, preferably a King James Version, which is
whatAtwood uses most of the time. Or use a great searchable
Web Bible.
Epigraphs
Genesis 30:1-3 is one of several passages that make clear that in
patriarchalHebrew law it was perfectly legitimate for a man to have sex and even
begetchildren by his servants (slaves), particularly if his wife was infertile.
It isunknown how widespread was the custom described here, of having the
infertilewife embrace the fertile maidservant as she gave birth to symbolize
that thebaby is legally hers. Atwood extrapolates outrageously from this point,
as istypical of dystopian writers: it is highly unlikely that the
puritanicalreligious right would ever adopt the sexual practices depicted in
this novel;but she is trying to argue that patriarchal traditions which value
women onlyas fertility objects can be as demeaning as modern customs which value
them assex objects. She makes clear that this is a reductio ad absurdum,
a theoretical exercise designed to stimulate thought about social issues
ratherthan a realistic portrait of a probable future by comparing herself to
JonathanSwift, who in A Modest Proposal highlighted the
hard-heartednessof the English in allowing the Irish masses to starve by
satirically proposingthat they should be encouraged to eat their own children.
It is not so obviouswhat the application of the third epigraph is to this novel.
It seems to saythat no one needs to forbid what is undesirable. Can you
interpret it anyfurther?
Chapter 1
Read the first sentence. What can you tell about the period just from
this sentence? People generally sleep in gymnasiums only in emergencies, after
disasters. But this "had once" been a gymnasium, which implies that it was
converted to its present use a long time ago. Some major change has taken place,
probably not for the good. A "palimpsest" was created when a medieval scribe
tried to scrape clean a parchment in order to reuse it. Sometimes the scraping
process was not complete enough to obliterate all traces of the original text,
which could be read faintly underneath the new one. What is suggested by the
fact that the immediate supervisors of the girls are women but these women are
not allowed guns? What is suggested by the fact that the girls have to read lips
to learn each others` names?
Chapter 2
The setting has shifted. It is now much later. What is suggested by the
factthat the narrator observes "they`ve removed anything you could tie a
ropeto?" Note the play on the proverb "Waste not, want not." What isimplied by
the sentence, "Nothing takes place in the bed but sleep; or nosleep"? "Ladies in
reduced circumstances" is a 19th-centuryexpression usually applied to
impoverished widows. How does the narrator pun onit? In the gospels, Martha was
one of two sisters. She devoted herself tohousework while her sister Mary sat
and listened to Jesus. The irony here isthat Jesus praised Mary, not Martha; but
the new patriarchy has chosen Martha asthe ideal. What is suggested by the
existence of "Colonies" where"Unwomen" live? What are the crimes the Martha`s
gossip about in their"private conversations"?
Chapter 3
What evidence is there on the second page of this chapter that the
revolution which inaugurated this bizarre society is relatively recent? What
evidence to reinforce that idea was presented in the opening chapter? Note that
Serena Joy bears more than a passing resemblance to Tammy Fay
Bakker.
Chapter 4
The automobile names are all biblical. Can you guess from the context
what an "Eye" is? "Some of you will fall on dry ground or thorns:" see Mark
4:1-9. We will learn eventually that the narrator`s name is "Offred." Her
partner is named "Ofglen." How do the names of Handmaids seem to be formed? How
are we informed that this society (called "Gilead" after a Biblical place name)
is under attack? Baptists have a long-standing tradition of local control and
individualism. Can you guess at the function of the black-painted vans? What
power does Offred have over men, powerless as she is? How traditional is this
kind of power? Has the elimination of pornography stopped women from being
regarded as sex objects?
Chapter 5
What is Gilead`s attitude toward higher education? Why is it ominous
that the number of widows has diminished. Examine the passage that begins "Women
were not protected then." This is the heart of the ideology that underlies the
founding of Gilead. What is its essential rationale? Analyze the narrator`s
attitude toward the freedoms of which she speaks. Analyze the play on words in
"Habits are hard to break." The clothing store name "Lilies" is derived from
Matthew 6:28. "A land flowing with milk and honey" is a common biblical phrase,
often used to describe Canaan, the "Promised Land." What is the women`s reaction
to the pregnant woman? "All flesh" originally means "all of humanity" (see
Isaiah 40:5) but here is given a more literal sense as the name for butcher
shops. How are the Japanese women different from the women of Gilead? Is Atwood
idealizing them? What do you think the point of the contrast
is?
Chapter 6
What is the function of the Wall? Why have the doctors been executed?
The rule that the evidence of one single woman is not adequate is based on
Islamic tradition. What is significant about the shift to the present tense in
this passage, "Luke wasn`t a doctor. Isn`t"?
Chapter 7
To what time can Offred travel in her imagination that can be called
"good"? The narrator`s pun on "date rape" depends on the fact that "rapé
" means "grated" or "shredded" in French; a date is a fruit, of course. Be
careful not to leap to the conclusion that Atwood is mocking the concept of date
rape; her attitude is far more complex than that. But why is this reference
especially appropriate to the present context? What was the narrator`s reaction
as a little girl to her mother`s participation in the burning of pornographic
magazines? What relevance does this memory have to her present situation? The
next passage is too fragmented to make much sense now, though more context will
be provided later. What can you guess about its meaning now? Stories are rarely
told in the present tense, as this one is. If a narrator speaks in the past
tense, we can be fairly confident that she knows the end of her own story, and
that she has survived to tell it. Note how much more open-ended and suspenseful
Offred`s narrative is.
Chapter 8
What is "Gender Treachery?" The passage on the etymology of the term
"Mayday" is correct. During World War II, the opening rhythmic pattern from
Beethoven`s Fifth Symphony was interpreted as the Morse code for "v" (dot dot
dot dash), and used to symbolize "victory". What do we learn about Offred`s
family in this passage? If a miscarried fetus may or may not be an "Unbaby" what
would an "Unbaby" seem to be? "All flesh is grass" (Isaiah 40:6) is a quotation
from the Bible meaning that all humans are mortal. Why does Aunt Lydia use
instead the saying "all flesh is weak?" Does she really mean all humans?
How about women? How is Offred`s silent correction a reply to her comment?
Serena Joy`s speechmaking on behalf of housewifery is a clear satire on the
career of Phyllis Shlafley, lawyer, right-wing activist, and cofounder of the
Eagle Forum, who put most of her energy for many years into leading the fight
against the Equal Rights Amendment while admonishing other women to stay home
and raise their children. The Shape of Things to Come is the title of one
of H. G. Well`s novels, alluded to ironically at the end of the paragraph
beginning "She`s looking at the tulips." Why does Offred envy Rita her access to
the knife? Why is she startled at the end of the chapter when she realizes she
has called the room "mine"?
Chapter 9
What feelings does she have as she looks back on the early days of her
affair with Luke? Nolite te bastardes carborundorum will be explained in
Chapter 29. Note that a posting lasts two years. This will be important
later.
Chapter 10
Why are the words to the hymn Amazing Grace now considered
subversive? Who did Aunt Lydia blame for the "things" that used to happen to
women? What sorts of memories does she keep returning to in this
chapter?
Chapter 11
What do we learn about the Handmaid system during the scene at the
doctor`s office? "Give me children, or else I die." (Genesis 30:1). Deuteronomy
17:6 requires that for a couple to be stoned to death on account of adultery
there has to be two witnesses to the act.
Chapter 12
To what were women vulnerable in bathrooms "before they got all the bugs
ironed out"? For Paul on hair, see 1 Corinthians 11:6-15. What does this mean:
"I don`t want to look at something that determines me so completely"? The old
sexist society was said to reduce women to mere physical objects. Has this
changed? What does Offred suggest by saying of the attempted kidnapping of her
daughter "I thought it was an isolated incident, at the time"? "Inheriting the
Earth": see Matthew 5.5. If Offred was parted from her daughter when she was
five and she is eight now, the separation must have happened three years ago.
Since at eighteen months the pattern of change was not clear to Offred, the
revolution which established Gilead must have been quite recent. It is difficult
to believe that such a thorough transformation of society in such a short time,
but it is important to remember that this is not a realistic novel, but a
satirical dystopia. What associations are aroused by the tattoo on Offred`s
ankle? She is remembering scenes from the end of World War II, in which women
who dated the Nazi occ upiers had their heads shaved in public. What two
meanings of the word "compose" is she playing with in the last
paragraph?
Chapter 13
What do you think about her comments on boredom as erotic? Offred lets
herself go back in time to when she was in training with Moira. Does anyone
blame women for being raped today? How has Offred`s attitude toward her body
changed? What do her dreams about her husband and daughter have in common? What
does she mean by saying at the end of the chapter "Of all the dreams this is the
worst"?
Chapter 14
The mention of a Montreal satellite station reminds us that Atwood is a
Canadian, but Montreal is evidently outside of the territory controlled by
Gilead. The endless war, always on the brink of victory, is very reminiscent of
the war depicted in Orwell`s Nineteen-Eighty-Four. What other locales
seem to be on the edge of Gilead? You should be able to gradually construct a
rough map of its territory. "The Children of Ham" is a designation for
African-Americans. We are finally told that the narrator is called "Offred,"
though it isn`t her real name. Why are we never told her real name? Why was the
family warned not to look too happy when they are trying to escape
Gilead?
Chapter 15
Why is the Bible kept locked up? In what era were Bibles routinely
sequestered from the general population? Note the series of unflattering phallic
images Offred runs over. What is the point of the joke in saying "One false move
and I`m dead." The passages the Commander is reading from the Bible are Genesis
8:17 and 30:1-8. The section beginning "For lunch" uses Matthew 5:3-10 (emended)
to switch scenes back in time. When we return to the scene in the sitting room,
the Commander has just read Genesis 30:18. The scene e nds with Zecharaiah 4:10.
Why is this verse chosen as the ritual ending of all Bible
readings?
Chapter 16
Although this chapter depicts what is clearly the most sensational
aspect of Gilead society, it is important not to use it to condemn the novel as
"unrealistic." Refer back to the note on the third epigraph of the novel. Even
the perfume has a biblical name, "Lily of the Valley," from The Song of Songs
1:2. Why is women`s pleasure in sex no longer valued?
Chapter 17
What is her reaction to Nick`s coming to fetch her?
Chapter 18
What hope keeps Offred alive?
Chapter 19
In thinking about the missing cushions, Offred is referring to 1
Corinthians 13: 13. What are the odds that any baby will be seriously deformed?
What has caused this situation? The name of Jezebel, the wicked wife of King
Ahab, is sometimes used as a label for any shamelessly wicked woman (see 1 Kings
21:1-29). The film shown the women about the former way of giving birth follows
the same patt ern as other themes in this novel: ambivalence about feminist
reforms. Some women have argued strongly for natural childbirth, but others see
this as a step backward. And many positions in between are advocated. Atwood
points out that it was modern medicin e that first made pain relief possible
during childbirth, though it was at first denounced by preachers who cited the
passage quoted at the end of this paragraph, from Genesis 3:16. Anesthetics used
during childbirth can be harmful to the infant, but they can also be very
beneficial for the mother. This example illustrates well Atwood`s general
approach in this novel: certain radical feminist positions and their opposite
conservative positions are both depicted as too extreme. Reality is more
complex, she seems to be saying. "Agent Orange" was the defoliant widely used on
the forests of Vietnam and which was later blamed for numerous biological
problems among soldiers.
Chapter 20
Birthing stools were once in widespread use and have been reintroduced
by women who argue that giving birth in a sitting position is both more natural
and more comfortable. Do you know the real source of the quotation, "From each
according to her ability; to each according to his needs"? (It has been slightly
but significantly altered.) How valid is the use of sadistic porn films by the
Aunts to argue against the old society? "Take Back the Night" originated as the
slogan of Women Against Pornography, but has developed in more recent years into
an anti-rape slogan. What themes of the women`s movement is Atwood blending
together here? What do you think her attitude toward them is? It may be
difficult to imagine now, but in some feminist circles in the seventies a woman
who chose to bear a child could come under considerable pressure from other
feminists, like Offred`s mother. What are the main tensions between Offred and
her mother? These distinctions are part of the crux of the novel, which is about
a society which reacted to the older feminists by repression and which the
younger women did not sufficiently combat. Why did she rebel against her mother
as a young woman? How does she feel about her mother
now?
Chapter 21
What do we learn in this chapter about how an "Unwoman" is defined? The
reference to a "women`s culture" at the end of the chapter refers to certain
kinds of feminists who have argued that women possess superior values and could
build a superior society. What is Offred`s attitude toward this
idea?
Chapter 22
In what way is Moira a "loose woman"?
Chapter 23
How does Offr ed try to defend herself against her terror when she first
enters the study? Playing scrabble seems like an absurdly trivial form of
transgression; why is it significant in this setting? Why does she lie about her
reaction when the Commander asks her to ki ss him?
Chapter 24
How does Offred interpret Aunt Lydia`s teachings about men? What do you
think of this idea? What does the story about the death camp commander`s
mistress convey? In ancient medicine, hysteria was a disease of women, caused by
unnatural movements of the womb. How does Offred describe the sound of her
beating heart?
Chapter 25
Why does Offred covet Serena Joy`s shears? What do these occasional dark
comments tell us about the state of her mind underneath her usual bitterly
sarcastic narrative? Women`s fashion magazines such as the Commander shows
Offred were once the target of fierce criticism from feminists. What does she
say these magazines offered? How do the pictures of the women impress her? "My
wife doesn`t understand me" is such an old cliché as uttered by men
trying to start an affair that it has become a
joke.
Chapter 26
A British expression says that a pregnant woman has a "bun in the oven."
How have her feelings changed toward the Commander? How have his feelings
changed toward her?
Chapter 27
Loaves and Fishes refers to a miracle story told in the Gospels (see the
accountin Mark 6:34-44). Note how the memory of the ice cream store leads Offred
tothoughts of her daughter. The Soul Scroll machines are most obviously
likeTibetan prayer wheels, which are turned to activate the prayers inside them;
butthey are also reminiscent to the old Catholic practice of paying priests to
sayprayers for the repose of the dead. What do Ofglen and Offred see
immediatelyafter they have revealed their true views to each
other?
Chapter 28
Why did Moira criticize Offred for "stealing" Luke and how did
Offreddefend herself? "Discothèques" nightclubs with recorded ratherthan
live music originated in France. The name was soon abbreviated to"disco." The
main feature of the book of Job is intense suffering. Whywould a totalitarian
dictatorship prefer computer banking to paper money? Notethe statement by the
newsstand clerk that sex-oriented enterprises can never begotten rid of
entirely. She turns out to be right later. The law prohibiting theownership of
property by women reinstates the law as it stood in the 19thcentury and earlier.
Many of the extreme aspects of Giladean culture haveactually existed in the
past. In the passage which begins "Rememberingthis, I remember also my mother,"
note how anti-porn and abortion riots areblended together, though her mother
must have been against porn and forabortion. Her opponents in the abortion
demonstrations must have been herallies in the anti-porn demonstrations. Why did
Offred find her motherembarrassing when she was an adolescent? How has her
attitude changed now? Whywas Offred afraid to ask Luke how he really felt about
her losing her job?
Chapter 29
"Pen Is Envy" is of course a pun on Freud`s "penis envy," the notion
that women who want to be like men are neurotic. When the Commander says of the
previous Handmaid who killed herself "Serena found out," what does this mean,
and what is Offred`s reaction?
Chapter 30
There is a traditional Jewish prayer for men which thanks God for not
having made them women. This prayer is satirized and parodied in this
chapter.
Chapter 31
What has changed about the holidays the Fourth of July and Labor Day?
Why would Offred like to be able to have a fight with Luke? Taliths are the
prayer shawls worn by Jews. "Magen Davids" are Stars of David, symbols of
Judaism. How do you imagine Serena Joy`s offer of the picture affects Offred?
Explain.
Chapter 32
"You can`t make an omelette without breaking eggs" is a paraphrase of
Napoleon justifying the carnage he caused in attempting to build his empire.
When a character in fiction uses it, it almost always indicates the speaker`s
ruthlessness.
Chapter 34
Arranged marriages seem hopelessly exotic to many Americans, but in
Western civilization they were the rule rather than the exception until a couple
of centuries ago. Evaluate and respond to the arguments that the Commander at
the Prayvaganza makes against the old dating and marriage system. The "quoted"
passages which begin "I will that women adorn themselves in modest apparel" are
from 1 Timothy 2:9-15.
Chapter 35
React to Offred`s comments on love. In the next to the last paragraph,
what does Offred mean when she says she has been
"erased"?
Chapter 37
What is the Commander`s rationale for the existence of places like
Jezebel`s? How does he misunderstand when Offred asks him "Who are these
people?"
Chapter 38
"The Underground Femaleroad" is of course a pun on the old"underground
railroad" along which escaped slaves were smuggled tofreedom. What kind of work
do the women in the Colonies do? What does Moira saythe advantages are in
working at Jezebel`s over being a Handmaid?
Chapter 40
Why does Offred feel she has to make up stories about what happened
between herself and Nick?
Chapter 41
Why does she say on the bottom of page. 268 "I told you it was
bad"?
Chapter 42
Why are the crimes not described at
"Salvagings"?
Chapter 43
Why does Ofglen attack the "rapist" so
fiercely?
Chapter 44
Why does Offred tell her new companion that she met the former Ofglen in
May?
Chapter 45
"She has died that I may live" is of course a parody of "He died that we
may live," a central Christian doctrine referring to Christ`s crucifixion as a
source of salvation for believers.
Chapter 46
How does Nick reassure Offred when the black van comes? Note the
offhanded, ambiguous, but emotionally loaded nature of the last line of Offred`s
narrative, typical of her.
Historical Notes on The Handmaid`s Tale
This is the real end of the story, of course, told as a parody of a
scholarlysymposium. Note the date, two centuries from now. The title which
Offred`snarrative has been given resembles those of Chaucer`s Canterbury
Tales: "The Knight`s Tale," "The Wife of Bath`s Tale." MostSF dystopias end
with a heroic conspiracy or uprising leading to the destructionof the evil
government which has oppressed everyone. The jarring shift topretentious
scholarly jargon, while amusing to scholars, may be off-putting formost readers;
but Atwood is trying to avoid fatalism and sensationalism at thesame time. She
is also parodying the ponderous, self-conscious attempts of scholars to be
humorous. There is a long tradition of "nowhere" namesin utopian fiction.
"Utopia" means "nowhere" and SamuelButler called his utopia "Erewhon." The Chair
comes from theUniversity of "deny" which is in the country of "none ofit." But
Gord Turner of Selkirk College
comments further on these place names:
The Northwest Territories in Canada as an area has been associatedwith two
large native groups--the Dene (read "Denay") in the Western Arctic andthe Inuit
in the Eastern Arctic. In fact, the Northwest Territories throughreferendum
(already held) will be divided into two massive land areas known asDenendeh and
Nunavut. "Nunavut" means "Our Land" to the Inuit.
So it`s quite likely that Atwood meant the University of Denay to becoloured
by the Dene and its massive land claims in the 1980s and the huge areato the
East of the Mackenzie River Valley known as "Nunavut." That she changedthe
spelling of "Nunavut" to "Nunavit" is also interesting as "Nuna" stillmeans
"land" and "vit" may mean "to live." Anthropology has
traditionally been carried out by whites onminorities. Here an evidently Native
American scholar has as her specialtystudying whites, a deliberately ironic
twist. Other names suggest that thisconference is in fact dominated by Native
Americans. It is difficult to see howKrishna (the erotic lover in Hindu
mythology) and Kali (the also erotic avengingdemon slaying goddess) have to do
with Gileadean religion, though that may beAtwood`s point. Scholars tend to read
what they already know into w hat they areless familiar with. Certainly plenty
of scholars have analyzed Krishna as aChrist figure. The reference to the
"Warsaw Tactic" is more grim: theNazis walled up the Warsaw Jews in the ghetto
and proceeded to starve most ofthem to death. The reference to Iran is of course
the most pointed, because ofthat nation`s conservative Islamic revolution which
involved strenuousdemodernizing and drastic restrictions on the freedom of
women. The Iranianexample is one of the main inspirations of this novel. Given
what ProfessorPieixoto has to say about the discovery of "The Handmaid`s Tale,"
howdrastically would America seem to have changed between the end of the
lastchapter and now? Anthropologists are famous for their refusal to judge
thesocieties they study. What do you think is Atwood`s reaction to this
strivingfor objectivity in the case of Gilead? How do you feel about it?
WilliamWordsworth famously defined poetry as "emotion recollected
intranquillity." Note the allusion. Many details about the Gilead
society`spolicies are revealed here. Atwood takes the opportunity to point to
currenttendencies which could lead in the direction depicted in the novel.
Thespeaker`s jibe at Offred`s education is not a comment on women, but the
smuglysuperior observation of a South American mocking the inadequacies of
NorthAmerica, clearly much fallen from its previous dominance. Note the
Canadianreferences in this section. "Particicution" would seem to be ascholarly
term formed out of "participant execution" to label whatGilead called
"salvaging." Gord Turner
points out a parallel term promoted by the Canadian government: "participaction"
for "participant action." For the scapegoat, see Leviticus 16:10.Prof.
Pieixoto`s talk is of a type familiar to literary historians: the attemptto
connect a the author of a text with some historical person known from
otherrecords, particularly in Medieval studies. But for us, the identification
isirrelevant, it is the knowledge that Offred survived and the
rebellionoriginally triumphed that matters. The final call for questions is
traditional,of course, but also serves here as an invitation to further
discussion of theissues Atwood has raised.
Notes by Paul Brians,
Department of English, Washington State University, Pullman
Version of March 27, 1996.
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