Assessment Qs
The number of questions you will have to choose from on Paper 2.
What is six?
The name of the protagonist, which is itself a neologism indicating male dominance.
What is Offred?
The name of the state where Wright was born.
What is Mississippi?
The critical lens which highlights the role of powerful, or powerless, women in literature.
What is feminist critical theory?
The key symbol in this quote: "In front of me is a tray, and on the tray [is] ... another plate with an eggcup on it, the kind that looks like a woman’s torso, in a skirt. Under the skirt is the second egg, being kept warm.”
Bonus: What does it represent?
What is an egg?
The symbol of the fear Wright develops after his uncle is shot, a black woman is beaten by white shopkeepers, a young black man is lynched, and Richard is threatened by the police.
What is the "white death"?
Who is Joan Templeton?
The setting of Ibsen's play, and his own birthplace.
What is Norway?
In order to do well, you must include all three of these components of analysis.
What is literary analysis, understanding of historical context, appreciation of critical context?
The setting of "The Handmaid's Tale".
What is Gilead?
The author whose writing inspires Richard to use language and words as a way to challenge white supremacy.
Who is HL Mencken?
What is the "Moral Majority"?
The disease afflicting Doctor Rank, which is also symbolic of inheritance.
What is spinal tuberculosis?
When we apply this "lens" we analyze how the conflict between characters may represent conflict between social/economic classes.
What is Marxist analysis?
What is their uniform.
The genre of literature that translates as "coming of age of an artist".
What is kunstlerroman?
The name of the system of social, legal, and economic racist segregation that shaped the southern U.S. from the 1890s to the 1960s.
The key theatrical device which Mrs. Linde refuses to remove.
What is the letter from Krogstad?
Understanding Nora's final act in the play as a symbol of women's liberation would be viewing the play through this lens.
What is feminist analysis?
The source of Atwood's title and title character: "Handmaid".
What is a quote from the Bible in the novel's epigraph (Book of Genesis):
"And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her."
What is hunger?
Ibsen regretted having to modify the ending in this way to appease audiences in Germany.
What is Nora deciding to stay with Torvald?
The genre of theatre with which Ibsen is most identified.
What is realism?