Job Descriptions
The color that the Handmaids wear
Red
The name of Offred's best friend from college
Moira
The symbol of an eye is used to represent this duty in Gilead (it also is painted on inanimate objects, like vans, as a way to intimidate overall)
Eyes (eyes with wings)
In what type of building is the "Rachel and Leah Re-education Center" housed?
An old high school
This person would be considered the most rebellious, so far, in the book
Moira
This is what a "Martha" wears
Green
Luke is important to Offred in this story because he holds this position in her life
Prior to the takeover by Gilead, this is what Serena Joy did for a living
Religious singer and speaker who pushed for Gilead's rules and values
This is what the Handmaids call the re-education center
The Red Center
A social norm in Gilead the Commander, actually, breaks when he beckons Offred to his office
EITHER being alone together OR letting Offred read/play Scrabble
Cooking, domestic housework, running the home inside the house itself is the job of these people
Marthas
This is what happened to Offred's daughter once Gilead took over
Was taken from Offred and given to a "more honorable" home to be raised according to Gilead's dictates.
This is what Gilead calls the event that happens monthly where a Handmaid, Commander, and his wife have a very uncomfortable sexual experience in the attempt to re-populate Gilead
The Ceremony
Moira, when she first tries to take a "break" from the Red Center, comes back with this as punishment
Her feet have been beaten with frayed metal cables
The term for not being motivated or brave enough to speak out or rebel
Complacency
Blue is the color worn by these women in Gilead
Commanders' wives
This person tells Offred she is wanted by the commander in his study - alone.
Nick
The prestigious university, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that Offred passes when she goes into town. (It is here where they have "the wall" of people hanged by Gilead)
Harvard
Janine was made to endure emotional and physical abuse at the hands of the aunts and other handmaids during their time in the re-education center for what traumatic experience she endured prior to Gilead's takeover?
She was raped by a group of classmates and subsequently had an abortion
A consequence Offred is afraid of if she chooses to rebel
Answers may vary:
- being beaten
- being killed
- having her daughter hurt or having access to info about her daughter taken away
- being sent to the Colonies
These women are most like "real" wives and mothers that we see and know today - they do their own childrearing, cooking, etc.
This person serves as a companion on Offred's walks, but she is also, perhaps, someone who could be spying on Offred.
2 reasons that Handmaids are even necessary in Gilead, as opposed to Commanders and their wives having their own children
Fertility rates have dropped due to pollution and toxins, as well as women's (former) empowerment over their own bodies
This is how Moira escapes from the detention center
She ties up Aunt Elizabeth, dresses in her clothes, and walks right out
A social norm in TODAY's society that Margaret Atwood is trying to push against by writing The Handmaid's Tale
Answers may vary
- religion influencing law
- evaporating women's rights
- mis/disinformation to control a populace