9.1.14

Chapters 27 & 28

Test yourself

Chapter 27 - Key Quotations

Here are 6 key quotations from Chapter 27:

Illustrative background for <b>Loaves and Fishes...Siamese"Illustrative background for <b>Loaves and Fishes...Siamese" ?? "content

Loaves and Fishes...Siamese"

  • "Loaves and Fishes"
    • This refers to the feeding of the 5,000 in the Bible. Jesus managed to feed 5,000 people with only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. There is barely any food in Gilead because humans have destroyed the environment and over-fished.
  • "Siamese twins"
    • This refers to Ofglen and Offred and reminds us of the theme of doubles.
  • "Now it's treason"
    • Free speech is forbidden in Gilead.
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"Vanities...there's a we"

  • "Vanities... shut down"
    • Gilead has banned things like cosmetics and jewellery that women may have wanted to buy.
  • There's an us then, there's a we"
    • Offred has a chance of being part of a community - opposing the faceless beings who rule Gilead.
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"Hope"

  • "Hope is rising in me, like sap in a tree"
    • This garden image implies restored life. Hope was one of the words on the cushions taken from Offred's room. This symbolises Gilead's attempts to take hope away from the Handmaids' lives.

Chapter 28 - Key Quotations

Here are five key quotations from Chapter 28:

Illustrative background for <b>"Moira... sadly mistaken"Illustrative background for <b>"Moira... sadly mistaken" ?? "content

"Moira... sadly mistaken"

  • “If Moira thought she could create Utopia by shutting herself up in a women-only enclave she was sadly mistaken. Men were not just going to go away, I said. You couldn't just ignore them.”
    • Atwood implies that feminism is not a simple issue.
    • This comment is ironic. Moira is later confined to Jezebel's - "a women-only enclave" that's actually a state-run brothel operating purely to please powerful men.
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"Under control...do a jobbie"

  • “Keep calm, they said on television. Everything is under control"
    • This is a pun. The phrase either means 'everything is now OK' or 'those in power are clamping down on things'.
  • Having a job ... do a jobbie ... the Book of Job"
    • A play on words. Offred belittles the significance of work by linking "having a job" to going to the toilet.
    • Job suffers in the Old Testament. So the second pun brings in the idea of undue suffering.
Illustrative background for __"Ceremonious... I am his"__Illustrative background for __"Ceremonious... I am his"__ ?? "content

"Ceremonious... I am his"

  • I wanted from her a life more ceremonious"
    • Offred wished her mother had had a more conventional life instead of protesting. The word "ceremonious" is ironic given the Handmaids have to take part in monthly Ceremonies.
  • "Instead, I am his"
    • Offred says the nature of relationships change when partners don't have equal choice. She doesn't like the thought of Luke possibly having enjoyed having power over her.

Jump to other topics

1Author Background

1.1Margaret Atwood

2Chapter Summaries

3Dedications & Epigraph

3.1Dedications & Epigraph

4Context

5Narrative Structure & Literary Techniques

6Themes & Imagery

7Characters

8Readings

8.1Readings of The Handmaid's Tale

9Recap: Main Quotes

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