Chapter 35
English Lit: Edexcel A Level The Handmaid's Tale, topic 2.12.5
Chapter 35 - Summary
The chapter opens with Offred recounting again the story of her failed escape plan with her family.
Escaping with Luke
- She tells the reader that they were at a checkpoint. The border guard seemed suspicious and went to make a telephone call.
- Luke drove away from the checkpoint at full speed because he was scared they would be captured. They later decided to leave the car and go on foot into the woods.
The Commander's question
- At this point, Offred decides not to tell us what happened next but to flash forward to the Commander and a question he asked her about love in pre-Gilead times.
- She is sad about how much potential her life used to have before Gilead placed restrictions upon her body and her mind.
Offred sees daughter
- Serena Joy keeps her promise and shows Offred a picture of her daughter, holding hands with a new family.
- Offred instantly regrets seeing this image as she realises that her daughter will have forgotten her and is heartbroken.
- The chapter ends on Offred eating her evening meal and thinking that she is never given a knife to eat with.
Chapter 35 - Key Quotations
Here are five key quotations from Chapter 35:
Key quotations
- "An invalid … no valid passport"
- Atwood plays on the word "invalid" - meaning both someone who is not well and something not accepted.
- "I don't want to be telling this story"
- This is a reminder than Offred is telling a story – a construct. We wonder who Offred is telling her story to.
- Why fight? ... That will never do"
- Offred knows that becoming passive means letting the regime win.
Key quotations (cont.)
- "Is, I say. Is, is"
- Offred corrects herself when she refers to Luke in the past tense. She doesn't want to lose hope that Luke lives.
- "I am a blank here, between parentheses"
- Parentheses are asides in sentences. Offred feels like she's marginalised and living on the outside of this world.
Test yourself on Chapter 35
How do Luke and the family try to escape after abandoning their car?
What does the Commander question Offred about in Chapter 35?
What word completes the quotation?
"I am a blank here, between ____"What are the correct versions of these quotations?