Chapters 35 & 36
English Lit: Edexcel A Level The Handmaid's Tale, topic 9.1.18
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.
Chapter 36 - Key Quotations
Here are three key quotations from Chapter 36:
"Feathers... Freedom..."
- "A handful of feathers … cups … covered in purple sequins"
- A similar outfit features in another of Atwood's novels, Year of the Flood. It's worn by women who work in 'Scales and Tails' – another nightclub/brothel.
- Atwood is clearly concerned by the exploitation of ladies who work in such establishments.
- "Freedom … is relative"
- Offred's life is so restrained that even minor rebellions give her pleasure.
"A tag"
- "He slips around my wrist a tag … ‘an evening rental'"
- The Aunts claim that women are admired in the state. But in places like Jezebel's they are like commodities that can be bought/sold.
Test yourself on Chapters 35 & 36
What word completes the quotation?
"I am a blank here, between ____"What are the correct versions of these quotations?
What does Offred say "freedom" is in Chapter 36?