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The Handmaid's Tale Chapter Summaries

706 Words3 Pages

The novel starts with Offred beginning to serve the Commander and his wife, Serena. Offred had been hired as the household's Handmaid and therefore, every month during her fertile week, she must have impersonal and wordless sex with the Commander as Serena sits behind her. Unfortunately, as a Handmaid, Offred's original identity and freedom have been stripped from her and she can only leave the house to shop, her door cannot be closed all the way, and the secret police watch her every move while she's in public. In the old world, Offred had had an affair with a married man named Luke. Luke ended up divorcing his wife and he married Offred instead and they had a child together. The government and architects of Gilead cracked down on women's rights and forbid women to have jobs or own property. Offred, with Luke and her daughter, tried to flee to Canada but was caught and …show more content…

Offred thinks that things are now different since she knows the Commander more personal now. During one of the secret meetings, Offred hears about a new order that the Commander and other leaders are making for Gilead. After a little while, Serena suggests that Offred have sex with Nick and pretend that the baby is the Commander's. Serena says that if Offred agrees, then Serena will give Offred a picture of her daughter. However, the same night that Offred is to have sex with Nick, the Commander takes her to a club where the Commander talks with prostitutes. The Commander takes her up to what used to be a hotel room after the club and has sex and Offred has to pretend to be passionate. After Offred returns, Serena orders her to go to Nick's room and have sex with him and she does. They begin to have an affair without anyone knowing and Offred forgets to gather information for Mayday . One night, all of the Handmaids execute a rapist as a

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In one of The New York Times’ most recent articles “For Giants, 2 Wins and 2 Pink Slips” Bill Pennington supports the recent dismissal of two highly paid personnel of the New York Giants organization. Pennington justifies the organization's decision by explaining that the two men fired, head coach Ben McAdoo and general manager Jerry Reese, were both inexperienced and did a very poor job recruiting as well as communicating within their organization. He also notes specifics such as the Giants’ historically terrible record, minimal amount playoff berths, and the recent benching of their star quarterback Eli Manning as proof of the two’s work being unpleasing. In addition, Pennington quotes specifically from Giants’ team president, John Mara, throughout the article which gives insight on how the Giants’ ownership made the final decision.

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If Gerard was any other age than he is in that section of the story, the story would change dramatically. If Gerard was any younger it would be strange, because normally kids younger than three don’t understand what the military is and can't imagine like he did. From Page 8 it states this, “Sometimes the cart would be a tank, as he passes cautiously through rows of armed cling peaches and silent sentinels that looked like boxes of frosted flakes,” That would sound strange for a one or two year old to think wouldn't it. Also if Gerard was like 13 years old I think he would like helping his mom and not thinking in that mind set. From the book on page 8 also it states, “Gerald liked to pretend that he was driving a big, fine silver car down

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Nick hears the conversation better and better, as he gets closer to the kitchen. He finds a closet near the kitchen and Nick hides in it. Nick finally hears what Daisy and Tom are saying. Tom was talking about how he wanted to get rid of Gatsby because Tom knows that Gatsby wants to get back with Daisy and Tom wants to get rid of Gatsby so Tom does not have to worry about Daisy leaving him for Gatsby. Nick is still in the closet listening to the whole conversation in the closet and he was really hoping he would not get caught.

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Summary Of The Handmaid's Tale By Ding Ross

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Ding Dong, Christopher heard the doorbell ring, pulling him away from his thoughts. Then he realized that that might be the next victim and they would see that the coat rack, next to the door, had no coats on it, as he did. He wondered if it would strike them as peculiar, as it did him. If they were the next victim, Ivanna then would already have a room ready as if she were expecting another guest. Christopher knew that the guest had to have certain traits, otherwise they wouldn’t be a good addition to her collection.

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Gilead values obedience to their core beliefs and use many tactics to maintain it. The citizens often spy on one another and Eyes are spread throughout the society. Offred’s depression and fear is what controls the way she behaves even around Ofglen, who later on became one of her closest companions. “She may be a real believer, a Handmaid in more than name. I can’t take the risk.

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Similarities Between The Handmaid's Tale And The Prisoner Of Tehran

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She becomes awkward and weird around home. In contrast, in The Handmaid's Tale, Offred feels separate from her life before there are rights and freedom. Now she realizes how precious they are, and shows appreciation towards people who can enjoy the right and freedom within the society. Both Evin and Gilead have stripped of their true identity, the loved ones and their comfortable environment. However, after the two main characters have gone through these experiences, they cannot go back to who are they are and the way they used to be.

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Theme Of Offred In The Handmaid's Tale

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Offred is not a victim. Or rather, she is not a guiltless victim. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Offred is undoubtedly subjected to the worst horrors of a society which strips her of autonomy and forces its ways upon her unflinching but unwilling mind – much like the Commander whom they assign to do the same to her unflinching but unwilling body. However, a victim as she is, Offred is involved in the very system which abuses her. She is a product of her circumstances throughout the course of The Handmaid’s Tale and remains passive in the face of oppression - in that sense, she is complicit in the perpetuation of all that Gilead represents.

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Conflict In The Handmaids Tale

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Offred struggles between her attraction to Nick and remaining faithful to Luke. In the end of the novel, Offred ends up giving in to her attraction to Nick, however she does not feel that she has betrayed Luke in any way. Both gentlemen fulfill needs of Offed at different times of her life. Luke only exists in her past life, and most of Offred’s memories with him are fading away as she struggles to remember certain details of her past. Offred thinks, “The fact is that I no longer want to leave, escape, cross the border to freedom.

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The Role Of Offred In The Handmaid's Tale

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(Atwood 93) this led to the Commander, his wife, and Offred getting the deed done to try for a baby. These very experiences molded Offred into the person she’d become at the end of the novel emphasizing the effect they had on her. Offred’s life before Gilead was similar to the typical women of 1980s. She had a husband, a child and more importantly a life.

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The Commander In The Handmaid's Tale

1341 Words | 6 Pages

This shows the selfish side of Serena Joy, as she allow Offred to have an affair with Nick but not the Commander. Serena is fine with anything that agrees with her and will punish those who violates her will. In conclusion, Serena Joy’s character changed from Pre-Gilead’s star, motivational speaker to stay

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Justice In The Handmaid's Tale

571 Words | 3 Pages

Offred records tapes, telling the story of her time in Gilead. These tapes, while they do not say whether or not she was united with her daughter, do help lead to Gilead’s collapse. Offred found justice for both herself and her daughter in a way she never expected; she was able to help make sure no women or child went through what she did. This search for justice her goal throughout the novel, and while she was successful, it was in a way in which she never expected. Before her escape from Gilead, Offred saw justice with different eyes; justice to her was being reunited with her daughter and the idea of bringing the state of Gilead never seemed to cross her mind, until she began to realize just how deep Mayday ran.

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Handmaid's Tale Feminism Analysis

1545 Words | 7 Pages

It is clear that the Offred who is the main character faces a hard life after she became a Handmaid. However, the story tell us that despite all the suffering she escapes from such cruel nation that has forced her to become a social tool. Although she achieved her commitment, she feels like she will lose the only thing that she started to love “Nick” the Choufer. “The fact is that I no longer want to leave, escape, cross the border to freedom. I want to be here, with Nick, where I can get at him”.

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Morality In The Handmaid's Tale

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The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood tells a story revolving around a young woman in a post-war economy run by the church, where if a woman fails to produce a child she is sentenced to death. The morals in The Handmaid's Tale are twisted by religion, countless women hung or physically shamed for expressing themselves or refusing to procreate with a man much older than them. Margaret Atwood is skilling in writing post-apocalyptic or future-oriented stories of what could be, something even more prevalent in her novel Oryx and Crake. The story is narrated through the eyes of a man named ‘Snowman’, or Jimmy which is his birth given name, and follows the events that lead to the dystopian society that he currently resides in. Immorality is a major

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The Handmaid's Tale Feminist Analysis

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The novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is a story about a society set in a future world where women’s rights have been revoked. Many values change with this new regime of controlled women and strict laws. Despite the changes in the world it maintains many conservative, religious beliefs while also containing liberal, feminist beliefs simultaneously. Society in the futuristic world of Gilead is structured heavily off of readings from the Bible and traditional views of gender that have been in place for a long time. An example of the Bible being an important part of society is the idea of the Handmaids came from a passage in the Bible about two women, Rachel and Leah.

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Identity In Handmaid's Tale

1454 Words | 6 Pages

Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale depicts the Republic of Gilead in a futuristic setting where, a totalitarian state concerned with the declining birth rates, attained power in a major coup. The theocratic state takes complete control of reproduction among other aspects of women’s freedom by marginalizing the social group. In fact, the Handmaid’s are a select group of fertile, young women whose worth are judged solely on their reproductive abilities in a Commander's household. Written in the 1980’s Atwood addresses the aversive consequences of revitalized religious conservative views that criticized sexuality and feminism to strip women’s rights. Atwood warns her readers that the marginalizing of women through the loss of identity, restrictions

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