Reading: Chapters 25-30
Reading: Chapters 25-30
The Rise of Gilead
Read chapters 25-30. Write at least two diary entries in your reading diary.
Your timeline could look like this:
Analytical Tasks
Option 1 - Comparing Reactions
Compare Offred’s reactions to the political developments with Luke’s. What does Offred think about the changes? What do you think is worrying about Luke's response? Do you think Offred is troubled by Luke's reaction? Quote from the text to prove your arguments. Give the following excerpt from the novel a careful consideration:
That night, after I’d lost my job, Luke wanted me to make love. Why didn’t I want to? Desperation alone should have driven me. But I felt numbed. I could hardly even feel his hands on me.
‘What’s the matter?’ he said.
‘I don’t know,’ I said.
‘We still have…’ he said. But he didn’t go on to say what we still had. It occurred to me that he shouldn’t be saying ‘we’, since nothing that I knew of had been taken away from him.
‘We still have each other,’ I said. It was true. Then why did I sound, even to myself, so indifferent?
He kissed me then, as if now I’d said that, things could bet back to normal. But something had shifted, some balance. I felt shrunken, so that when he put his arms around me, gathering me up, I was as small as a doll. I felt love going forward without me.
‘He doesn’t mind this,’ I thought. ‘He doesn’t mind it at all. Maybe he even likes it. We are not each other’s, anymore. Instead, I am his.’ (Atwood, 1985, p.171)
Option 2 - Comparing Women's Magazines
Reread pages 149-150. In this scene, the commander gifts Offred a Vogue magazine.
In a document, answer the following questions:
- Why do you think does he give her the magazine? What's the significance of the magazine?
- Now look at a women's magazine from today (e.g. Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, etc.). What effect would the representation of early 21st century women in these magazines have on: a) Someone who lives in 100 years from now? b) Someone who lived a century ago? In your opinion, do the magazines provide an accurate representation of women living in 2022?
