The Handmaid's Tale

In the fourth quarter of the book, we learn that Offred feels a great relief when she hears that Ofglen commits suicide because Ofglen can no longer give her name to the Eyes while being tortured.  For the first time, Offred feels that she has complete power over the authorities. She's feeling that she will do anything necessary to live like stop wanting control of her body, stop resisting the authorities, stop seeing Nick. From the porch, Serena   calls to Offred. When Offred comes in, she holds out her winter cloak and the sequined outfit Offred wore to the club. She asks Offred how she could be so vulgar, and then tells Offred she is a hustler like the other Handmaid and will come to the same end. Nick stops whistling, but Offred does not look at him. She manages to remain calm and composed as she retreats to her room. At the very end of the book, a fter her confrontation with Serena, Offred waits in her room. She feels peaceful. The night quickly comes and she wonders if she c

  Frédérique Arseneault 1rst reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolae_Ceau%C8%99escu 2 nd reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decree_770 3 rd reference : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmaid%27s_Tale Liliane Dufresne reference :  https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/handmaid/context/ Audrey-Maude Denis  1rst reference:  https://www.insider.com/handmaids-tale-based-on-real-world-origins-history-events-2019-8 2nd reference :  https://the-handmaids-tale.fandom.com/wiki/Republic_of_Gilead_(Series)#Administrative_Structure Ève Martin 1st reference:  https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/margaret-atwood-on-the-dystopian-novels-that-inspired-her-to-write-the-handmaids-tale  2nd reference: https://the-handmaids-tale.fandom.com/wiki/Republic_of_Gilead_(Series) 3rd reference: https://www.theverge.com/2017/2/11/14586382/sales-margaret-atwoods-handmaids-tale-soared-donald-trump  What lessons did you draw from the novel? The first lessons that I draw from the novel is to nev

1- The Bible  The bible was a Huge inspiration for the Ceremonies and the commons saying in the streets  ↓ 2- Salem Witch trials => 17th century Inspiration from the Salem witch trials and the demonizing, threatening, and even killing of innocent women that took place during that time.  ↓ 3- Woman Right's Mouvement => 1970s Is an inspiration for the ways that the handmaid's are trated because at that time woman are expected to be submissive. ↓ Nicolea ceausescu=> in post from 1965 to 1989 He is the inspiration behind the obsession for fertility ↓ Decree 770 => 1960 to 1970 This decree was written by Nicolae Ceausescu and is an other inspiration for the obsession with fertility 

  In the beginning of the 3rd quarter, we learn that Offred and the Commander made an arrangement. Like the last time when she came to his office for a game of Scrabble, Offred has to visit the Commander two or three nights a week, only after dinner, when she get a signal from Nick. If Nick’s hat is on askew or not on his head when she comes back after shopping, she has to go. On the other hand, if Nick isn’t there or if he has his hat on straight, Offred stays in her room as usual. Of course, on Ceremony nights, none of these rules applies. We can easily see it’s a bit risky because of the Commander’s Wife. Offred has to be very quiet when she sneak along the hall. The more often they meet, the more they learn to know each other. Offred doesn’t hesitate when she wants to ask questions to the Commander, and when she asks, he listens to her and satisfies her curiosity. On the third night they were meeting, Offred asked if she could have hand or face lotion. At first, the Commander didn’

Being a handmaid in Gilead   In the second quarter of the book, we learn about the Ceremony. It is the ritual they do to get a handmaid pregnant. It first starts with a prayer. Then, the handmaid lies between the wife’s legs, fully clothed (except for her underwear) and pulls up her skirt to let the commander do what he has to do.   When a handmaid goes into labour, all the handmaids and the wives meet at the delivery’s home. While the handmaid gives birth, the other handmaids surround her and support her by telling her to breathe. In another room, the wife, eventual mother of the child, is celebrating with the other wives, congratulating her.   It is forbidden for a handmaid to go into the commander’s office. That’s why Offred, the main character, found it very surprising when the commander asked to see her in his office. Despite the prohibition, she decided to go. In the office, there are books and games. The commander offered her to play Scrabble. No handmaids have the right to read

     The beginning of an era  In the first quarter of the book, we meet the main character Offred, who is the Handmaid for the Commander Waterford in Gilead. We got a glimpse of what happened to all the people that practiced work that are now forbidden. We learned about where they went before becoming a handmaid and what does it implied. We also learned about the Eye, which is an association that watches people to make sure that everybody behaves, they are in the streets and shops to look over everything. Also, at the end of the quarter we learned that baths were reserved for a special occasion, but we will learn more about it in the next section of the book.

    The story takes places in New England, in a near fictional future. It takes place in a restricted area with big walls so that people cannot escape from their reality, otherwise there will be consequences. There is no freedom to do as they want or would like because of a health crisis that change the perspective of the world.   Now most young women are servants in houses and has no freedom of any kind. There only purpose is to be pregnant, something that is an exceedingly rare thing at that time. There is not economic system anymore because everything works with token, which are paper to give to the people at the shops so that they will give you what you need. But even if there is no money there is still social class and people that are unable to get those tokens.   In the society of the novel, most of the northern Caucasian societies birth rates are low. They are many reasons explaining this decline, but it’s still a mysterious phenomenon in the fiction. One of the reasons explaine

Biographical details Margaret Eleanor Atwood is an 81-year-old writer, but not only that, she is also a novelist, poet, environmental activist and more. During her career she wrote over 50 books including, poetry books, novel, nonfictional book, graphic novel, and a bunch of small press edition.  The genre of writing that she does can vary, she does speculative fiction, science fiction, dystopian fiction, and historical  fiction. In her career she won many awards as 2 books prize Clarke awards in 1966 and 1985, the Humanist of the year in 1987, the Arthur C Clarke Award for best Science Fiction in 1987, Author of the year from the Canadian booksellers Association in 1989, the most recent Dayton literary Peace Prize in 2020 and many more. She also has a lot of honorary degree: Concordia University in 1979, University of Toronto in 1983, University of Waterloo in 1985 and many many more Family  She was born November 18, 1939 in Ottawa, Ontario which makes her a Canadian. Her parents are