What do you think?
Rate this book
The Handmaids Tale (Annotated) Study Guide and Aid
This is a 93 Page breakdown of Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaids Tale." This study aid gives detail summaries, including plots, character analysis, themes, symbols, quotations, and key facts from the work. Also an in depth look at the author
My study aids are well put together in an easy to read format that will guarantee success. Unlike other postings, I have included a snip below on how my study aids are written and analyzed.
Example Summary or Commentary
Chapter 1, the lone segment of Section I, introduces a gymnasium scene in which Alma, Janine, Dolores, Moira, June, and other Handmaids-in-training sleep in a barracks arrangement beneath flannel sheets and army blankets and contemplate their yearnings for freedom. Like girls at a restrictive camp, they reach out to their sisters to learn their names and to touch hands. The women, doubly protected by Aunts, armed with electric cattle prods and whistles, and Angels, or guards, outside the building, receive a brief privilege—twice-daily walks in pairs on an adjacent football field. The inmates fantasize about making deals with the guards, employing sex as a bartering medium.
Commentary
This spare introduction sets up powerful motifs that permeate the novel. Floating through the grim, Byzantine setting are afterimages of the past, when teams played basketball on the court. Gilead’s hierarchy, for all its repression of the past, fails to eradicate normal human activities of the pre-war period. Atwood infuses the scene with sights and smells and sexuality of teenagers of the past era by emphasizing sense imagery. Harking further into the past to medieval times, when women were immured in convents, the reference to palimpsest recalls the copyists’ method of erasing old manuscripts and refilling them with inscriptions. The method failed to delete the original text, which cropped up in words and letters that recalled fragments of a former message.
My study aids are well put together in an easy to read format that will guarantee success. Unlike other postings, I have included a snip below on how my study aids are written and analyzed.
Example Summary or Commentary
Chapter 1, the lone segment of Section I, introduces a gymnasium scene in which Alma, Janine, Dolores, Moira, June, and other Handmaids-in-training sleep in a barracks arrangement beneath flannel sheets and army blankets and contemplate their yearnings for freedom. Like girls at a restrictive camp, they reach out to their sisters to learn their names and to touch hands. The women, doubly protected by Aunts, armed with electric cattle prods and whistles, and Angels, or guards, outside the building, receive a brief privilege—twice-daily walks in pairs on an adjacent football field. The inmates fantasize about making deals with the guards, employing sex as a bartering medium.
Commentary
This spare introduction sets up powerful motifs that permeate the novel. Floating through the grim, Byzantine setting are afterimages of the past, when teams played basketball on the court. Gilead’s hierarchy, for all its repression of the past, fails to eradicate normal human activities of the pre-war period. Atwood infuses the scene with sights and smells and sexuality of teenagers of the past era by emphasizing sense imagery. Harking further into the past to medieval times, when women were immured in convents, the reference to palimpsest recalls the copyists’ method of erasing old manuscripts and refilling them with inscriptions. The method failed to delete the original text, which cropped up in words and letters that recalled fragments of a former message.
79 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 27, 2011
16 people are currently reading
149 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 31, 2015
I actually read The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, which is not listed for some reason. It's a really interesting perspective...definitely feminist.
September 21, 2019
The Handmaids Tale was one of the most depressing, yet important books I have ever read. The story is about a women, her real name is never exposed, but she is given the name Offred derived from "of Fred," she is Fred's possession. It is about the complete oppression of women, handmaids like Offred live their lives to produce children for the wife and husband of the household she is living in. She must wear a long red dress and white bonnet at all times, as well as keep completely to herself. While Offred is enduring the horrors of their new, completely totalitarian government, she stays alive by staying sane. If she can stay in control of her mind, Offred believes she will one day find peace in this way of life. It was shocking to read this book to be perfectly honest. The Handmaid's Tale was so incredibly real, something that I believe could happen in this society, it is an absolute must read.
May 7, 2017
Read this again in prep for the HULU series. OMG- forgot the power of this book!
July 27, 2018
I find Margaret Atwood very difficult to read, or, in my case, listen to. Had it not been for the tv series, I wouldn't have been so interested. All in all, it was a fascinating book.
March 30, 2016
It wasn't bad, I just felt like it left me hanging.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews