List three motifs in the novel
Doubles/reflections, flowers & eggs
What type of dystopian control does Gilead use?
Theocracy
What kind of narrator is Offred?
Homodiegetic
What narrative viewpoint does Atwood use and how can you link this to the dystopian genre?
Restricted narrative viewpoint which emphasises how information is restricted to Offred
What term would you use to describe a shift in time where the narrator recounts events from an earlier time frame?
Analepsis
What does Mary McCarthy compare a dystopian storyworld to in her review of THT?
We are warned, by seeing our present selves in a distorting mirror, of what we may be turning into if current trends are allowed to continue
What is the significance of the pathetic fallacy used throughout the novel?
The ever-increasing heat represents the suffocating nature of Gilead
Why could you argue that Offred is an unreliable narrator?
She has limited knowledge of the events she's narrating; she has strong emotional involvement making the narration subjective; she doesn't always tell the truth
What wave of feminism was prominent when Atwood wrote this novel?
Second wave
Where did Atwood start writing this novel? Why is it important?
Berlin - she could witness the totalitarian regime of the USSR first hand
Why is Atwood's ancestors important to the context of THT?
They were puritans and Gilead is modeled in the puritanical, theocratic society
Name three conventions of dystopian literature
Propaganda, restriction, constant surveillance, dehumanised state, conform to uniform expectations, illusion of a utopia
