4 atwood includes many flashbacks most are related in

4. Atwood includes many flashbacks; most are related in some way to what is happening
to Offred in the present tense. Why is the scene of Moira’s badly thwarted escape
scene mixed in with this introduction to “the ceremony”? Why might Atwood have
chosen to have the ceremony and that memory go together?
Ch 16

1. How does the author’s use of language contribute to this chapter? Is it long and
detailed with mainly creative figurative language to describe what is happening (like
the narrative has been so far) or is it short, blunt, and graphic? Why do you think she
chooses this style for this chapter?
2. Offred doesn’t call the ceremony rape. However, it absolutely is rape because her only
other choice was the colonies and death. This is like someone being assaulted at
gunpoint; they don’t consent, they just don’t fight to survive. Why does she choose to
say that it isn’t rape? What might be her reasoning?
3. Answer Offred’s thought at the end of the section. “Which of us is it worse for, her or
me?” Explain your thinking.

Ch 17
1. Why does Offred need to steal the butter?
2. Offred steals a flower in this scene, what might the flower symbolize and why do you
think so?
3. How is the ceremony scene different from the scene between Offred and Nick?