Summary of The Handmaid’s Tale E-Book

Alexander Cooper

• Herausgeber: Ben Business Group LLC
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Summary of The Handmaid’s Tale - A Comprehensive Summary

PART 1: OUR LIVES
The novel opens with an unknown Narrator describing her life and the lives of other girls. The reader is told that the United States no longer exists, followed by stories of the past, what women are in the present day, and what rules they have to live by, such as leaving school only twice a day to walk around a football field and not being allowed to talk amongst themselves. Several women discovered a way to communicate to each other by murmuring inaudibly, thus exchanging their names.
In the second chapter, the reader learns that the Narrator is a female currently living in a house from the Victorian era. The house, belonging to someone named the Commander and his Wife, is set up in such a way that suicide is not possible for anyone living inside.
The Narrator has a special costume that she needs to wear, consisting of a muffling red ensemble, a headdress with a veil, and white wings on the side of her face.
The woman goes shopping with tokens that the cook, Rita, gave her to exchange for food. Rita and the housekeeper, Cora, belong to a caste called the Marthas who wear green. It would appear that the Marthas are allowed certain other freedoms, such as the ability to gossip with one another.

To be continued...


Here is a Preview of What You Will Get:

⁃ A Full Book Summary

⁃ An Analysis

⁃ Fun quizzes

⁃ Quiz Answers

⁃ Etc.

Get a copy of this summary and learn about the book.  

Leseprobe

UUID: e3f1026e-7755-4392-92fd-05d0fcee1013

This ebook was created with StreetLib Writehttps://writeapp.io

Table of contents

SUMMARY of The Handmaid’s Tale

INTRODUCTION

SUMMARY

PART 1: OUR LIVES

PART 2: THE LIFE OF A HANDMAID

PART 3: LIFE AS A SLAVE

PART 4: SPRING IS COMING

PART 5: THE HOUSEHOLD

PART 6: THE RITUAL AND THE ENCOUNTER

PART 7: OFWARREN

ANALYSIS

QUIZ

QUIZ ANSWERS

CONCLUSION

SUMMARY of The Handmaid’s Tale

by Margaret Atwood - A Comprehensive Summary

SUMMARY of The Handmaid’s Tale

The novel opens with an unknown Narrator describing her life and the lives of other girls. The reader is told that the United States no longer exists, followed by stories of the past, what women are in the present day, and what rules they have to live by, such as leaving school only twice a day to walk around a football field and not being allowed to talk amongst themselves. Several women discovered a way to communicate to each other by murmuring inaudibly, thus exchanging their names.

In the second chapter, the reader learns that the Narrator is a female currently living in a house from the Victorian era. The house, belonging to someone named the Commander and his Wife, is set up in such a way that suicide is not possible for anyone living inside.

The Narrator has a special costume that she needs to wear, consisting of a muffling red ensemble, a headdress with a veil, and white wings on the side of her face.

The woman goes shopping with tokens that the cook, Rita, gave her to exchange for food. Rita and the housekeeper, Cora, belong to a caste called the Marthas who wear green. It would appear that the Marthas are allowed certain other freedoms, such as the ability to gossip with one another.

To be continued...

Here is a Preview of What You Will Get:

⁃ A Full Book Summary

⁃ An Analysis

⁃ Fun quizzes

⁃ Quiz Answers

⁃ Etc.

Get a copy of this summary and learn about the book.

INTRODUCTION

The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel written by Margaret Atwood. The story of the novel is set at the end of the 20 th century, sometime after 1985. The story’s premise is that a group of “evil” Christians took over the United States and renamed it the Republic of Gilead. Birth rates begin dropping steadily as women are stripped of all their former rights. The women are also divided into one of a few functions available to their gender. If a woman is fertile, she is given to a “Commander” who will take care of her. If a woman cannot have any children, she is sent to the mines, where she works as a slave.

The plot revolves around one of these women – a Handmaid (she known as ‘Offered’) and her story. Most of the story alternates between flashbacks and present day. In flashbacks, we see what the Handmaid’s life was like before the Republic of Gilead was created and several events that followed. The novel ends with a “Historical Note” , which was supposedly written by a historian in 2195.

SUMMARY

PART 1: OUR LIVES

The novel opens with an unknown Narrator describing her life and the lives of other girls. The reader is told that the United States no longer exists, followed by stories of the past, what women are in the present day, and what rules they have to live by, such as leaving school only twice a day to walk around a football field and not being allowed to talk amongst themselves. Several women discovered a way to communicate to each other by murmuring inaudibly, thus exchanging their names.

In the second chapter, the reader learns that the Narrator is a female currently living in a house from the Victorian era. The house, belonging to someone named the Commander and his Wife, is set up in such a way that suicide is not possible for anyone living inside.

The Narrator has a special costume that she needs to wear, consisting of a muffling red ensemble, a headdress with a veil, and white wings on the side of her face.

The woman goes shopping with tokens that the cook, Rita, gave her to exchange for food. Rita and the housekeeper, Cora, belong to a caste called the Marthas who wear green. It would appear that the Marthas are allowed certain other freedoms, such as the ability to gossip with one another.

PART 2: THE LIFE OF A HANDMAID

Readers learn that this is the Narrator’s third posting to a private home, where she has been for five weeks. The Commander’s Wife is unwelcoming and rude to the Narrator. As Wives, who all wear blue, are of a different caste, they are allowed to slap women of the Narrator’s caste, though hitting with objects is not allowed.

The Narrator realizes that she knows the Commander’s Wife from her childhood as the Wife used to be a Gospel singer.

In the fourth chapter, the reader learns that the Narrator is the Handmaid named Offered. As Handmaid is leaving the house to buy food, the Commander’s driver, Nick, winks at her while washing the Commander’s car. This causes the Handmaid to wonder if he is actually an Eye – someone from the secret special police force that infiltrates society to test obedience among the castes.

A Handmaid is not allowed to go out by herself. She is allowed outside only if accompanied by another Handmaiden, though there is no way of knowing if another Handmaiden is secretly an informant for the Eyes.

The Handmaid’s shopping companion is named Ofglen. The two are not allowed to talk about anything except topics in which the two of them must say “Praise be” at the end of each sentence.

A little later on we learn that the Narrator once had a husband named Luke and an unnamed daughter. But now, many things are different – the streets of the town are devoid of children and the country the Handmaid is in is called the Republic of Gilead, which contains parts of the United States.

The Handmaid and Ofglen arrive at the grocery store, where the reader learns that even produce and goods cannot always travel freely, leading certain products to be unavailable at times. When a pregnant Handmaiden enters the grocery store, readers learn that they have protection and do not have to go on daily walks; they are also given special care and a special status. It is revealed that the pregnant Handmaid is a woman named Janine, whom the reader met in the first chapter. However, Janine’s named has now been changed to Ofwarren.

While returning to the house, the Handmaid and Ofglen run into a group of Japanese tourists. Japanese women wear mini-skirts, high heels, and have painted nails, which shock the Handmaid, though she remembers that she wore a similar outfit in the past, before the Republic of Gilead came to be.

In this chapter, the reader learns more about freedom within the book. The Handmaid wants the same freedom she had in the old society. She wants to be able to keep the money that she earns. Yet, the many rules that restrict her are also the same rules that give her protection. Since she is a woman, she is considered to be ‘sacred,’ and thus she cannot be molested in any way (except by the Wife and the Aunt).

PART 3: LIFE AS A SLAVE

When returning back, Ofglen and the Narrator decide to take the longer road. They stop by a churchyard, where Ofglen prays. After this they go to the Wall, which surrounds an old university compound.

The appearance of the Wall terrifies both of them. There are many corpses hanging from the Wall. Each corpse has a sack covering their head so that nobody can recognize them. They wear white coats and have the picture of a fetus hung around their neck. This tells us that these corpses, when alive, were abortion specialists. Although they performed the legal job of operating on women who wanted to abort, after the creation of the Republic of Gilead, these people were systematically hunted down and killed by the Christians who came to power.

When the Narrator is in her bed at night, she describes the night as “belonging only to her,” as this is the only time that no one is watching her. During the night, the Narrator can think whatever she wants.

During one night, the Narrator starts thinking about one of her friends, Moira, who was her college roommate. It appears as though Moira was rebellious type, enjoying parties and provoking other people.