Blanked Quote & About
Full Quote & Analysis Summary
“The ______ ______.”
About: the lingering presence of past culture and memory beneath Gilead’s regime
“The music lingered.”
Analysis: Offred’s fleeting recall of music underscores how artefacts of the past survive even under totalitarian control. This haunting echo highlights the tension between personal longing and public conformity, showing that memory itself becomes an act of resistance.
“There was ______ ______ in the room and ______, and ______, of something without a ______ or a name.”
About: recollected intimacy and fertility
“There was old sex in the room and loneliness, and expectation, of something without a shape or a name.”
Analysis: This memory evokes Offred’s complex nostalgia for sexual freedom, juxtaposing warmth and isolation. The undefined “shape or a name” reflects the depersonalized longing women feel under Gilead’s strictures, foreshadowing how fertility is reduced to an anonymous commodity.
“If only they would ______. If only we could ______ to them. Something could be exchanged, we thought, some ______ made, some ______, we still had our ______.”
About: using their bodies as potential leverage against oppression
“If only they would look. If only we could talk to them. Something could be exchanged, we thought, some deal made, some trade-off, we still had our bodies.”
Analysis: Offred imagines her body as bargaining power, reversing its imposed status as vulnerability. This passage reveals how scarcity grants the Handmaids a perverse form of agency, demonstrating their refusal to be entirely disempowered within a system that commodifies them.
“We ______ to ______ almost without sound.”
About: covert solidarity and rebellion through silent communication
“We learned to whisper almost without sound.”\nAnalysis: Here, clandestine whispers become small acts of defiance, allowing Handmaids to forge bonds under surveillance. Offred shows that language, even stripped of volume, remains a potent tool for preserving identity and fostering unity within an oppressive regime.
______ not ______ not. I am not being wasted, why do I want. About: Language as a tool of power
Waste not want not. I am not being wasted, why do I want. Analysis: The use of a litany demonstrates Offred’s penchant for language and manipulation. It foreshadows her later evenings of scrabble with the commander.
_____ of it as being in the _____, said ____ ____. About: Women’s bodies as political instruments
Think of it as being in the army, said Aunt Lydia. Analysis: The simile compares Offred’s role as a handmaid to that of a soldier, reinforcing the regime’s militaristic control. It builds on recurring military imagery in the narrative.
It isn’t ______ away that they’re ______ of… It’s those other ______, the ones you can ______ in yourself, given a ______ edge. About: Theocracy
It isn’t running away that they’re afraid of… It’s those other escapes, the ones you can open in yourself, given a cutting edge. Analysis: The second person address normalizes the prevalence of suicide under Gilead’s theocracy. Framing suicide as an escape highlights the oppressive control and critiques overbearing religious governance.
