Discussion Board 8: Chapters 19-39
Create a post of a minimum of 250 words that answers the following questions. Number your responses but do not copy the questions. NOTE: When you have completed your post, respond to at least one classmate’s post.
1. In Chapter 20, who are the Unwomen, including Offreds mother, and why do the Aunts mute the sound of the films about them? Why don?t the Aunts want the Handmaids to hear what Unwomen said? What do you think about Offred?s mother?
2. What do you think about Offred?s being excited about ?Birth Day? and the level of her physical and emotional participation in Janine?s birth described in Chapter 21? What do you think about the fact that she still desires to become pregnant? Is she a ?true believer??
3. In Chapters 24-26, the dynamic between Offred and the Commander is changing. Atwood makes the Commander a complicated character and, likewise, Offred is having some thoughts and making some decisions we might find eerie. Choose one passage from these chapters that illustrates this and briefly analyze it.
4. Luke?s reaction to Gilead?s banning employment and the control of money for women is to tell his wife that he will take care of her. In the Hulu series based on the book, Offred and Moira both react very differently to what Luke says. What do you think about what?s going on in this chapter? Does it remind you of any historical events? What do you think about Luke?s reaction?
5. In Chapters 32 and 34, the Commander provides his justification for Gilead to Offred. What do you think about what he says?
6. In Chapter 35, Offred is remembering trying to escape Gilead with Nick and their daughter. She says the following: God is love, they said once, but we reversed that, and love, like Heaven, was always just around the corner. The more difficult it was to love the particular man beside us, the more we believed in Love, abstract and total. We were waiting, always, for the incarnation. That word, made flesh.? What do you think about what she says? Is our contemporary concept of love similar to a religion? Do our beliefs about it cause us pain and are they rational?
7. Write down one question you have about Chapters 19-39.
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