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Themes & Motifs: The Handmaid's Tale - Coggle Diagram
Themes & Motifs: The Handmaid's Tale
Identity
Flashbacks (Distraction & Diversion)
Childhood (Before Gilead)
Page 22: Movies & Serena Joy
pages 44 to 46: bonfire, magazines and her mother
Teens
Adulthood (Before Gilead)
Page 17 (Luke) "Fratenize means to behave like a brother"
Page 23: "I know this mans name: Nick"
Page 29: Luke & Offred buying a house
All of Page 33
All of page 36
Page 39: "Luke wasn't a doctor, Isn't"
Page 43: College with Moira
Page 51: Serena Joy, Luke and the News
Adulthood (During Gilead)
Page 19: "We stood face to face for the first time 5 weeks ago"
Language
Religious
Page 25: Offered and Ofgeln in heart of Gilead
Page 67: "Give me children or else I die"
Page 52: Commander's wives "Try to pity them. Forgive them, for they know not what they do" — Aunt Lydia
Page 36: "as if piously"
Cryptic
Page 39: Lie vs Lay
Comedic
Page 37: "admission is free"
Authoritative
All of Page 25
Solidarity
Page 10: "Alma. Janine. Dolores. Moira. June"
Blunt &/or Vague
Page 20: "old what's his face didn't work out"
Page 35: "Yes, we are very happy, " I murmur.
Page 43; "somewhere good."
Marginilzation
Page 78: Testimony / Red circle in gymnasium
Prohibited
"sterile"
Connotations of freedom
Latin
Page 37: "memento mori"
Page 58: "Notile te bastardes carborundorum"
HELP
Bottom of Page 49: Distress signals and calls, "Mayday" & "SOS"
Inner Conflict
Submmisiveness
Rebellion
Page 13: "Waste not want not. I am being wasted. Why do I want?"
Page 9: "We yearned for the future"
Acceptance
Groups & Individuals
Page 23: "The driver"
Page 23: "Guardains assigned to our household is washing the car"
Page 24: Another Handmaid "nondescript woman"
Page 27: young Guardian facial expression description
Consitnent mentions of Aunt Lydia as a influential figure
Page 29: "Guardian mowing the lawn"
All over Oflglen
Page 30: "red pairs"
Page 32: "Ofwarren" commanders wife (i.e Janine)
Offred's age = 33
Page 50: Aunt Lydia "no one will have to be an Econowife"
Page 50: Oflglen "she is like my own reflection"
Outside & Inside Of Gilead
Wars
Page 29: Gilead & quote peace "war cannot intrude except on television"
Page 31: "Libertheos" and South America
Foriegn States
Pge 9: "Still said USA"
Page 16: "Colonies"
Page 25: "stronghold in the Blue Hills"
Rebels
Page 25: "Baptists"
Page 26: Rtia & Cora's dialogue over Martha shot by Guardian
Eyes & Knoweldge Beyond Gilead
Page 50: "Under His Eye"
Page 34: "Most of the reportes are Eyers"
Page 13: "Water color picture of blue irises"
Page 16: "The Martha's know things"
Page 24: "Perhaps he is an Eye"
Page 26: "Eyes incognito"
Page 35: "To be seen — is to be … — penetrated"
Page 43: "Under the plastic eye in ceiling"
States within
Page 31: "Lilies"
Patriarchy & Hierarchy
Clothing Type
Page 15: Introduction to clothing
Page 16: "The red dress she disapproves of what it stands for"
Page 19: Commander's wife "long powder blue robe"
Page 34: "Interpeter in standard blue suit"
Page 50: Econowifes "black transparent veil"
Environment
Page 13: "Does each of have the same …chair , the same white curtains, I wonder?"
Page 9: Chapter 1
Page 23: "Our household"
Page 29: "Republic of Gilead… "Gilead is within you"
Page 29: Doctors lived here once, lawyers, university professors"
Page 33: "All Flesh"
Page 36: church "as a museum"
Relgion
Page 23: "fertility of the soil"
Page 23: "The way men caress good cars"
Technology
Page 23: "better than the chariot"
Page 27: "compucheck"
Page 27: "Birthmobile"
Page 28: "Black vans"
Page 32: "Compubite"
Power, Authority & Persecution
Page 19: Commander's Wife encounter "She didn't step aside"
Page 19: "reproach" and "necessity"
Page 21: "Not so her eyes, which were the flat hostile blue"
Page 35: Aunt Lydia's speech "she called us girls"
Pages 37 to 39: "THE WALL":
Middle of Page 49: The Wall "Gender Treachery"
Page 50: "The econowiives do not like us"
Control & Monitoring
Generic female name ("Martha") reassigning for traditional roles
Page 18: "shatterproof window"
Page 23: "Low Status: … Issued a woman"
Page 26: Flood Lights "I just know they are there"
Page 27: Border control "we produce our passes"
Page 71: Four digit number on Offer's Ankle
Page 35: "I have to say something. What else can I say"
Protection
Page 25: "go there except in 2s"
Freedom & (to and from Page 29: "Such freedom now seems almost weightless")
Clothing
Page 34: "Westernized"
Page 49: "get out our sundresses and our sandals and go for an ice-cream"
Communication
Activity
Page 18: "Many of the Wives had such gardens"
All of page 32
Page 43: "But the night is my time out. Where should I go?"
Reading / Writing
Touch
Page 17: "the bread, sinking my hands into that soft resistant warmth" & "I hunger to touch something"
Page 18: "Rsutle seeds through the fingers"
Cosmetics
Page 21: Commander's wife's hair "she bleached it"
All of page 35
Black Market Products
Page 21: Commander's wife's hair "she bleached it"
Page 24: "what I wanted was a cigarette"
Sexuality
Page 27: Whishes, fantasies with young Guardian
Page 31: "suggested the possibilities of the word undone"
Food
Page 31: "small achievemnt, to have made oranges happen"
Page 33: "Commanders don have it every day"
Children
Page 32: pregancy as "swell triumphantly"
Page 32: "magic presence"
Page 32: "flag on a hilltop"
Page 50: "flowed to its death"
Page 50: "a pain like a stab in the belly"