Topic A: Choose a short passage that reveals a significant aspect of the society depicted in the novel. Copy the passage and write a response (200 words) explaining what the passage reveals about society and how it relates to what has occurred in this section of the novel.
Quote: "I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure, or a means of transportation, or an implement for the accomplishment of my will. I could use it to run, push buttons of one sort of another, make things happen. There were limits, but my body was nevertheless lithe, single, solid, one with me" (73).
This quote comes from Part V: Nap of The Handmaid's Tale. The passage reveals how society has changed this perception of women in Gilead. Women like Offred are shaped into believing that the only useful part of their body is their womb. They are forced into believing this as the truth and Offred, the protagonist, has no other options to compare this truth to. In the society, women are not individuals, but objects to give birth to children. This quote relates to Part V: Nap because this section focuses on the idea of ownership. The phrase "used to think" illustrates how women in the Gileadian society were stripped of ownership from their body unexpectedly after fighting for it. The "pleasure" Offred refers to stems from her old life with Luke, where society perceived sex as a pleasurable activity, not one who's goal was strictly childbirth. She reminisces about how she used to be able to "run, push buttons [...], make things happen," which shows how this societal shift happened recently and most likely, abruptly.
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