3. Shopping

• Engels
• Upper Secondary (Key Stage 4)
• GCSE

Lesson objectives 

We will consider the chapters under the heading "Shopping" 

We will consider the structure of control in Gilead 

AWL

Analyse 

Approach 

Assess 

What is the importance of this to your reading? 

What is the importance of this to your reading? 

Lesson objectives 

We will consider the chapters under the heading "Shopping" 

We will consider the structure of control in Gilead 

We will look more closely at an extract 

We will consider theonomy in the novel 

speculate - introspective –  spectate – spectral – retrospective – conspicuous - circumspect - perspicacious 

1. After the argument, she became very __________, thinking carefully about her own role in the conflict.
   
2. Because the negotiations were sensitive, the manager remained __________ with his comments.
   
3. The museum hosted a __________ exhibition that looked back on the artist’s early career.
   
4. It would be unwise to __________ about the company’s future without reliable data.
   
5. Hundreds of fans gathered to __________ the final match from the stands.
   
6. The __________ detective quickly noticed details others had completely missed.
   
7. A faint, __________ figure appeared in the hallway, disappearing as suddenly as it arrived.
   
8. His bright red jacket made him extremely __________ in the otherwise dark crowd.
   

Keep a note of what events are grouped together under what titles. 

 

The titles of the groups of chapters 

Night 

Shopping

Waiting Room

Household

Birth Day 

Soul Scrolls 

Jezebel's 

Salvaging 

Why does the novel switch to the present tense?​

Shopping

‘A window, two white curtains. Under the window, a window seat with a little cushion. When the window is partly open – it only opens partly – the air can come in and make the curtains move. I can sit in the chair, or on the window seat, hands folded, and watch this. Sunlight comes in through the window too, and falls on the floor, which is made of wood, in narrow strips, highly polished. I can smell the polish. There’s a rug on the floor, oval, of braided rags. This is the kind of touch they like: folk art, archaic, made by women, in their spare time, from things that have no further use. A return to traditional values. Waste not want not. I am not being wasted. Why do I want?’ (pg 7)

1. What do we learn about Offred as a character from the opening description of her room?

2. Why and how does Atwood focus the reader's attention on the setting? 

A bed. Single, mattress medium-hard, covered with a flocked white spread. Nothing takes place in the bed but sleep; or no sleep. I try not to think too much. Like other things now, thought must be rationed. There’s a lot that doesn’t bear thinking about. Thinking can hurt your chances, and I intend to last. I know why there is no glass, in front of the watercolour picture of blue irises, and why the window only opens partly and why the glass in it is shatterproof. It isn’t running away they’re afraid of. We wouldn’t get far. It’s those other escapes, the ones you can open in yourself, given a cutting edge. (Ch2. Pg 8)

What oblique references are made by the narrator here? Why are these references import for the reader's understanding of Offred?

‘The bell that measures time is ringing. Time here is measured by bells, as once in nunneries. As in a nunnery too, there are few mirrors.​ (pg 8)...A Sister, dipped in blood.’ (pg 9)

Find this extract. Then answer the questions 

Look carefully at the description of Offred’s ‘uniform’.​

​1. Why does Atwood remind the reader of “nunneries”? How does this link to Offred's attire?​

2. What do you think is the symbolic reason for the blood-red robe?​

​3. What do we learn about Offred when she sees herself in the mirror? How does she see herself?​

​4. The colour ‘red’ also symbolises Offred’s rank, as a handmaid. What colours symbolise the ranks of the commander and the commander’s wife? 

1. What are the similarities between Atwood’s Handmaids, and these other religious costumes?​

​2. What does it suggest about how they are meant to behave, and be viewed?​

3. What is the effect of all Handmaids having to wear the same thing?​

Wimple 12th - 14th century 

Hijab - 11th - 13th century The Crusades 

Language, Community & Identity 

“There are several umbrellas in it: black, for the Commander, blue, for the Commander's Wife, and the one assigned to me, which is red” p.9

Discuss on your table what these quotes suggest about:​

• Identity ​
  
• What language is used for in Gilead
• The power of language ​
  

“She's in her usual Martha's dress, which is dull green, like a surgeon's gown of the time before”​ p.9 

“The Marthas are not supposed to fraternize with us.” ​p. 11

“How I used to despise such talk. Now I long for it. At least it was talk. An exchange, of sorts.” p.11

"All right," I say. I don't smile. Why tempt her to friendship?” p. 11 

Lesson objectives 

We will look at the introduction of the Commander's Wife 

We will consider theonomy and theocracy in the novel 

introduction of Ofglen 

We will look at similes, metaphors and semantic field in a descriptive passage 

Affixes 

OP/OPS

Root of the week 

Op(s) - From Latin  meaning "riches, goods, abundance, gifts, plenty, power & help" 

Op - 'toward or against' prefix 

Opposite 

Rate the word 1 to 4

1. I do not know the word, and I have never seen it before. 

2. I've heard or seen the word before, but I'm not sure what it means. 

3. I know the word and can recognise and understand it while reading, but I probably wouldn't feel comfortable using it in writing or speech. 

4. I know the word well and can use it correctly in writing or speech. 

Opulent

Word of the day

Opulent (adj) - demonstrating great wealth; wealth;extravagant

Write down three antonyms for opulent.

 

The opulent lifestyle of the business tycoon was evident in his luxurious mansion on the sea-front. 

impoverished. lean, poverty-stricken, destitute, poor

The Commander's Wife 

1. What do we learn about the commander’s wife?​

​2. Choose three pieces of evidence from this extract and explain what they reveal about the character of the commander’s wife, whom the reader has not yet met.​

3. To what extent does the narrator (Offred) influence or prejudice our understanding of the commander’s wife through the presence of her own feelings towards her?

"This garden is the domain of the Commander's Wife... I am a reproach to her; and a necessity." (pg 12) 

Commander's Wife

setting: large, tidy cut, heal, willow, weeping catkins

domain (noun) 

light blue veil (adjective)

directs (verb)

her stick/ arthritis  

of the Wives (capitalisation)

to order and maintain and care for (polysyndeton/ tricolon) 

looks like peace (irony/tone)

I don't ...unexpectedly/ I envy (prejudice) 

Give them a sense of purpose 

it's not a challenge

In the New Testament, Martha is the sister of Mary Magdalene and resents being tied to household chores while Mary finds favour with Christ and follows him.​

​

Remember that this society is a Christian theonomy and so the laws and many of the names are derived from Christian mythology as recorded in the Bible.

Theocracy = a system of government in which priests rule in the name of God or a god.

Cora and Rita – the Marthas​

Theonomy

The state of being governed by God

(Collins dictionary ) 

The idea that God provides the basis of both personal and social ethics in the Bible. (Wikipedia) 

“There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always— do not forget this, Winston— always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless.

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face— forever. ”

― George Orwell, 1984

The future