4. Shopping #2

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

Lesson objectives 

We will consider the chapters under the heading "Shopping" 

Patronymic names 

We will consider the structure of control in Gilead 

Old Testament research 

AWL

Analyse 

Approach 

Assess 

What is the importance of this to your reading? 

What is the importance of this to your reading? 

Offred = Of Fred

Ofglen = Of Glen

Ofwarren = Of Warren

Patronymic names 

In what way does the loss of the handmaids’ real names help the state of Gilead to control its citizens?

Patronymic = a name derived from that of the father or a paternal ancestor usually by the addition of an affix (Merriam-Webster) 

Pater = Greek 'father' 

Onyma = Greek 'name' 

Read the extract from:  (pg 19 pg 20)

" A shape, red with white wings around the face, a shape like mine, a nondescript woman in red carrying a basket, comes along the brick sidewalk towards me....

To: 

...But I'm ravenous for news, any kind of news; even if it's false news, it must mean something.

Read this extract closely. 

What does it reveal about:

1. Ofglen?

2. The narrator?

3. How Gilead restricts language?

Pick out at least three stylistic or linguistic features used by Atwood and explain what effect they have on the author/reader relationship.

Use quotes to support your ideas. 

"woman in red carrying a basket" Allusion Little Red Riding Hood

"peer at each other's faces" verb usage 

"Blessed be the fruit," she says Direct dialogue, dialogue attribution 

"Slips through the net" idiomatic phrase/ idiom/ colloquial language 

"she is my spy, as I am her" personal pronouns 

"questions ... answers"  juxtaposition 

" the answers ...answers ... answer." repetition/ emphasis 

"ravenous for news, ...news ...it's false news" repetition /emphasis 

"demurely, head down, red-gloved hands clasped in front"  tricolon

"like a trained pig's" simile  

Read this extract closely. 

What does it reveal about:

1. Ofglen?

2. The narrator?

3. How Gilead restricts language?

Pick out at least three stylistic or linguistic features used by Atwood and explain what effect they have on the author/reader relationship.

Use quotes to support your ideas. 

Research this quote from the Old Testament. 

1. What do these lines mean? 

2. What do they mean in Gilead? 

3.What is the correct response? 

"And she cried out with a loud voice and said, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed be the fruit of your womb!" (Luke 1:42)

Lesson objectives 

Reflection and goal planning for your paper 1 

Characterisation through connotations 

Language usage in descriptive passages 

What is the importance of this to your reading? 

Descriptive similes and metaphors 31-33

What aspects of this event are highlighted through these comparisons? 

Could we speak of a semantic field? If so, around what central idea? 

Identify the similes and metaphors used by Atwood when describing The Wall 

'look like dolls on which faces have not yet been painted' 

'as if their heads are sacks, stuffed with some undifferentiated material, like flour or dough. 

'like scarecrows'  

'The heads are zeros' 

'heads of snowmen with the coal eyes and the carrot noses fallen out' 

'The heads are melting.' 

"time travelers, anachronisms" 

In the ‘shopping’ section, what does the reader learn about how the authorities of Gilead control women?

(Find evidence). Once you have done that, how would you group these methods? 

Shopping - in pairs make a mind map 

Methods of control

Walking in pairs for surveillance

Atwood (and her narrator) don’t reveal everything about this world in one go. They drop clues about what is going on.

Hints about the past and present

Find at least two quotes for each of these points: 

1. The different roles that people have in the present 

2. The not too distant past (p. 17)

3.A time before her life was like this (p. 21)

“Low status: he hasn’t been issued a woman, not even one.” pg 18

Find three or more quotes about Nick when he is first introduced. pgs 17 - 18

Discuss the denotation, then analyse to show the connotations of the words used to describe him. 

Remember: the connotation can be telling us about the narrator or the setting of Gilead and not just about Nick. 

Nick - bad boy or danger? 

He's too casual (pg 18) 

He's not servile enough (pg 18)

may be stupidity  (pg 18) 

Smells fishy (pg 18) 

smell a rat (pg 18) 

Misfit as odour (pg 18) 

Not fish or decaying rat: tanned skin, moist in the sun, filmed with smoke (pg 18) 

He has a cigarette stuck in the corner of his mouth (pg 17)

He has a French face, lean, whimsical(pg 18) 

Inner and outer worlds (pg 26 - 29/ chapter 5)

1. What is the significance of the encounter with Janine/Ofwarren?

2. What is significant about the lack of dialogue here? How do the Handmaids communicate?

3. What details does the narrator notice about the Japanese tourists ?

4. What is significant about the dialogue during the encounter with the tourists?

Janine/Ofwarren and the tourists. Find, in your text, the point when Ofwarren/Janine is introduced and the description of the visiting Japanese tourists. Answer these questions in your  exercise book.

How is Atwood able to present the inner and outer world here? What is the significance of this? (Consider the narrative voice – what is said and what is thought/told to the audience).

Free indirect discourse 

Free indirect discourse 

Stream of consciousness

Read the notes on the historical context and the text and answer these questions in your exercise book. 

1.How does the author begin his argument? Summarise the introduction to the text in two to three sentences. 

2. What is the purpose of the author's introduction? 

3. Which of the following best describes how the speaker views women?

a) Wives should be more committed and faithful to their husbands.

b)God arranged for women to be leveled up and honored by all men.

c)Wives should be like Christ and make personal sacrifices for their marriage.

d)The submission of women to men is a social order designed by God.

Opposition to the Women's Rights Movement 

Read the notes on the historical context and the text and answer these questions in your exercise book. 

1.How does the author begin his argument? Summarise the introduction to the text in two to three sentences and cite evidence from the text. 

2. What is the purpose of the author's introduction? 

3. Which of the following best describes how the speaker views women?

a)Wives should be more committed and faithful to their husbands.

b)God arranged for women to be leveled up and honored by all men.

c)Wives should be like Christ and make personal sacrifices for their marriage.

d)The submission of women to men is a social order designed by God.

Opposition to the Women's Rights Movement 

4. According to the speaker, the women's rights movement...

a)is too powerful and should end before God punishes these women.

b)threatens the safety of women because opposing men can be violent.

c) is ungodly and an attempt for women to assume roles that are only for men.

d)is inevitable because women are unhappy with their husbands

5. Which of the following best describes how the speaker feels about a woman's role?

a)Being a mother is a woman's greatest purpose.

b)Women should raise their sons to lead their women when they are adults.

c) A women could never be a leader because her morals are too pure.

d) Children often seek guardianship from others because women are too weak.

Opposition to the Women's Rights Movement 

4. According to the speaker, the women's rights movement...

a)is too powerful and should end before God punishes these women.

b)threatens the safety of women because opposing men can be violent.

c) is ungodly and an attempt for women to assume roles that are only for men.

d)is inevitable because women are unhappy with their husbands

5. Which of the following best describes how the speaker feels about a woman's role?

a)Being a mother is a woman's greatest purpose.

b)Women should raise their sons to lead their women when they are adults.

c) A women could never be a leader because her morals are too pure.

d) Children often seek guardianship from others because women are too weak.

Opposition to the Women's Rights Movement 

6. Which of the following statements would the speaker most likely agree with?

a) Mothers are too willing to assign responsibility of their sons to their daughter-in-laws.

b) A good mother focuses on raising her children so they may perform roles based on their gender.

c) Men will never marry women if they continue to disobey God's direction.

d) Men should protect their sons from being overpowered by a woman.

Opposition to the Women's Rights Movement 

6. Which of the following statements would the speaker most likely agree with?

a) Mothers are too willing to assign responsibility of their sons to their daughter-in-laws.

b) A good mother focuses on raising her children so they may perform roles based on their gender.

c) Men will never marry women if they continue to disobey God's direction.

d) Men should protect their sons from being overpowered by a woman.

Opposition to the Women's Rights Movement 

Argument: The anonymous writer argues that to grant women the rights advocated in the Women’s Rights Movement would be contradictory to Christianity, and that doing so would devalue not only the Christian marriage but the church itself.

Opposition to the Women's Rights Movement 

In chapter 7,  Offred recalls a women's protest that her mother was involved in and which she witnessed as a child. Here Atwood raises a number of areas of interest that the second wave feminist movement was concerned with. 

Chapter 7 pgs 43 - 44

Pornography, objectification of women, sexualisation of women, 

date rape, 

make-up, inequality. 

Explore in one or two PEEL paragraphs how, and to what purpose, these concerns are explored in chapter thirty-seven. 

Concepts we generated: 

Power dynamics, oppression, patriarchy, identity, rebellion 

Concepts HL literature 

Thinking about our concepts, which concept or concepts does this text give additional information about?

Which aspects of these concepts are explored in the novel? 

How do we see these opinions reflected in the novel?