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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What part of the Bible did the women hear at the center each day?

2. Who is Offred looking for in Chapter 8?

3. What does Offred look for at the end of Chapter 2?

4. If he is alive, what will Luke send to Offred?

5. What does Offred use the butter for, as described in Chapter 4?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Offred go back to the sitting room later that evening in Chapter 6?

2. In Chapter 6, how does the Commander pray?

3. Describe the narrator’s mother as depicted in Chapter 3.

4. What is the narrator’s attitude towards her audience, at the end of Chapter 3?

5. What happened to Serena Joy that was traumatic in her earlier life?

6. What is carved on Offred’s desk at the center? Why is this significant?

7. Who from the first chapter appears again later in the novel?

8. Why is it significant that the women discuss their names at the beginning of the novel?

9. Why is the doctor’s offer to Offred in Chapter 4 tempting?

10. Why does Offred have to be especially careful on this assignment, according to Chapter 2?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Offred leaves the novel on a deliberately ambiguous note. If the novel were to continue, what would her next chapter look like? Use the ‘professor’s’ speech from the end notes as the basis for your fictionalized version.

Essay Topic 2

Though the novel focuses on Handmaids, other characters, in other roles, also permeate the book. Describe one role in-depth. What are some of the advantages of this role? Disadvantages?

Essay Topic 3

Gilead is a strict hierarchical society. Describe the hierarchy of Gilead, and give descriptions of various characters we encounter in “The Handmaid’s Tale” and how they fit into the hierarchy. Why is this hierarchy necessary?

(see the answer keys)

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