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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 is a disfigured baby called?

2. Who does the narrator go shopping with in Chapter 2?

3. Who is pregnant in Chapter 2?

4. What does the Commander play with Offred in Chapter 8?

5. Where did Moira and Offred meet at the center to talk privately?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How does the Commander act before and during the ceremony in Chapter 6?

3. If Luke is in jail in Chapter 7, what happened to him?

4. In Chapter 4, What does the message in Offred’s room say?

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

6. What is wrong with how Offred kisses the Commander, in his view?

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

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

9. Why does the narrator start thinking about Moira at night in Chapter 3?

10. How does the narrator feel about the Commander’s House in Chapter 2? Describe her surroundings as well as her reactions to them.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Along with her daughter, Offred thinks about Luke quite a lot. What were Luke’s dominant characteristics? How do these support or go against characteristics prevalent in the society of Gilead? Finally, what (in your opinion) was Luke’s fate?

Essay Topic 2

Offred’s daughter is one of the most important people in her life, though they are no longer together. Describe what Offred’s daughter’s life might be like at the moment. How are children important in Gilead, and what is Offred’s daughter’s most likely fate?

Essay Topic 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

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