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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 has Janine now avoided in Chapter 8?

2. Where did Moira make her escape attempt in Chapter 8?

3. What is strange about the blankets at the center in Chapter 1?

4. In Chapter 3, what does the narrator think might have happened to her daughter?

5. Who is Luke?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Offred’s mother say about her father?

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

3. What fate has Janine avoided by having the baby?

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

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

6. In Chapter 7, where does Offred think that Luke really is?

7. What tone do the women take with Janine?

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

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

10. What is the purpose of the exercises that Offred does?

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

Gilead might seem to be a cold and terrifying society at first glance. Explore the basis of this society. What came before, and what were the factors that caused Gilead to arise? How has it organized itself, and for what reasons?

Essay Topic 3

Make-up is no longer available to any of the women in Gilead, except for those who work at Jezebel’s. In what way is make-up a significant symbol in “The Handmaid’s Tale”?

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