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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. How old was Offred’s mother when she had the baby?

2. What is special about the day in Chapter 4?

3. What part of Moira’s body was beaten?

4. Where does the narrator go in Chapter 3?

5. What is one kind of film the women watched at the center?

Short Essay Questions

1. If Luke is dead in Chapter 7, what happened to him?

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

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

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

5. Why don’t the Aunts have guns?

6. What tone do the women take with Janine?

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

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

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

10. How is Offred’s role different from that of the Commander’s Wife?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Offred writes about having taken certain things for granted in her earlier life. Write an essay in which you discuss which things in particular she took for granted, and why. What are some things which she always valued, by contrast?

Essay Topic 2

Every other chapter in the book is entitled “Night”. Why might this be the case? How is Night significant for Offred, and what is it placed in contrast to?

Essay Topic 3

Offred seems to be trapped throughout the book, though other characters have different paths. What choices were available to women in Gilead? How do these compare to the choices that men had in determining their fates?

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