Close Analysis 1
Analyse the beginning of chapter 5 (p. 29, ll. 37-59) by considering the following questions:
- What type of "townscape" is described?
- What is the effect of the similes used in ll. 40-46, and how do the narrator's memories of what used to be in these streets (ll. 52-59) reinforce this effect?
- "This is the heart of Gilead", the narrator says (l. 47). Take a close look at the paragraph (ll. 47-51) and consider what impression of the 'Republic of Gilead'(l. 50) is conveyed both by what is said about it and how this is said (i.e. by the choice of words).
- Comment on the effect of positioning the paragraph about Gilead in between the paragraphs you have just analysed.
Close Analysis 2
Read p. 33 l.66 to p.35 l.61 in Chapter 5.
- Describe the situation the narrator finds herself in. Your description should deal with the outward events as well as the narrator's emotional responses to what happens.
- Analyse the different emotions in detail by examining how the narrator becomes aware of them and reacts to them.
- Choose between one of these:
a) The situation described in this passage from the novel is basically one that occurs in real life wherever tourists are confronted with "natives". Considering your analysis, comment on the situation as such and point out what is probably different from most "real-life" situations of this kind.
b) Imagine that two of the tourists exchange their views on what they have seen later on. Write their dialogue.
c) Comment on the final paragraph (p. 35, ll. 60f.) with regard to your analysis of the narrator's emotions on the one hand and to your knowledge of her situation in Gilead on the other hand.
d) One of the Japanese tourists writes a postcard home in which he / she tells her family about the encounter with the Gileadean women. Write the postcard.
The Narrator's Concept of Time
Starting point: Chapter 7
- a) Study ll. 1-11 (p. 43) and list the expressions to do with time.
b) Write down the meanings of these expressions, and include the one on p. 44, l. 34: "lose time". (Check in a dictionary to see whether any of these are idioms.)
c) Now check how and to what effect the narrator changes the meanings of these expressions.
- Check where the narrator "goes" when she steps out of her present time. Find items of information about the narrator's past life.
- a) Imagine each of the remembered scenes as a picture (e.g. a kind of film still), and sketch it if you can. Describe in particular the narrator's posture, facial expression and clothing as you imagine them.
b) How do the pictures differ in terms of time? Put them in chronological order.
c) Contrast your past-related pictures of the narrator with the one you have formed in your mind of her in the present.
d) Suggest a structure chart to save important information while reading, and mark the different time levels (pre-Gilead past, the narrator's first experiences of Gilead, her present in Gilead) using different colours.