57 pages • 1 hour read
Margaret AtwoodA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Eating her breakfast, Offred thinks, “Pleasure is an egg,” but speculates that “possibly this is how I am expected to react. If I have an egg, what more can I want?” (120). She hears a siren and sees the “red Birthmobile” (121) come to collect her. She sits in the back with three other Handmaids and learns that Ofwarren—“formerly that whiny bitch Janine” (125)—is due to give birth.
Offred wonders if Ofwarren will give birth to a baby or “an Unbaby, with a pinhead or a snout like a dog’s, or two bodies, or a hole in its heart or no arms, or webbed hands and feet” (122). She remembers Aunt Lydia discussing the “slippery slope” (123) of a declining birth rate that had various causes, including women choosing not to have children. Aunt Lydia condemns them as “lazy women” and “sluts” (123).
At Warren’s house, the Wives gather in the sitting room, “get[ting] a little drunk,” “cheering on this Commander’s Wife, the Wife of Warren,” and “massag[ing] her tiny belly, just as if she’s really about to give birth herself” (126). The Handmaids gather around Ofwarren, and Offred thinks that she could “almost like her” (126), considering, “[W]hat did she ever want but to lead her life as agreeably as possible? […] It’s possible that’s the catch” (127).
By Margaret Atwood
Alias Grace
Alias Grace
Margaret Atwood
Backdrop Addresses Cowboy
Backdrop Addresses Cowboy
Margaret Atwood
Cat's Eye
Cat's Eye
Margaret Atwood
Death By Landscape
Death By Landscape
Margaret Atwood
Hag-Seed
Hag-Seed: William Shakespeare's The Tempest Retold
Margaret Atwood
Happy Endings
Happy Endings
Margaret Atwood
Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing
Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing
Margaret Atwood
Lady Oracle
Lady Oracle
Margaret Atwood
Life Before Man
Life Before Man
Margaret Atwood
MaddAddam
MaddAddam
Margaret Atwood
Oryx and Crake
Oryx and Crake
Margaret Atwood
Rape Fantasies
Rape Fantasies
Margaret Atwood
Siren Song
Siren Song
Margaret Atwood
Stone Mattress
Stone Mattress
Margaret Atwood
Surfacing
Surfacing
Margaret Atwood
The Blind Assassin
The Blind Assassin
Margaret Atwood
The Circle Game
The Circle Game
Margaret Atwood
The Edible Woman
The Edible Woman
Margaret Atwood
The Heart Goes Last
The Heart Goes Last
Margaret Atwood
The Landlady
The Landlady
Margaret Atwood