Handmaids tale Chapter summary 1-5

In the first chapter the narrator describes how all the women slept in a gymnasium in army cots. Elizabeth patrol the site with weapons but not guns, and the women, are not allowed to speak out loud so they whisper without distracted them and without getting the guards attention. Everyday the women would be allowed to walk around the old football field which was not surrounded by a silver meter chain. There were armed guards outside whom were not allowed inside unless they were called to do so. Moreover this chapter goes into quite a lot of depth about how the characters communicated (they could lip read) this connotes that lip reading was there only form of communication.

In the second chapter the story changes tense. They now live in a place where there are no curtains and the windows do not open fully so that they cannot escape moreover the one picture that hangs on the wall has no glass to cover it. The picture is of flowers (flowers are allowed

.) all the Handmaids where red, the house servants "Martha's" wear green uniforms and the wives wear blue uniforms. servants are not allowed to form relationships nor bonds with the house wives. tokens are used to purchase items : Each token has an image of what will be purchased "eggs, cheese and steak"

3: The Commander’s Wife has a garden, and she knits all the time. All the Wives knit scarves “for the Angels at the front lines,” but the Commander’s Wife is very skilled. On the first day, her new mistress told her to stay out of her sight as much as possible, and to avoid making trouble. Then the Wife reminded her that the Commander is her husband, always and forever. “It’s one of the things we fought for,” she said, looking away.

4: Offred notices Nick a Guardian of the Faith washing the Commander’s car. Nick lives on top of the garage. The Handmaids always travel in pairs when outside.

They reach a checkpoint with two young Guardians. The Guardians serve as a routine police force. They are men too young, too old, or just generally unfit for the army. (not the norm) Young guardians can be dangerous because they are usually nervous than older guards. These young Guardians recently shot a Martha as she fumbled for her pass, because they thought she was a man in disguise carrying a bomb. The Guardians can only hope to become Angels, when they will be allowed to take a wife and perhaps eventually get a Handmaid. This denotes the first time in the novel we hear the word “Handmaid” used.

5. We learn the name of this new society: “The Republic of Gilead.” Now no one whistles at women as they walk; no one touches them or talks to them. The women shop at stores known by names like All Flesh and Milk and Honey. Pictures of meat or fruit mark the stores, rather than lettered signs, because “they decided that even the names of shops were too much temptation for us.” The tourists want to take a photograph, but Offred refuses