Chapters 42-46
Answer the following questions
1. Read chapter 42. a) Explain what the salvaging is and its purpose.
b) Who is salvaged?
c) Why do you think it is called salvaging?
2. On page 283, Aunt Lydia announces to the crowd that they have decided not to share the
details of the crimes committed by the accused. Why do you think they made this omission?
3. Read chapter 43.
a) What is a particicution?
b) What two words do you think form the word particicution?
c) Why do you think the Handmaids behaved with such bloodlust and violence towards the
Guardian who has been convicted of rape?
d) If you were Ofglen, would you have put the Guardian ‘out of his misery’ in the same
manner?
4. Read chapter 44.
a) How is the new Ofglen different from the previous Ofglen?
b) Read p293. How would you describe Offred’s mood and state of mind after the new
Ofglen is tested with the password ‘Mayday’?
c) What information does the new Ofglen impart before they part?
5. What does Serena discover in chapter 45? Is Serena justified in feeling the way she does in
your opinion?
6. Read chapter 46. In the end, it is Nick together with two men who come for Offred in a black
van. Nick tells Offred to trust him and that "it's all right. It's Mayday. Go with them." What
is your take on Nick? Is he an Eye (part of the secret police which hunts opponents of Gilead)
or is he, as he says, part of a Mayday secret resistance group?