The Handmaid's Tale - Chapter 21
"A contraction hits her, she doubles over. One of the women kneels and rubs her back. We are all good
at this, we've had lessons." ️️Every handmaid has lessons in childbirth at their training centre, so
that it's more likely the baby will be born correctly...
"A contraction hits her, she doubles over. One of the women kneels and rubs her back. We are all good
at this, we've had lessons." ✔️✔️Every handmaid has lessons in childbirth at their training centre, so
that it's more likely the baby will be born correctly and survive, as the job of all handmaids is simply to
give birth to as many healthy babies as possible for their wives and commanders
"It must be from Janine: a smell of dens, of inhabited caves, the smell of the plaid blanket on the bed
when the cat gave birth to it... Smell of matrix." ✔️✔️this olfactory imagery presents this experience
as a very intimate and primal one, but also presents Janine as something almost less than human, as an
animal, whose only purpose in this moment is to give birth
"the woman next to me says, low in my ear 'are you looking for anyone?' 'Moira', I say, just as low. "Dark
hair, freckles" ✔️✔️this brief interaction between Offred and this stranger shows how secretive and
careful the handmaids must be simply in order to survive, as they aren't even allowed to talk with one
another at a birth, they need to walk on eggshells at all times, and are in such a desperate and isolated
situation that they are grateful for even a small scrap of information about old friends that they haven't
seen in a while
"Pain marks you, but too deep to see. Out of sight, out of mind." ✔️✔️
"Two of the wives in their blue dresses and veils hold her by the arms, as if she needs it" ✔️✔️the
sardonic tone present in this line emphasises the hatred that Offred and the other handmaids have for
the wives, as Janine's wife is pretending that she is the one giving birth just so she can get more
attention and not feel left out of the process, which takes away the attention from Janine, who is the
one that is really struggling in this moment, and Offred understands and sympathises with Janine in this
way, and gets back at the wives through the only way she can: her thoughts
"someone has spiked the grape juice... It won't be the first time at such a gathering; but they'll turn a
blind eye. We too need our orgies." ✔️✔️This suggests that the authorities of Gilead do have some
sympathy for the handmaids and lower classes of society in general, as they "turn a blind eye" to the
grape juice being spiked with alcohol
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