Indledning
The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel written by Margaret Atwood. We are reading the book through Offred’s perspective. Atwood describes very well how the society is put together and what her daily struggles consist of.

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Uddrag
In this extract (p. 254-259) Ofglen and Offred are on their daily route in the dystopian society they live in. Offred talks about her and Ofglen being trapped in a maze, ‘’A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze.’’

This meaning that they walk around freely, only for certain tasks, but within strict walls that they can’t go outside. Throughout the text, Offred and Ofglen have only a little dialogue.

Mostly she describes the environment and what they walk past. And as they walk past different buildings she tells us about her flashback where she thinks about Luke. They are not allowed to talk about the past.

Flashbacks help her to keep her memories safe and to keep her hope safe. When they walk past The Wall where dead people usually hang, she thinks about Luke. She thinks about him because the wall is empty. When its empty it’s more frightening than when none is hanging there.

She describes why, very well, ‘’When I can see the bodies, the actual bodies, when I can guess -from the sizes and shapes that none of them is Luke, I can believe also that he is still alive’’

If there are no bodies hanging she can comfort herself by thinking that Luke is not hanging there. She fears that she will someday see Luke hanging on the wall.