Unseen extract 6 - The Handmaid's Tale - Sample question and extract analysis

Oct 20, 2026

Uploaded by dhado

Practice material for an unseen extract from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, focusing on individuality and the meanings shaped through characterization, imagery, and social control. The passage depicts Ofglen and Offred encountering Japanese tourists, exposing how visibility, modesty, and enforced gender roles operate under Gilead. A sample question directs close analysis of Atwood’s techniques, supported by the full extract.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages2

Reading Time5 min

AccessFree to download

Sample question

Extract (Ofglen and Offred meet Japanese tourists)

Key themes for analysis

Unseen extract 6: The Handmaid's Tale Read the extract carefully. It is taken from The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood which was first published in 1985. This dystopian novel portrays the totalitarian society of Gilead, which has replaced the USA, where women’s rights have been eroded. Handmaids exist solely for the purpose of reproduction, bearing children for elite barren couples. They are forbidden to work, vote or read and are given a name which includes that of the man with whom they are reproducing. Handmaids are only allowed to travel outside in pairs and, in this extract, Ofglen and Offred are on a shopping trip. Sample question Explore the significance of individuality in this extract. Remember to include in your answer relevant detailed analysis of the ways that Atwood shapes meanings. Extract A group of people is coming towards us. They’re tourists , from Japan it looks like, a trade delegation perhaps, on a tour of the historic landmarks or out for local colour. They’re diminutive and neatly turned out; each has his or her camera, his or her smile. They look around, bright-eyed, cocking their heads to one side like robins, their very cheerfulness aggressive, and I can’t help staring. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen skirts that short on women. The skirts reach just below the knee and the legs come out from beneath them, nearly naked in their thin stockings, blatant, the high-heeled shoes with their straps attached to the feet like delicate instruments of torture. The women teeter on their spiked feet as if on stilts, but off balance; their backs arch at the waist, thrusting the buttocks out. Their heads are uncovered and their hair too is exposed, in all its darkness and sexuality. They wear lipstick, red, outlining the damp cavities of their mouths, like scrawls on a washroom wall, of the time before. I stop walking. Ofglen stops beside me and I know that she too cannot take her eyes off these women. We are fascinated, but also repelled. They seem undressed. It has taken so little time to change our minds, about things like this. Then I think: I used to dress like that. That was freedom. Westernized, they used to call it. The Japanese tourists come towards us, twittering, and we turn our heads away too late: our faces have been seen. There’s an interpreter, in the standard blue suit and red-patterned tie, with the winged-eye tie pin. He’s the one who steps forward, out of the group, in front of us, blocking our way. The tourists bunch behind him; one of them raises a camera. “Excuse me,” he says to both of us, politely enough.“They’re asking if they can take your picture.” I look down at the sidewalk, shake my head for No. What they must see is the white wings only, a scrap of face, my chin and part of my mouth. Not the eyes. I know better than to look the interpreter in the face. Most of the interpreters are Eyes, or so it’s said. I also know better than to say Yes. Modesty is invisibility, said Aunt Lydia. Never forget it. To be seen – to be seen – is to be – her voice trembled – penetrated. What you must be, girls, is impenetrable. She called us girls. Beside me, Ofglen is also silent. She’s tucked her red-gloved hands up into her sleeves, to hide them. The interpreter turns back to the group, chatters at them in staccato. I know what he’ll be saying, I know the line. He’ll be telling them that women here have different customs, that to stare at them through the lens of a camera is, for them, an experience of violation. Acknowledgement of copyright-holders and publishers © From The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Published by Jonathan Cape. Reprinted by permission of The Random House Group Limited.

FAQs

What is the sample question asking you to explore in the extract?

It asks you to explore the significance of individuality in the extract, with detailed analysis of how Atwood shapes meanings.

Who are Ofglen and Offred in this passage?

Ofglen and Offred are the Handmaids narrating and observing the tourists as their encounter escalates.

How does the passage link modesty and being seen?

It stresses that modesty functions as invisibility, and that being seen is framed as a form of penetration or violation in Gilead’s ideology.

Oct 20, 2026

Uploaded by dhado