Quotation

1
QuotationWe slept in what had once been the
gymnasium. The floor was of varnished wood, with
stripes and circles painted on it, for the games
that were formerly played there the hoops for
the basketball nets were still in place, though
the nets were gone. () I thought I could smell,
faintly like an afterimage, the pungent scent of
sweat, shot through with the sweet taint of
chewing gum and perfume from the watching girls
(). Dances would have been held there the music
lingered, a palimpsest of unheard sound ().
(Atwood, 3).
Quotation 1 from The Handmaids Tale

• Significance
• The above quotation is the opening of the novel
  and is of extreme significance because it is the
  narrators memory, a memory of a time that no
  longer exists but with which we are very familiar
  as readers. If where they slept had once been
  the gymnasium, we can assume that the novel is
  situated after a major societal change has
  occurred, where things are no longer used for
  their original intentions. The quotation
  continues in this vein and the narrators
  memories are expanded to include what we would
  normally associate with high school gyms. Im
  left with a few questions inspired by the genre
  of speculative fiction. We are in a new world and
  based on the genre, it is a world with a new
  political regime. My questions are What kind of
  political regime? Who is running the show and who
  are the victims of the new regime? Who benefits?
  Will there be any historical information as to
  when and why the shift occurred? What are the
  exaggerated present day realities that Atwood is
  attempting to expose as potentially dangerous?

2
Link to Quotation 1

• I wonder if the narrators memories suggest a
  sense of innocence. When I read them, I was
  reminded no so much of Park View and real high
  school but of high school as it is portrayed in
  various teen films. My high school gym didnt
  actually host dances, nor does Park Views, but
  almost every teen movie Ive seen where a dance
  is portrayed, it is always in the school gym.
  Also, these movies often portray high school as
  an innocent time where innocence is lost, such as
  the classic Francis Ford Coppola film American
  Graffiti . I suspect that the narrator is
  indeed thinking of more innocent times where
  certain freedoms were perhaps taken for granted.
  Based on my previous knowledge of speculative
  fiction, I think it is a safe bet to assume that
  all of the things we associate with high school,
  such as sports and dances, are indeed freedoms
  that have disappeared since an assumed new regime
  has taken over the world. Is an old high school
  were she actually lives?