Offred describes the abortionists as 'time travellers, anachronisms'. How far is Offred an anachronism?

She remembers how life used to be and is mournful of what has happened to society.
She doesn't feel how she's expected to feel towards the hanged doctors - she still has feelings from her past life.
She is not used to living in Gilead, as she is used to the norms of past.

Significance of the change of tense

'Luke wasn't a doctor. Isn't.' - She is try to subconciously believe that he is still alive.
'It will become ordinary' - use of future tense when the entire chapter was in present, trying to make herself believe something about the future.
The use of different tenses shows how Offred has a retrospective view of the past and present, as she is retelling the story at a later date.

Distinction between tulips and red smile

Offred is surrounded by red things - her clothes, the tulips, the bloodstain smile.
She refuses to see them as all the same thing, as she and the other Handmaids are defined by the colour red. (Literally: their identity is shown through their uniform, Biologically: their role depends on their menstrual cycle and fertility, the blood of which is represented by the colour red.
Offred wishes to distinguish her own identity from the other Handmaids, so she cannot see all red things are the same.

	Created by Summer Pearce over 8 years ago

A-Level (Year 1) (Year 1) English Language and Literature (The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood) Slide Set on Chapter Six of The Handmaid's Tale, created by Summer Pearce on 08/06/2016.