Original artwork, not a still
The Handmaid's Tale ‧ 1985
We were the people who were not in the papers.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The line is about the safety of being ordinary and the cost of it: the people who feel safe because nothing happens to them are also the ones who are not watching. Readers quote it for the warning about not noticing a country change around you. It also describes the unrecorded lives that history leaves out.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for The Handmaid's TaleShow the scene
Offred looks back at her life before Gilead, when news of cruelty elsewhere seemed to belong to other people. Newspaper stories felt like bad dreams dreamt by someone else. The line says that women like her were not in the papers: they lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print. Offred says that this gave them a kind of freedom, in the gaps between the stories.
Sources (1)
- Quote of the Week (Pace University publishing blog)Page textReference checked
Context reviewed
