Historical Allusion
Possibly, we reasoned, this house may have been a "safe house" on the Underground Femaleroad during our period, and our author may have been kept hidden in, for instance, the attic or cellar there for some weeks or months, during which she would have had the opportunity to make the recordings.
The need for what I may call birth services was already recognize in the pre-Gilead period, where it was being inadequately met by "artificial insemination," "fertility clinics," and the use of "surrogate mothers," who were hired for the purpose.
Sense Impression
Down there in the lawn, someone emerges from the spill of darkness under the willow, steps across the light, his long shadow attached sharply to his heels.
Once we had to watch a woman being slowly cut into pieces, her fingers and breasts snipped off with garden shears, her stomach slit open and her intestines pulled out.
Repetition
I am, I am, I am, still.
Night falls. Or has fallen. Why is it that night falls, instead of rising, like the dawn?
Euphemism
Guns were for the guards, specially picked from the Angels.
"Think of it as being in the army," said Aunt Lydia.
Philosophy
Even though some of them are no more than fourteen — Start them soon is the policy, there's not a moment to be lost — still they'll remember.
Nature demands variety, for men. It stands to reason, it's part of the procreational strategy. It's Nature's plan. . . . Women know that instinctively. Why did they buy so many different clothes, in the old days? To trick the men into thinking they were several different women.
