Salvagings a euphemism for executions. Such manipulations of language conceal the predatory nature of Gilead and its vicious hierarchy.
San Andreas fault a fluctuating fissure in the subterranean plates that threatens the stability of California.
scriptural precedent biblical examples taken from context and used as justification for Gilead's laws, or strictures. One precedent allows Wives to hit Handmaids.
sect wars interdenominational battles, which Gilead's fundamentalists fight against Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, Quakers, and other religious sects.
semaphore a coded system of flag movements used at sea for ship-to-ship or ship-to-shore communication.
serial polygamy the practice of marriage, divorce, and remarriage.
simultaneous polygamy . . . in the former state of Utah The reference is to the Mormon practice of polygamy, a socio-religious custom allowing men to take multiple wives, which thrived under the leadership of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young from 1843 until it was banned in 1890.
smeared with yoghurt that is, smeared with vernix caseosa, from the Latin for cheesy varnish, the oily protective tissue that coats a newborn.
snake-twined sword a version of the caduccus, the traditional symbol of the medical profession.
soi-disant manuscript a French literary term questioning the authenticity of a manuscript.
something Renaissance about the pose models depicting bold, selfconfident attitudes,
Sons of Jacob In Genesis 32:28, after wrestling with God's messenger, Jacob changes his name to Israel, thus establishing his tribe as the Israelites, God's chosen people.
Soul Scrolls an automated print shop that publishes prayers "for health, wealth, a death, a birth, a sin."
St. Paul a founder of Christian worship and writer of epistles to new churches. Paul was notoriously hard on women, particularly the whores of coastal Mediterranean towns, whom he forced to cover their hair as evidence of their departure from seducing sailors and of their conversion to Christianity.
Sufi a seventh- and eighth-century mystical Arabic sect growing out of Islam. Infused with lyricism and wisdom, Sufism encouraged the faithful to seek God out of love rather than from any desire to gain heaven or avoid hell.
sum es est, sumus estis sunt a lesson in beginning Latin, which translates, "I am, you are, he is, we are, you are, they are."
Sumptuary Laws legal regulation of food, drink, color and style of clothing, personal adornment and purchase and display or use of luxury items, such as furs, glass windows, chimneys, and dishes made of silver or gold.
TAKE BACK THE NIGHT a feminist slogan of the 1980s indicating dismay and revolt at the increase in violence against women, which lessened their freedoms by making them fear the dark.
Testifying a Gileadean perversion of a fundamentalist ritual in which Christians tell how and why they gave up sinful ways and converted to Christianity. In the futuristic testimony, Handmaids-in-training confess to sexual sins, including gang rape and abortion.
that film, about the women Offred recalls an unnamed movie picturing female collaborators kneeling in the town square and having their heads shaved in token of their disloyalty.
The bell is tolling an allusion to John Donne's Meditation XVII, which includes the phrase therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
The Fall Adam and Eve's loss of innocence after they disobeyed God and tasted of the Tree of Knowledge.
the man had been cruel and brutal an allusion to Adolf Hitler, credited with orchestrating the annihilation of over six million Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, retardates, handicapped, and elderly victims, whom he considered detrimental to the breeding of his Master Race.
the mistress an allusion to Eva Braun, Hitler's mistress, who is thought to have committed suicide with her lover.
the wandering womb an ancient Greek explanation for female hysteria, which derives from the Greek hystera, or womb
The Warsaw Tactic: Policies of Urban Core Encirclement In 1940, Nazi occupation forces confined 400,000 Jews to a ghetto in the center of Warsaw, Poland. As disease, starvation, and exportation to death camps decimated the number of Jews, the authorities began reducing the perimeter of the ghetto, thus squeezing the inhabitants into a smaller and more easily controlled compound. On April 19, 1943, German and Lithuanian soldiers joined Polish firemen and police in a brutal attack against the remaining 60,000 Jews, who put up a brave, but doomed resistance. By May 16, a house-by-house search revealed that Warsaw's Jews were annihilated.
Tibetan prayer wheels cylinders containing written prayers used by devout Buddhists as an adjunct to worship.
torahs, talliths, Magen Davids symbols of Judaism — the five books of Moses, prayer shawls, and the superimposed triangles that form the hexagrammatic shield of David, a feature of the flag of Israel.
University of Denay, Nunavit a pun on "Deny none of it." Nunavit suggests Nunivak, a fogbound island off Alaska in the Bering Sea. Likewise, the Dene, who are Native American ancestors of the Athapascan aborigines, inhabit the Northwest Territories of Canada south of the tree line. Another sound-alike is Danae, the character from Greek mythology who was impregnated by a ray of sunlight from Zeus while she was imprisoned. After giving birth, Danae and her child were cast into the sea. The conclusion to her story, like that of Offred, is ambiguous, suggesting both acceptance and treachery.
Unwoman any female remanded to the Colonies to serve in clean-up crews removing toxic wastes.
