Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- Why is the novel sometimes billed as a detective novel? What is the mystery (or mysteries) here? Also, is the fact that Anna's always reading detective novels significant?
- Why do you think Atwood fails to give her protagonist a name? What does that do for your understanding of her character?
- Anna implies that the narrator is inhuman at one point for refusing to rise to the bait when she and David are taunting her, and the narrator herself seems to worry about her inability to feel certain things. Do you find the narrator's "coldness" problematic, in terms of connecting with her-her problems? Does her level of chilliness rise or fall over the course of the novel? Why does it matter?
- What is your response to the characters, generally? Do you find it easy or hard to warm up to them? Why?
- There are quite a few references to things/people being doubled or mirrored. What do these moments do for the novel as a whole? Why are they there?
- Why do you think Atwood has the narrative switch from the present to the past tense from Section I to Section II, then back to the present tense in the third? What is the effect of this structure?