The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale, #2)

by Margaret Atwood

underlings given sudden power frequently become the worst abusers of it.

The women in charge handed them tissues. They said calm things like You need to be strong. They were trying to make things better. But it can put a lot of pressure on a person to be told they need to be strong. That’s another thing I’ve learned.

Being able to read and write did not provide the answers to all questions. It led to other questions, and then to others.

If you’ve never had a faith, you will not understand what that means. You feel as if your best friend is dying; that everything that defined you is being burned away; that you’ll be left all alone.

Still, I wanted to believe; indeed I longed to; and, in the end, how much of belief comes from longing?

fall? The Testaments was written in response to this question. Totalitarianisms may crumble from within, as they fail to keep the promises that brought them to power; or they may be attacked from without; or both. There are no sure-fire formulas, since very little in history is inevitable.