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As you read The Handmaid's Tale, you will engage with the text and communicate with your peers through blogging. For each blog, write an entry of at least 250 words. Use a different prompt for each entry EXCEPT FOR POST 4. For post 4, all of you will respond to the same prompt. 

Make sure your writing is organized, grammatically correct, and engaging to your reader. In each entry, combine specific textual references with personal analysis. You should use specific aspects of the text like quotes or events as a springboard for analytical thinking. 

Prompts for Posts 1-3:

• What factors and/or situations combined to create your book’s dystopia? Why and how did the society evolve into a dystopia? How could it have been prevented from becoming a dystopia?What message (or warning) do you think the author is trying to send to our current society?
• What aspects of a dystopia does our current society have? Do these characteristics have the potential to expand? What should be done to stop it? Use aspects of your novel to support the points that you make.
• What is the one thing the writer makes you curious about? Why?
• How is the protagonist changing? What is s/he learning about life and the role s/he plays in it?
• What happens to “the individual” in a dystopia?
• Choose a quote from the book that really speaks or stands out to you. Explain why you chose it, its value in the book, and its value to you.
• Choose a symbol that the author has created in the novel. What is the symbol, what does it represent, and why do you think the author incorporated it in his/her novel?
• To what extent can technology violate individual freedoms?
• When is it best to conform to the wishes or rules of others? What problems are avoided when people conform? What new problems does conformity create?
• What are the necessary components of a functioning and fair society?
• Describe the government of a perfect society. Explain your opinions.
• Express your thoughts to the following statement: The governing body should be allowed to do whatever they feel is necessary to protect its citizens.

Prompt for Post 4:

• Each novel has a problem in its core societal framework that has caused it to become a dystopia. What is the central problem in your novel that needs solving in order to resolve the dystopia that has been created? Next, solve the problem. Determine a plan for how the society in your book can transition from the present dystopia to a functional and fair society.