Quotation 6

"It was after the catastrophe, when they shot the president and machine-gunned the Congress and blamed it on the Islamic fanatics, at the time.

Keep calm, they said on television. Everything is under control.

I was stunned. Everyone was, I know that. It was hard to believe. The entire government, gone like that. How did they get in, how did it happen?

That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn't even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn't even an enemy you could put your finger on.

Look out, said Moira to me, over the phone. Here it comes.

Here what comes? I said.

You wait, she said. They've been building up to this. It's you and me up against the wall, baby. She was quoting an expression of my mother's, but she wasn't intending to be funny."

This quote describes the overthrow of the US Government, an event that seems very unlikely. The series of events seems very unlikely and unusual. Society was kept overall calm and collected, and very few actually saw what the future held, which is the Republic of Gilead. This is where everything began, and everything went downhill. The quote is very important for the explanation of the book, as it gives the background of how the changes went into effect. p.174