Quotation 8

"I wait. I compose myself. My self is a thing I must now compose, as one composes a speech. What I must present is a made thing, not something born."

Offred is thinking to herself before she participates in the Ceremony. She reflects on what will happen shortly, and what it has done to her and what it means to her. Her feelings are that she must present willingness to bear a child for Gilead. She knows that her purpose is to bear children, and the Ceremony is where measures are taken for that to happen.p.66