"For lunch it was the Beatitudes. Blessed be this, blessed be that… Blessed are the merciful. Blessed be the meek. Blessed are the silent. I knew they made that up, I knew it was wrong, and they left things out, too, but there was no way of checking (89)."
The Beatitudes are a set of teachings from Jesus that represent Christian ideals of love and humility. There are about eight different ones and each teaches mercy, spirituality and compassion. In the novel, the Aunts use the Beatitudes to teach the girls exactly how they should act in society. Atwood most likely left out "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." The makers of the society would leave this particular one out because many people are persecuted in the society daily, like scientists and people from other religions, and they don't want anyone to have pity on the "criminals". They also most likely left out "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." This suggests that if the women protest and fight for what they want, their wishes will be fulfilled. They don't want to give these women any sort of hope. In the place of the ones they left out Orwell came up with "Blessed are the Silent," so the women do not protest for their rights.
http://robertwells.tripod.com/Beatitudes.html
comma inside the quotation marks. Still an exceptional entry with strong research and interpretation happening all around. I like how you integrate text throughout
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