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About this quote

What does it mean?
The speaker resists oppression through small acts of defiance and survival.
In plain terms
Even under threat the speaker survives and warns others.
What can you take from it?
Defiance and adaptation can resist oppressive control.

Where it applies

  • authoritarian rule
  • social pressure
  • personal struggle

Putting it to work

  • resist subtly
  • warn others
  • stay alive

Questions to consider

  • How do you resist control?
  • What keeps you alive?

Another view

Open resistance often leads to destruction for the vulnerable.

More from Margaret Atwood

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  2. I am yours. If you feed me garbage, I will sing a song of garbage. This is a hymn.

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  3. Your righteous eyes, your laconic trigger-fingers people the streets with villains: as you move, the air in front of you blossoms with targets and you leave be…

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