The Handsmaid's Tale

"We slept in what had once been the gymnasium. The floor was of varnished wood, with stripes and circles painted on it, for the games that were formerly played there; the hoops for the basketball nets were still in place, though the nets were gone. A balcony ran around the room, for the spectators, and I thought I could smell, faintly like an afterimage, the pungent scent of sweat, shot through with the sweet taint of chewing gum and perfume from the watching girls, felt-skirted as I knew from pictures, later in miniskirts, then pants, then in one earring, spiky green-streaked hair. Dances would have been held there; the music lingered, a palimpest of unheard sound, style upon style, an undercurrent of drums, a forlorn wail, garlands made of tissue-paper flowers, cardboard devils, a revolving ball of mirrors, powdering the dances with a snow of light." (Page 1, Chapter 1)

The first sentence shows that there are multiple people the main character is near. A gymnasium is a large amount of space, this shows the reader that more than likely, there is a big group of people in this particular area. There is constant imagery within this paragraph, this shows the setting and how this character is looking back in her life. By how the gymnasium is described, it resembles a high school gymnasium. The reader now knows that the main character as well as the "we" characters are in a high school. "...though the nets were gone." This shows that people are not able to play basketball in this area. It shows that having simple fun, as in playing a game, is not allowed.  A balcony is over a particular area. The people who are on the balcony are higher than them showing dominance.  The rest of the paragraph seems to be a flashback of when there was a dance in the gym around the time of halloween from the "...cardboard devils..." description. This must be a fond memory of the main character.