the handmaid's tale part 2

i finished the tv series.

confession: i listened to an interview that definitely had a spoiler.

margaret atwood's tv writing has excelled her book. (although the book reads more like poetry than prose.)

the tv series expands her voice with the telling of more stories. like orange is the new black, she gives a glimpse of what brought each woman to where she is. it shows the hopes and dreams and memories of what has been lost.

each woman is complicated. 


each woman has made compromises.


each woman is trying to survive.



the star of this season is hands down serena joy.                                                                          

she is the most complicated and conflicted character in the show. she is the actress with the greatest challenge... and man, does she nail it!!!

like no other woman in the show, serena joy is alone.

there is little sense of camaraderie for her. the wives share their desperate desire for a child and their sorrow at their lack of ability to produce one. they express an envious joy in the birth of a child.

but it is a careful and fragile bond. 

there is only one encounter in which two wives reveal their vulnerability ... and i won't put a spoiler here. if you've seen it, you know it. if you haven't, you will.

unlike all of the other women, wives are in a position of power. they are at the top of the woman chain.

serena joy has had the greatest loss that we see among the wives. her idealism, her lifework and sacrifice to see a world safe for children has been perverted. her own place in this has been reduced to that of servitude.

she had been a leader. she had been respected. she wielded the power that brought gilead into being.

now she is a pawn, forced to present a lie before the world.

she grabs power in the only place left to her.... over women more oppressed than she.

power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Lord Action

power steals from serena her basic humanity more than once, and she learns that it is an illusion.. the power she previously held, she used for what she believed was the greater good. the power she has now erects a wall, a wall that isolates herself from women who share her same fate, albeit in different ways.

lydia is also in a position of power; but unlike serena, she fully understands the limits of her power. 

she knows what the handmaids will be facing; and like the marine sargeant, works to prepare them.


 she knows when cruelty is required of her.



lydia is under no illusion that she is truly in charge.

lydia understands fully the reality in which they live. lydia chooses to do what she must in this world, protects the handmaids as she can..... and finds her purpose in each child born.

for lydia, it is the one good.

i must admit that june continues to be a disappointment to me.

she's just not very smart.

you can say that she refuses to hide her rebellion, but she gains nothing from it except worse cruelty... for herself and also for others


june reminds me of battered women who provoke their abuser.

and i guess it's because that's what she is.

june doesn't consider the costs to others.

she realizes too late the consequences of her actions.

it seems to be that june sits in judgement of other women, deciding that her choice of rebellion should be the choice of all.


that was not the june of the book. as i said before, this june is not subtle. 

other women in the series make their own choices of how to rebel.

lydia's sarcasm is reserved for safe times. she expresses her discontent... but not when it will be punished.

lydia is more the june of the book. she keeps herself private. she separates herself from her surroundings.


one of the saddest stories is eden.... not a spoiler... there are no stories that aren't sad.

eden is treated with the same isolation as serena, and it's not fair. she is not welcomed by lydia. she is treated with condescension by the other women.

eden is a believer. 

she is 15. she has been taught from childhood by a loving family what her role in life will be.

eden wants to fulfill god's purpose in her life.

with june's encouragement, again without june considering what the cost might be, eden is moved to make the choice to realize her destiny in the way she feels is right. 

eden doesn't abandoned her beliefs. she remains true to them.

and then there's janine....

 janine reinterprets her world.

like eden, she does not reject god with gilead.

but hers is a late conversion.

janine convinces herself that she has been twice saved for a purpose.

no spoilers... but perhaps she is right.

the handmaid's tale

i was in my 20's when i read the handmaiden's tale.
                                                                                                      

i'm not certain, but i think i was introduced to it by the quality paperback book club i was in... the same place i met alice walker and the color purple.



it was touted as "women's fiction".


i didn't understand what that meant until i read it.

 the first season on hulu mostly followed the book. the second season has moved in a whole new direction.

it's margaret atwood's book and she's the one moving it a different way so it's totally her call.

but the new version is more feminist. june is angrier.

in the book, i found june's defiance to be much more subtle.

in the book, her defiance was holding on to her true self in spite of the horrific circumstances of her captivity.  she kept her soul free.

june fed her soul with something as simple as words on a pillow.

she held herself apart.

her relationship with nick was not instigated or even known by serena joy. it was a risk she took, a gift she gave herself.

june did what she was told. she said what she was supposed to say... but it wasn't her life. her life was her memories. her life was internal.

it was a woman's life.

the june of the tv show is openly defiant. it costs her, but she rebels externally.

i think both interpretations are valid.

but i believe that the june of the book has the greater protest. 

i don't believe that we should ever stop protesting injustice, but it is even more important not to lose who we are.