The Handmaids Tale
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When the first season ofHandmaids Taledebuted last year, I itched to suck it all down.
Instead, it took me nearly nine months to make it through the first season.
Unity or comfort of any kind will not be tolerated.
She believed, until the blindfold went on, that the setup itself was the punishment.
She stops performing the role of the aggrieved woman.
In this case, itisan elaborate ruse.
The guards pull the lever, and the floor drops out, but only about an inch.
What the actual fuck?
whether or not they should have a baby.
As she slips out the door and Luke lovingly squeezes her butt they decide to forgo the pills.
Kids go to school, moms go to work, babies get made.
There is more than one kind of freedom.
Aunt Lydias special zeal has always marked her as a supervillain of sorts.
Were certain now that its both.
So she encourages Offred to be her very good girl and eat up that yummy soup.
In return, she seems to promise, shell give her some basic human rights.
Recognizing her moment of privilege Aunt Lydia cant physically torture her, right?
Offred rebels and refuses her food.
But Aunt Lydia knows how to play the game far better.
Do you think youve done her a kindness?
Aunt Lydia isnt done yet.
Our imaginations, like those of the other handmaids, are forced to do brutal work.
And then comes the threat, lined with sugar to coat that nasty taste.
It wasnt just a cabal of powerful men who enabled Gilead to come to power, were reminded.
Democracy in America died by a thousand paper cuts.
There isnt an ounce of warmth to comfort or reassure patients.
The fences, the buildings, the borders: Its all so structured and designed and complete.)
Serena is now quite the lame duck, chastising Offred to put her back in her place.
As the technician leaves the room, he too offers a blessing: Godspeed, June.
She steps through a door and onto a flatbed truck.
It isnt until the engine starts that you notice shes among swinging pig carcasses.
In the present, Offred is dropped at what looks like some sort of garage or depot.
Stay inside and someone will come for you, the driver tells her.
Nick is waiting there, a source of comfort and instruction.
So she takes a match to them.
She does it all without a sound, the blood trickling down her neck.
But all of that is really no matter.
The flames and hacking and carving were a ceremony, a rebirth.
My name is June Osborne, she declares.
Im from Brookline, Massachusetts.
Im 34 years old.
I stand five-foot-three in bare feet.
I weigh 120 pounds.
I have viable ovaries.
Im five weeks pregnant.
This is all she knows about who she is anymore.
After all, as Aunt Lydia explained, Gilead isnt just a place.
She may have escaped, but its still inside her.
