The Handmaid’s Tale as Story of a White American Slave and Would-Be Refugee

Last updated on: June 8, 2018 at 11:24 am by James F. McGrath

The Handmaid’s Tale as Story of a White American Slave and Would-Be Refugee 2018-06-08T11:24:21-04:00 James F. McGrath

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The third episode of The Handmaid’s Tale is as profoundly religious as the previous one. In the details that it presents, as June tries to make her way to Canada, the show once again does something incredibly powerful. It tells a story of a white middle class American woman as first slave and then as displaced person seeking to become a refugee. Her experiences could be compared to the Underground Railroad, a form of which we learn has emerged to provide a way for people to flee Gilead’s oppressive regime. But one need not reach back into the past to find important analogies. As she adjusts to living in an abandoned building on her own, the site of an atrocity, she illustrates the resilience of modern-day refugees whom many Americans are happy, indeed eager, to condemn to a similar experience, closing our hearts and our borders to their plight. The waiting, the uncertainty, the comfort found even in temporarily stable accommodations, the need to be ready to forsake them at a moment’s notice – all those too are not some fictional imaginative speculation about what could be, but draws directly on what is, right now, as you read this, in multiple parts of the world.

The Handmaid’s Tale is thus prophetic, in the sense that it paints a vision of the future that is in fact a warning to avoid that future, and primarily a critique and challenge to the present day.

As June makes her way to an airfield where she has been told she can meet someone who will take her to Canada, she instead is almost left behind there when something goes awry. But the man in question shows compassion and takes her to his home – much to the concern of his wife for their own family’s safety. On Sunday, June asks whether they go to church, and the man says “I make a public profession of faith.” We discover what is behind this elusive way of putting it when June later hides under their bed, and there finds a Qur’an and a Muslim prayer mat hidden.

The episode repeats a phrase from the first season, “Better never means better for everyone,” which reminds us that, on the one hand, someone else loses when another gains; but on the other hand, that we can seek fair and equitable sharing together, rather than pursuing our own gain and advantage and not caring how it may harm others as we do so.

The show offers some poignant thoughts about motherhood, family, and activism, as it provides more of June’s backstory focused on her mother, who was a feminist activist who, on the one hand, was willing to suffer in standing against rape, or for a woman’s reproductive rights. At one point she tells June that she doesn’t think she should marry Luke. She is upset that she sacrificed for June and yet June seems to be “settling” for a job as editor at an academic publishing company. She says that the country is going down the tubes, and thus it is time to fight, not to play house. Later she adds, “Raise your daughter to be a feminist, and she spends all her time waiting to be rescued by men.”

Later, we see a flashback to Aunt Lydia giving a speech with accompanying slides about the Earth being a gift from God which humanity poisoned and squandered until we reaped consequences that we ought to have anticipated. We had seen that scene before. But this time it takes us further, and we discover that June saw her mother in one of the slides, working as a farmhand in the colonies. By the end of the episode, as June is trying to flee to Canada leaving her daughter Hannah behind, she better understands that her mother wanted what was best for her, and she forgives her for mistakes that she made in seeking that, even as she now hopes that Hannah will forgive her.

But as the plane she is in tries to take off, there is gunfire and she is reapprehended.

This episode does a lot of great things, exploring what it means to resist oppressive forces. June’s mother did that one way at an early stage. June herself does that now in another. The family that briefly gave her refuge did so in a different way again, as too did those who transported her. There is discussion of the relationship between bravery and stupidity, and in dire times like these the apparent indistinguishability between the two. And there is also a direct engagement with our tendency to think that only direct confrontation (and perhaps martyrdom as a result) is true resistance. When another woman says that she would sooner die than give up her own child that she had given birth to, June replies by saying, “I used to think that too.” There are different ways to resist, and working quietly and patiently work to undermine a totalitarian regime from within while secretly helping its victims is one of those ways. Whether one of these approaches to resistance is better than another is a question that the episode leaves ambiguous – and that seems appropriate, given that there is no clear way to answer a question of that sort. Which of the various forms of resistance against Hitler and Nazism in Germany before and during WWII, for instance, was “best”? On what grounds might one rank them?

The message of this episode is once again a profoundly religious one. One of those helping along the route that June hopes will lead to freedom says to her, “Go in grace, kid.” Another turns out to have been motivated by his secret Muslim faith. And that detail exposes the self-defeating character of religious theocracy of this sort. It seizes power and imposes conformity, but it does not make genuine converts. It thus encourages hypocrisy that is antithetical to and subverts any genuine faith that exists in connection with it. And it also encourages other visions of faith to find strength and resolve to persist and resist, in ways that will likewise eventually emerge as an opposing force to those in authority.

An approach that undermines piety of its own sort, and radicalizes and fosters opposition from those who do not subscribe willingly to the vision of piety being imposed, is inherently self-defeating. The religious message of The Handmaid’s Tale is thus a warning not only to everyone else, but also to religious conservatives, fundamentalists, and dominionists themselves as to why this course is not one they ought to want to pursue.

What is your response to this season and this series thus far?

Previous Post

May 8, 2018

Thank God for The Handmaid's Tale!

Next Post

May 10, 2018 Samson and Cain (songs by Madi Blair)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 1 Corinthians 1 John 1 Peter 1 Samuel 1 Thessalonians 1 Timothy 2 Corinthians 2 Kings 2 Peter 2 Samuel 2 Thessalonians 2 Timothy academia Acts of the Apostles afterlife Akhaten Alcatraz American Academy of Religion Amos Anglican Arabic Aramaic archaeology art artificial intelligence astronomy atheism atonement Babylon 5 Baptists Battlestar Galactica Bible Biblical Studies Carnival biblioblogging Black Mirror Blade Runner Book of Job book review Buddhism Call for Papers China Christianity Christmas Christology Chronicles Coptic creation Daniel Deuteronomy Doctor Who Dune Easter Ecclesiastes economics education Eldad Keynan Enoch Seminar Ephesians eschatology Esther Evangelicals evolution Exodus Expanse Ezekiel Ezra fantasy Fringe fundamentalism Galatians games Ge'ez genealogy Genesis Gnosticism Gospel of Jesus' Wife Gospel of John Gospel of Judas Gospel of Luke Gospel of Mark Gospel of Matthew Gospel of Peter Gospel of Thomas Greek Harry Potter Hebrew Hebrews Hinduism historical Jesus history Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Holidays horror Hosea humor incarnation India inerrancy information literacy inspirational Intelligent Design Ireland Isaiah Islam Israel Italy James Jeremiah John the Baptist Jonah Joshua Judaism Jude Judges Judith Lamentations languages Latin Leviticus libraries literature Lord of the Rings LOST Mandaeans Mandaic memes Methodism Micah monotheism morality Mormons movies music mythicism NASSCAL Nehemiah new perspective New Testament news Numbers Orthodox paganism panentheism pantheism Patheos Paul and his letters Pentecostals Philippians Philippians 2:6-11 philosophy physics Planet of the Apes podcast politics Progressive Christianity Protestantism Proverbs Psalms pseudoscience racism religion Revelation Roman Catholicism Romania Romans Ruth scams science science fiction Secret Gospel of Mark Society of Biblical Literature Song of Songs Star Trek Star Wars Stargate Swahili Syriac Taoism technology Terminator The Handmaid's Tale The Hobbit The Matrix theodicy theology theory Timeless Titus tomb Torchwood travel TRON Uncategorized United Kingdom Westworld X-Files young-earth creationism Zechariah

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 February 2007 January 2001

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz