Popular Culture Review 32.1
is abused . She participates in the Ceremony , during which Commander Waterford rapes her , she is coerced into sex with him outside of that context , and she has sex with Nick — the Commander ’ s driver — in the hopes that he can impregnate her so that she is not sent to the colonies , which would permanently separate her from Hannah and any hope of escape .
She , too , experiences confinement , though in a larger space than Jacobs ’ s garret and for a shorter period of time . June says , “ I ’ ve been banished from my room ” (“ Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum ” 1:57-1:59 ), as the camera peeks through a cracked-open door to simulate extreme confinement . Really , June has been alone in her bedroom for thirteen days , with food delivered to her . The lighting alternately casts June in a silhouette — darkening her body — and accentuates her shining blonde hair , unlike Jacobs , who crouched in the garret for seven years , warping her body and prematurely graying her hair . June stakes a claim to confinement while the lighting reminds viewers of her whiteness . Looking through the thin opening of the doorway ( 2:06 ) offers a sliver , a quarter of the full frame , to see June cast in that light , while the rest of the frame is dominated by darkness — the out-of-focus door . The scene composition is deliberate : “ this physical constraint mirrors the metaphorical implications of June / Offred ’ s limited perspective in Gilead ” ( Harrison 28 ). While June ’ s experience conceptually mirrors Jacobs ’ s time in the garret , the visual effect can only be created by cinematographic tricks , an active effort to de-privilege June and reveal that her constraints go beyond the physical .
At the end of the season , Serena brings June to see Hannah , who has assimilated into life in Gilead ; June watches Serena talk to her daughter from a distance , locked in a car . There is no moment of reunion , only loss — Hannah has a new life
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