When Margaret Atwood’s book ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ was published in 1985, the groundbreaking work drew as much acclaim and awards as it did bans and book burnings. Today, it’s a classic no one can stop talking about, especially due to the successful TV adaptation. The story’s protagonist, June Osborne, might have lost all her rights when the brutal regime of Gilead took over the United States of America, but once her mind and body broke, she emerged as a symbol of rebellion in the face of repression.
June wasn’t a leader in her past life. But in the dystopian society where a woman’s biggest value is procreation, she fought, killed, and demanded a better world. But what exactly did she do before she was tortured into becoming a handmaid, suffering rape in the name of God’s will and giving birth to her Commander’s child? What was June’s identity before she was relegated to be known as Offred? Let’s take a deep dive into the powerful albeit vengeful woman’s past.
June Osborne’s Backstory In ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
In the reality of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ fertility crisis due to environmental degradation led to the dominance of a fundamentalist Christian group. They overthrew the American government and established the Republic of Gilead. Here, laws dictate how women should exist just to fulfill their gender destiny to produce kids. For this, they create a system of handmaids.
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There is a Red Centre run by Aunts where women of child-bearing age are trained to be subservient. This is where June Osborne lost her name, her dignity, her sense of being, and became Offred once assigned to her Commander Fred Waterford – a government official whose wife can’t conceive or carry a baby to term. She was given silence and a garb of red from head to toe, even her face was hidden by a white bonnet.
Before this tragedy, June lived with her husband, Luke Bankole, and their daughter, Hannah. But, their love story began when Luke hadn’t divorced his first wife, Annie. So, in Gilead’s retroactive laws, June was captured and charged with her past crime of adultery. Gilead views marriage as sacred and doesn’t recognize divorce or second marriages.
In her professional life, June worked as an assistant book editor. Of course, once Gilead’s misogynist rules kicked in, reading and writing became illegal for women. No work, no finances, no owning property, and obviously no freedom of speech.
Yes, June tried to run away like so many other Americans. But, at the Canadian border, she was separated from Luke and Hannah by the guards who took her to the Red Centre to commence her training as a handmaid and indoctrinate her with the Gileadian way of life.
June’s Rebellion Against Gilead
Gilead’s machinery knew how to break the spirits of fierce women. Either they gave in or they were sent to colonies to clear up toxic ways and die a slow death, if not executed at the first chance. So, June, too, surrendered to her new reality. This was clear when she said, “Please, God, I don’t want pain. I don’t want to be a doll, hung on the wall. I want to keep on living. I’ll do anything. Resign my body freely to the uses of others. I’ll sacrifice. I’ll repent. I’ll abdicate. I’ll renounce.”
However, the atrocities of Gilead got to her. She was separated from her child, had to keep her head down, barely had any necessities met, and was mercilessly abused in the household she was assigned to. Her activist mother, who once worked at an abortion clinic was also sent to the colonies. June couldn’t take the losses that were mounting up in her life. So, she gathered other women and decided to fight back. Her transformation was brought out when she uttered the words: “Now I’m awake to the world. I was asleep before.”
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The Mayday resistance group worked in the shadows in Gilead. June made it into a force to be reckoned with. She survived attack after attack and freed many women and children by making alliances by hook or by crook. She stayed behind for her daughter Hannah, and made the tough decision of sending her infant Nichole to Canada to have a chance at a stable life, far away from Gilead’s devastation. When the time came, she reunited with Luke and later her mother, who was liberated by the remaining US Army. But, June returned to the ground where her life had altered, to dismantle the system that made handmaids.
Sure, June lost herself and had a psychotic break — honestly, who wouldn’t? But Gilead didn’t stand a chance when June’s rage burned. She might’ve been an ordinary woman once, but when her freedom and autonomy were snatched, she became extraordinary. In her words, “They should have never given us uniforms if they didn’t want us to be an army.” Well, that’s fire which can’t be tamed!
