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Enter Serena Joy. Or rather, enter the character who, at the end of the chapter, we will find out is named Serena Joy. This chapter gives us little information, for the most part, on who Serena Joy is. She's blond, she's older than our main character. And, our main character is, in her narrating words, "a reproach" of her.
Serena Joy shows no indication of any kind of empathy or compassion for our main character and, in fact, shows all signs of antipathy. In narration, the main character (who I know is Offred but is yet to be called that) notes that Serena, as a wife, is allowed to strike someone in the main character's position, that of a handmaid, with her bare palm. This has scriptural support.
At the very end of the chapter, our main character recognizes this wife and notes her name. As a young child, before in a world with television and freedom for women (at least more than here and now) she would, on Saturday mornings, search for cartoons on TV. When those weren't to be found, she'd switch to religious programming (before the days of Cable that was easy to find in paid TV time) for story time aimed at young children. Based on that, Serena Joy was a recognizable face, with foreshadowing to note that we'll find out more about her back story.
Our main character, upon this realization, notes that her situation is worse than she thought.
Serena Joy... is Cain.
( Read more... )
Serena Joy shows no indication of any kind of empathy or compassion for our main character and, in fact, shows all signs of antipathy. In narration, the main character (who I know is Offred but is yet to be called that) notes that Serena, as a wife, is allowed to strike someone in the main character's position, that of a handmaid, with her bare palm. This has scriptural support.
At the very end of the chapter, our main character recognizes this wife and notes her name. As a young child, before in a world with television and freedom for women (at least more than here and now) she would, on Saturday mornings, search for cartoons on TV. When those weren't to be found, she'd switch to religious programming (before the days of Cable that was easy to find in paid TV time) for story time aimed at young children. Based on that, Serena Joy was a recognizable face, with foreshadowing to note that we'll find out more about her back story.
Our main character, upon this realization, notes that her situation is worse than she thought.
Serena Joy... is Cain.
( Read more... )
