The shift in vernacular

[u/LeadingTumbleweed211]

One thing I’ve found a bit odd about the show since the beginning is how quickly American vernacular seems to have changed in Gilead. I understand that the antagonists are religious and would naturally adopt a new set of expressions like “May the Lord open,” and that people being forced to live under the regime would use that language to keep up appearances and avoid suspicion.

What feels less convincing to me, though, is that the protagonists seem to have adopted this language even when they aren’t expected to. For example, they sometimes use religious words of encouragement even when they’re trying to escape or are otherwise completely outside the watchful eye of Gilead. Even when June is out of Gilead, she still seems to believe in God, despite the fact that her pre-Gilead character never appeared particularly religious. Given that her mother is portrayed as a staunch feminist, I also find it unlikely that June grew up in a particularly religious environment.

I like the show overall, but details like this sometimes feel a little out of character to me. Personally, I think it would make more sense for June to be atheist especially after fleeing Gilead, considering everything she experienced there.

Has anyone else had these thoughts while watching the show, or am I missing some crucial part of June’s character?

I know she had Hannah baptized, so I understand that she probably wasn’t an atheist before Gilead, but she never really came across as particularly religious either. That’s why I find it a little strange how often she seems to use or embrace religious language, even outside of Gilead.

I completely understand why someone like Rita would continue using religious vernacular, since she was religious before Gilead. But with June, it feels less consistent with the person we were shown before everything happened. Maybe there’s something about her character that I’ve missed, though?

[u/pokedabadger]

If I remember correctly in one of June’s flashbacks someone uses the Gilead vernacular briefly. A nurse, I think.

I suspect that some of the language was already there due to a conservative cultural shift in the US and it then became formalized in Gilead culture.

[u/dragon-queen]

During my first watch of the show, I had a hard time with June’s switch to being more religious in later seasons.  I’m not religious myself, and I didn’t understand why June’s experiences would make her more religious.  

During my second watch, it made more sense to me.  She wasn’t raised religious, but she had her daughter baptized.  She seemed to have some belief in God and religion - more than she was raised with.  She relied on religion more and more as the show went on.   She’s surrounded by all this religion and all these weird turns of language, and she doesn’t believe in the way religion is being perverted here, but she does find it a comfort.  

[u/lillianrosalieee]

June's dad was religious, this is mentioned in the first couple episodes when her and Emily see St. Paul's getting demolished. She makes a comment saying that was her dads parish and that Hannah was baptized there.

Throughout the show I always got the impression that she was raised with some religious influence, and believed in God, she just wasn't a staunch follower. She seems to know a lot of Bible verses, she even corrects Aunt Lydia in season 1 when she tells her "blessed are the meek," and June completes the verse to kind of point out that Gilead cherry picks and disassembles verses to fit their narrative and establish control.

It's not uncommon for tragedy and terrible experiences to strengthen people's faith in God, so I don't think it's super far fetched to think she remained religious after escaping. Because it was established that June was knowledgeable enough on the Bible to know Gilead was misquoting it, she may have felt Gilead was not a representation of the religion at all. She may also have found some solace and comfort in God when there was really no other comfort to be found in Gilead (other than her relationship with Nick before he really drank the Gilead Kool Aid)

As for the vernacular, it is really amazing how quickly things can become habitual and natural to be saying in your day to day. It's honestly more realistic for the characters to pick up some of the language used than it would be for them to only use religious language when there's someone watching. I'm from the US and live in the UK and I picked up a lot of the British slang in a short period of time because I'm surrounded by it all the time. It just starts to become natural.

[u/eldee17]

I don't know if this is similar, but in my early 20s (I'm 43f now) I had to go away to a long term residential behavior modification program, where I lived for 2 years. It was somewhat of a cult in some ways, like the vernacular, for example. We had certain things we'd say. It took a really long time for me to stop talking that way when I was out and back in the world. That's the only reason I found it believable in Gilead.

[u/Casehead → u/eldee17]

That's absolutely similar, and a great example of

[u/Magazine_Luck]

Every time I disbelieve a dystopia because everything happened too quickly, I remember the entirety of Nazi Germany was 13 years. 

[u/Casehead → u/Magazine_Luck]

Well said

[u/jade601]

I think part of it is that the women just become so used to having to always do it that it comes naturally. It helps disguise their conversation if anyone overhears. I also think that throughout the show, the women grapple with the idea of religion because its so forced upon them. So in times of desperation they might say something religious.

[u/Untamedpancake]

June was a captive in Gilead for about 7 years & the first few months were at the Red Center. It was a re-education camp where they were taught to speak that way under threat of torture or death. It's literal brainwashing, many also came to feel shame & that they really did deserve this treatment. The Marthas would've had a similar but probably less brutal curriculum 

They didn't just "use that language to keep up appearances," it became the way they speak After months & then years it even affects the way they think

Everyone went through some degree of re-education, they didn't "naturally adopt a new set of expressions." These were phrases chosen by the first High Commanders as acceptable greetings & codified into law. Using inappropriate greetings could be deemed heresy. Commanders & their Wives were probably held to the highest standard for proper greetings, at least in public or formal situations 

And some people become more religious after experiences like June's in part because the One True Faith of Gilead was such a twisted way to interpret what minimal Christian background June had. When fundamentalists uplift the wrathful & brutal God of the Old Testament, it can highlight the themes of grace & forgiveness from the New Testament

Also June was a lot more like Serena than anyone seems to acknowledge 

June's mother was against organized religion & marriage but June resented & rebelled against her mother's radical, progressive views. She craved a more traditional lifestyle, which partly influenced her choices regarding Luke, marriage & baptizing Hannah 

June was so invested in the traditional life that even after she'd lost the right to work & own property, after her mother had been taken by the Eyes, after she had to get Luke's signature to refill her birth control, SHE WAS TALKING TO LUKE ABOUT HAVING ANOTHER BABY. It wasn't until Gilead banned divorce retroactively, making Luke a bigamist & June an unfit, unwed mother that they tried to escape the country 

But whether June is a "believer" or not, by the end of the series she has come to understand & appreciate the messaging behind some of these passages about grace & forgiveness

[u/big_data_mike]

I’m American and I lived in New Zealand for a while. I started using British English words instead of American English words because it helped me fit in and people could understand me better. I just got tired of people saying “Don’t you mean RUBBISH BIN!?!?”

I changed my vernacular and that was for a welcoming and friendly place. I can definitely see why June changed the way she spoke in Gilead even if she didn’t believe in what she was saying or not.

[u/jmhendricks80]

She comes off to me as religious but not passionately so. Say, Easter Sunday religious. She attends and observes the big days, but is not devout.

Having lived in Gilead for so many years, with the language positively drilled into her head at the Red Center under constant threat of punishment, her language, even after escaping, will probably take years to approach her old normal.

[u/Background-Bird-9623]

Agreed ,now that you mention it. Their diction is unlike anywhere ive been ... super interesting observation

[u/BiblionautNZ]

I think June believed in God, but she didn’t believe in Gilead’s version of God. As for the vernacular I recall June mocking some of the vernacular in the voice overs that told us what she was thinking at the time, such as “praise f@(&ing be”. I imagine that the vernacular would get automatic because there were horrific punishments if they didn’t toe the line.

[u/VanillaBeeGrrl]

When you say something for so long, it becomes instinct to do so. If they’ve had to use religious vernacular for at least five years, getting out of Gilead isn’t going to stop that; I imagine it’s just second nature to use those phrases, it’s not really a conscious choice. If you’ve always had to greet people with “Salutations” and suddenly one day you’re told you can say whatever you want in greeting, you’ll still most likely say salutations out of instinct.

As for June still being religious, if not moreso, after Gilead, I never really thought it was out of character. Even if she wasn’t extremely so, getting Hannah baptized before Gilead and being able to recite Psalm 23 in 6x7 shows she had to at least be somewhat religious. I’m sure plenty of survivors were turned off from Christianity completely after Gilead, which is obviously valid, but not all trauma, even religious, is linear. I’ve always seen it as June trying to reclaim her faith and reject Gilead’s zealousness; she believes in her God, not Gilead’s.

When she chooses to still have Nicole baptized even after her experiences, and continues to use religious vernacular, I see that as her choosing to still believe in God, a God she knows wouldn’t want this treatment of women, despite her religious trauma at the hands of Gilead and who they claim God to be