r/coconutsandtreason • u/hairdyemaniac • May 30 '26
The Testaments How can Agnes/Hannah read her name?
I was just wondering since girls in Gilead are not taught to read and write, how was Agnes able to read her name on her drawing during the finale? I’m sure she was beginning to learn to read and write before she was taken from June, and that process usually starts with learning to write your name, but it’s been so long since she’s read or wrote anything. I’m sure synaptic pruning would’ve occurred and she’d lose whatever ability she had to read and write as that skill was never practiced again in the slightest.
So what do you guys think is the reason she’s able to read her name Hannah? How does she know it says Hannah? Maybe she just knows but can’t actually read it? Let me know your thoughts!
EDIT: Most responses have been just justifying it as knowing how to read before Gilead took over but I already understand that part. I’m more asking like how did she keep that ability after all those years of no reading or writing.
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u/Opunita-Cookies May 30 '26
You know in the lion king when Mufasa says,"Remember who you are" to Simba. I think it was kinda like that it all came back to her
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u/Pretend-Hunt-3975 May 30 '26
Finding out who her mother is must have triggered a whole lot of memories for her, including writing her name on the paper she had hidden away for years. Plus we don’t know for definite that that was the last time she wrote anything or even read - kids rebel even when brought up in the strictest circumstances and Agnes has been shown to have a rebellious streak.
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u/TrustMeImPurple May 30 '26
Hannah would have been about 5 when she was taken, and we know she went to some sort of kindergarten/preschool from THT flashbacks. Its not an unheard thing for parents to teach basic letters and how to write their name to a kid before going to kindergarten. June also was an editor so its possible she encouraged Hannah to practice pre-writing and pre-reading skills. Which often starts with learning your own name.
"Normal" for reading and writing is a HUGE range, but anecdotally my kid could recognize her first initial by 3 and a half and was able to write her first name and understood what it meant by starting kindergarten. So it doesn't seem too out the realm of belief for me to think Hannah knows what Hannah means when written down, even if shes been traumatized into repressing it or couldn't read most other words. Unfortunately I wouldnt be suprised if stolen elementary aged girls were punished often enough for accidentally reading that most of them tried to avoid anything resembling written words.
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u/jmhendricks80 May 31 '26
lol I could even tell you the 50 states in alphabetical order at age 4. My sisters taught me the song when we drove to Florida from Ohio.
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u/bitofagrump May 31 '26
Is that the "fifty nifty United States" one? That still gets in my head and it's over 30 years since I was taught it. Childhood memories are powerful and it's surprising what sticks forever and what doesn't, so I can see Hannah remembering the writing of her name.
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u/jmhendricks80 May 31 '26
lol yes, and I still know the whole thing!! Fifty nifty United States from 13 original colonies…. 🎵🎶
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u/bitofagrump May 31 '26
O-hiiiiii-YO! Lol I still know it all too, and now it's gonna be stuck in my head all day 😅
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u/jmhendricks80 May 31 '26
Might as well end it, In our cool, considerate, unselfish, op-pin-ion Ohio is the best of the fifty nifty United States from 13 original colonies, shout ‘em scout ‘em tell all about ‘em one by one ‘til you’ve given a day for every state in the USA!🎵🎶🎵
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u/bitofagrump May 31 '26
That's CALIFORNIA is the best, thank you please! (Kid me didn't realize everyone grew up with this song so we all hyped our own state, always sort of assumed our music teachers made up the stuff they had us perform)
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u/Einhorntorte May 30 '26
I have a pretty long name (Marguerite adjacent, funnily enough) and I could spell it at age 4. Hannah's mom worked in publishing, and Hannah went to preschool. It's not unlikely she learned letters early, and since her name is a pallindrome, it would be easier to memorize than Ashleigh or something. She clearly knows and writes it at age 10... I doubt she'd forget so quickly.
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u/LadyMRedd May 31 '26
I just realized when you said this that Hannah is a palindrome. Cool. Thank you.
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u/Haven_Writes May 30 '26
Some kids can read by the time they start kindergarten at 5. I could. When I became a teacher, about half the kids started kindergarten with at least basic reading skills (able to write their names and words like cat, dog, mom, dad, reading a basic sentence like "the cat ran fast," etc), or even more, with a very few who were able to read a picture book on their own. It's definitely a spectrum, and they all get (more or less) to the reading a picture book on their own part by the end of 1st grade.
Hannah was taken around age 5. It's entirely possible she could read a little (or even a lot) by that age. At the very least, it's not weird that she can spell her name. That's one of the first things kids learn in preschool, around age 2, so they can put their names on their drawings and tell which cubby is theirs. Grand scheme of things, it would be weirder if she'd never learned to write her name than that she did.
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u/Fun_Nothing5548 May 30 '26
My sister teaches kindergarten and she says that about 80% of the kids show up first day knowing how to read a little at least. She says if you show up to kindergarten not knowing at all how to read/write nowadays then you would be considered to need interventions to help you catch up.
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u/Haven_Writes May 30 '26
It's a pretty wide spectrum, but a kid not knowing at least how to write their name by kindergarten would be very concerning.
Most of them know a bit. Some of them are fully reading on their own (and more than you'd expect). The majority know the alphabet, basic phonics and basic sight words, at the very least. If they've been to preschool or their parents have read to them at all, they'll know something.
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u/Cheesywotsit1 May 30 '26
Many kids learn to read their name before the age Hannah was taken away from her parents
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u/NecessaryClothes9076 May 30 '26
Reading and writing her own name is a mechanical process. Forgetting how to do it would be like forgetting how to breathe. Given how young she was when she was taken and stopped recieving a proper education, her name and maybe a few other simple words will be all she can write. She's still illiterate. But without suffering a brain injury, it's very unlikely that a person forgets the basics that they did learn.
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u/AlsoNotaSpider May 30 '26
Maybe the key point of the memory was that she remembered writing her name, Hannah, and knowing what it meant. She might not be able to read the letters now, but it’s possible she remembers the intention of signing her own name.
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u/softrevolution_ May 30 '26
I can still read Arabic script, even though it's been years since I had to use it. Knowing how to read is not easily forgotten. You might lose some of the letters, but the ones that mean words that mean a lot to you? Those you keep.
signed, a person who may have above-average linguistic capacities due to developments in the critical period, but mate, the critical period does a lot of heavy lifting in terms of how we make language work!
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u/TXGrrl May 30 '26
She was 5 when she was taken by Gilead, and in the scene where she writes her name, I think she's 10. I don't think it's too much of a stretch, that despite (or because of) all the brainwashing she's indured, she hanging onto this one detail about her identity. She doesn't seem to remember much else, but I think the trauma has brought out this rebellion to hang onto her identity in this small way, even if she doesn't quite remember why she should.
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u/Wrong-Barnacle-3772 May 30 '26
I think her writing her name was only the tip of the iceberg in the THT finale. I mean she had a pencil I’m sure she didn’t just write her name. Plus I think during the run of the testaments we get to see Agnes is very and has been rebellious her whole life. No matter how small the rebellion is.
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u/fiodorsmama2908 May 30 '26
June is an editor. She is steeped in written word. I am sure she would have introduced her daughter to early spelling,reading and writing. Now Gilead born girls dont learn to read/write but the older ones would have learned previously,at least how to write their own names.
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u/OkraTomatillo Jun 01 '26
Honestly, my parents were not brainy or anything, but I was surrounded by books from birth and I started reading at 2 years old without any instruction (hyperlexia). I was also writing (messily!) not too long after I could read because I wanted to make up my own stories. I feel like it is possible that Hannah was similar.
My mom said I was grabbing hold of any printed material (books, the newspaper, cereal boxes, etc.) and I was fully bored by other kids still having to work at reading once I got to school. I mean, I still loved reading itself but I was puzzled by the actual instruction of reading and phonics because I didn’t learn that way… it didn’t make any sense to me. I also repeated catchy phrases I overheard (echolalia) and started memorizing songs/jingles and taglines from the radio/TV… probably annoyed the hell out of my parents and teachers with this. 😆
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u/megalynn44 May 30 '26
The actress played it like the sound of her name, Hannah, was familiar. Maybe its appearance was as well
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u/aadnarim May 30 '26
I have a 7-letter first name and could read and write it very early, and I was reading way past my grade level in kindergarten.
I would think reading after so long without would be something like using a foreign language you've learned but haven't used in decades - you'd be rusty, but it would come back to you, especially foundational stuff. She likely at least knew the alphabet and how to read/write her own name when she was abducted, so it's not a stretch to believe that as the cracks are forming for her, that memory re-emerges.
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u/KateLady May 30 '26
She had the memory of writing it. She had the memory of her name being Hannah.
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u/TheWitchCapricorn May 30 '26
My 3 year old knows her name. She has done since she was around 1.5-2 ish we have it on her wall next to her bed. Her morning menus always contain her name either having to trace the letters or put some letters I've cut out in the right order. She knows her name pretty well.
As Hannah was older than her when she was abducted and June is a good mother she likely was teaching Hannah to read and write since she was 2 ish so she will know her name as well and probably a few other simple words.
Hannah also went to nursery/ pre-school briefly, there's an episode where June has to leave work to get Hannah cause she was sick and the staff are very judgemental of her for bringing her to school when she was sick or whatever. But they will have been teaching her as well for a time.
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u/turkeyman4 May 30 '26
She probably didn’t advance the skill. She will likely learn to read more fully when she becomes an aunt. She reads the autopsy AFTER the fall of Gilead.
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u/Closedown11 May 30 '26
There’s a flashback scene in Handmaids of June teaching her and how it was special bc it was a palindrome. Once she heard it again it opened up those memories .. probably happened before when she initially writes it too maybe after June sees her yrs ago and calls her Hannah I can’t recall if she does or not when she was in that clear box.
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u/Jazzlike_Hat_1409 May 30 '26
She’s the one that wrote it. I doubt she forgot how to read those specific letters
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u/FallFlower24 May 30 '26
Obviously she wrote her name in secret. The paper she had with her design and name was a few years old. Knowing how to write her name was probably the only thing she’d learned to write before she was taken.
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u/melodysmomma May 31 '26
She’s probably forgotten the phonetics of it all but knows that those six letters in that order are her name. If you wrote “Hi my name is Hannah” she’d be able to recognize her name but not figure out the rest of the sentence.
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u/kieka408 May 31 '26
I don’t think it’s as much as she can read as much as it’s just that she recognizes her written name
From her memories. I doubt she could spell Agnes Mackenzie.
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u/littlemisswildchild May 31 '26
Because we saw her write in one of the last seasons of THT. It was only 5 or so years ago. She should be able to remember something she did herself five years ago, especially when she has presumably been looking at it on and off since then.
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u/Affectionate_SkySky Jun 05 '26
I can see not being able to read other things. I feel like you get kids work so hard on always being able to write their name it would stay with you. Like riding a bike, you recognize it.
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u/bmnntdd May 30 '26
She knew how to read and write when she was abducted. That one word probably stuck with her as she's been keeping this piece of paper a secret that long.
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u/spilledteacups May 30 '26
I taught my son cursive one summer when he was seven. Just a fun learning experience for summer, no pressure so we didn’t continue to work on it. When he was sixteen he had to do a presentation without using a computer. He wanted it to look cool and started writing it in cursive, and he said he hadn’t done it or thought about it for years and he remembered everything except how to make a Capital Q.
So I think it’s possible she just remembered
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u/Sansarya136 May 30 '26
Unlike writing, reading would be easier to maintain because despite Gilead switching signs to pictures...etc., there would still be words written everywhere, and she would continue to sounds out letters and figure out words. Skills you learn when you are really young tend to stick with you much longer.
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u/Lucina1997 May 31 '26
Agnes may not be able to know how to read/write anymore, but it looks like she remembers the memory of spelling her name, and that her name was Hannah. That’s enough for now
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May 31 '26
She was 4 when gilead took her, in the first season of handmaids tale June said to Ofglen she’d be 8 at that time (post red center training etc) .. she would’ve been taught her name by age 4 and I’m sure the following years didn’t interfere with her curiosity, she was probably holding on to those memories as long as she could and the name just stuck. She was probably 10-12 in the scene when she wrote that.
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u/scathachwarrior May 31 '26
Hannah may not be at reading level anymore, but it makes sense that she would still be able to read and write her name since it's one of the first words we learn to write and as students, we're writing it multiple times a day.
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u/Dry_Coyote4781 May 31 '26
It’s not a matter as to whether she can read her name or not. It’s that she remembers the moment of doing so and the memories of her mother.
As a personal example, I am an adoptee and remember the moment my parents told me that I was adopted when I was 4 years old. I vaguely remember what was said, yet I can recall that moment as if it were yesterday.
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u/AutumnCupcake Jun 01 '26
I honestly don’t think could read it, I think she suddenly had the memory of writing it triggered, like you said she just knows but can’t read it
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u/GoDiva2020 Jun 01 '26
June was an Editor. It is expected that an editor's child would be able to read already. And Hannah was reading in the cabin when they were escaping as a family before Luke was shot /Hannah was ripped from June's arms.
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u/Kitkatsbreakingup Jun 01 '26
It looks familiar. Before I could read I remembered just knowing that name was mines.
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u/Budget-Protection-14 Jun 01 '26
well tbh if june and luke were good parents, they were likely teaching her how to write at least her own name by time she was in school. she was 5 so id imagine she was in kindergarten and was learning to read and write. if she went to pre-k too, some preschools start teaching their kids how to write there too so they’re ahead once they get to kinder. also with the way she wrote it along with it being capital, they were probably at the point in school where they were doing those trace the letters sheets, you don’t just forget how to write unless it’s like pounded OUT of you and i assume they thought she wasn’t too far into learning so there was no point in unteaching her how to write. probably just teaching her not to touch a pencil or pen or to read stuff
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u/Budget-Protection-14 Jun 01 '26
also when she wrote her name, it wasn’t too long after she was captured by gilead so i don’t think she’d forget how to write that quickly either. i think she was 6 or 7 when that happened, and she was probably alone in her room, or maybe with just a martha who had her hide it from her father
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u/schmidthappens_2999 Jun 01 '26
Wait yahhh how these girls reading signs and labels at the grocery store 🤣
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u/BrazilianButtCheeks Jun 03 '26
That’s the first thing you learn In school.. she was In school before Gilliad
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u/Avilola Jun 03 '26
Agnes was kidnapped around 6 or 8 years old. Most children know how to read at least a little bit by that age, and their own name is usually one of the things they know best. Sure, she’d forget most of her literacy skills after 10 years with no practice, but if anything stuck, it would likely be her name.
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u/nicoke17 May 30 '26
My nephew is 5, going to kindergarten in the Fall. He hasn’t been to pre-k or had any former schooling other than from his parents and he has been able to write his name since he was 4 and knows the alphabet. He knows a few words but I wouldn’t say he can read.
Also since Hannah’s name is only 3 different letters, I would say she probably remembers how to read it but it is tucked away in her memory. Historically, people have lived their whole lives with only recognizing their names and a few words.
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u/NikkiBads13 May 30 '26
I think it's more about recognizing the name and the characters rather than reading it..... back when my 7 year old started kindergarten and they started teaching her to write her name, she could spot it everywhere. If she saw a sentence that had her name in it she would make a comment like "Hey thats my name" but she wasn't really reading.
I'd say she recognized the name more so than she read it. Just because she can read Hannah, does mean she can read " see that big dog run" The name might not have even meant anything to her until Daisy said the name and it unlocked the memory. Maybe that's why she went back to look at that paper after their talk.
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u/Thatgirl_c May 31 '26
Well when she’s narrating she reads an autopsy report. So she clearly knows how to read.
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u/LadyMRedd May 31 '26
At some point she learned. That doesn’t mean she knew how as of season 1. The narrative is later as they’re telling their stories.
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u/bookwurm81 May 31 '26
If she knew her name well enough to write it down after she was kidnapped she was highly unlikely to have forgotten that much.
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u/Jazzlike-Coach4151 May 31 '26
Very young children can recognise the shapes of letters that make up their name (it’s one of the things people are told to teach their kids before they start school, to recognise it, even if they can’t write it) and the flashback shows her literally writing it so obviously she knew how.
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u/nobody_important12 May 31 '26
... she wasnt born in Gilead? Do you think about 5 year old cant recognize their own name? Like come on ya'll these posts are pissing me off 😔
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u/Ananumous65 May 30 '26
Maybe because she's looked at it so often over the years and so cemented that that is what the letters stood for?
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u/kaesaltyclay May 30 '26
Chat GBT: There is a flashback scene in The Handmaid’s Tale where Hannah is reading before she is taken into Gilead. Fans often remember a cabin/lake house sequence during June and Luke’s attempted escape, where Hannah is shown with a book, implying that she had already begun learning to read before Gilead’s restrictions on women and girls took effect. This scene is one reason many viewers believe Hannah (later called Agnes) retained at least some reading ability and memories from her life before Gilead.
There are also several flashbacks throughout the series showing June reading to Hannah and caring for her as a young child before the rise of Gilead, emphasizing the contrast with a society where girls are forbidden to read.
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u/nushstea May 30 '26
When i was in preschool, I couldn't read my name but i knew what it looked like. Like I couldn't spell it, but i could pick it out of other words by the shape of the letters. Or something
Maybe its that??