The Handmaid's Tale - Identity

" I have been obliterated for her. I am only a shadow now, far back behind the glib shiny surface of this photograph. A shadow of a shadow, as dead mothers become. You can see it in her eyes: I am not there."

In the TV show and book alike, we can see how June/Offred is robbed of being a mother to her daughter Hannah. She was robbed of her identity as a mother when her child was taken away, but that didn't necessarily mean that she didn't feel like a mother anymore. This is a somewhat second theft of her maternal identity, when she realizes that her daughter no longer remembers her. This makes her feel like she doesn't even exist. Like she doesn't have a purpose anymore. This is, unfortunately, worse for the narrator in a way than if her daughter had died. Although it's only been a few years since they were separated, they are not going to be reunited -- ever. It is as if the narrator has died; it is as if all of her is gone, she is a "dead mother." The picture, more than anything else, seems to really finalize the loss of the life that June led before.