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Chapter 43
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Testaments, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Religious Totalitarianism and Hypocrisy
Gender Roles
Truth, Knowledge, and Power
Shame, Fear, and Repression
Choice
Summary
Analysis
On the fifth day, while Garth is away getting food from a fast-food joint, the Pearl Girls approach Jade while she is alone, introducing themselves as Aunt Beatrice and Aunt Dove. They ask Jade if Garth ever hits her or forces her to have sex, and she says yes, but she fled violence at home, so now she is with him. The Pearl Girls promise that in Gilead, no man will ever hurt a girl like her because she is a “precious flower.” When Garth returns, he acts angry and tries to take Jade away until one of the Aunts takes him aside and offers him money to sell Jade to them. Garth takes the money and leaves without a word. The Aunts remark that Jade is lucky he sold her to them instead of “some sex ring.”
Although the Pearl Girls act kind and promise that they can offer Nicole a place where she will be safe and treasured, it is obvious that this is a lie. Such a lie is especially insidious, however, since the Pearl Girls’ questions to Nicole suggest that they primarily “convert,” or entrap, vulnerable women who are already trapped in abusive or violent relationships, poverty, or other hopeless situation. However, bringing such women into Gilead is only taking them from one toxic and abusive environment to another.
Themes
Jade goes with the Pearl Girls to their rented condo, and privately wonders if this is the same one in which Aunt Adrianna was murdered, but she doesn’t ask for fear of ruining the plan. The Aunts advise her to take a shower but to be mindful of the tattoo so the scabs don’t rip off, since it is still healing. When Jade gets out of the shower, she sees that the Aunts have thrown away her old clothes and laid out a silvery dress for her, identical to theirs. They explain that Canada wrongly views their taking of underage converts back to Gilead as human trafficking, so she will take Aunt Dove’s place and identification to return instead. Also, Jade can no longer wear men’s clothing—including leggings—because it is an “abomination” before God.
Canada’s recognition of the Pearl Girl missionaries bringing converts back to Gilead as human trafficking is validated by the fact that the Pearl Girls have to go through an elaborate and illegal ruse to move converts out of Canada and into Gilead. Depicting the missionaries’ work as human trafficking again suggests that the Pearl Girls prey on vulnerable women and are thus predatory. The fact that the Pearl Girls are exclusively women demonstrates that even women may be coopted into aiding the predatory efforts of men to exploit other women.
Themes
They eat dinner and Jade goes to sleep, noting that the Pearl Girls lock her in at night and never allow her to be alone while she is awake. Jade is thankful to sleep in a bed after nearly a week on the streets, but she misses Garth. Over the next few days, they take Jade to the Gilead embassy to be photographed and fingerprinted so that Aunt Dove’s passport can be altered to fit Jade. After this is finished, they go easily through customs, leaving Aunt Dove behind until she will trade places with another Pearl Girl. They take a private jet painted with the logo of the Eyes back to Gilead. Jade is leaving behind her home and everything she has ever known.
The Pearl Girls’ locking of Jade in her bedroom at night and refusal to allow her to be alone at any point during the day suggests that they are immediately taking away Nicole’s right to choose, as well as any form of privacy. Nicole’s sacrifice of her personal agency suggests that, although such agency is critically important to one’s well-being, sometimes it may be necessary to sacrifice it for the sake of a greater cause beyond themselves.
Themes
