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Chapter 8
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
Melanie and Neil never truly feel like Daisy’s parents; they always seem a little too careful and distant, as if she was something that they’re nervous of breaking or ruining. Other kids at school have hundreds of photos of their childhood, even of their own birth, but Daisy has none.
The fact that Canadian culture is accepting of children seeing photos of their own birth suggests that they are far more permissive of nudity and exposed female bodies than Gilead, and thus less repressive.
Themes
Daisy’s school is going to bus its students into the city for the following day so they can participate in the city’s anti-Gilead protest march, which will be Daisy’s first. She has spent all week making signs for it. However, Neil and Melanie firmly forbid her from going, saying that there will be too much press there and it will be dangerous. Daisy is furious, especially since they’ve always raised her to stand up for her convictions, and she shuts herself in her room. On the day of the march, Daisy goes to school and then sneaks onto the bus heading toward the march. None of her teachers suspect that she shouldn’t be there.
Again, although Daisy lives in Canada, a country of relative freedom for women, Daisy’s parent’s refusal to let her go to the protest echoes the lack of choice that Agnes has in every aspect of her life, suggesting that such lack of choice also occurs in the outside world. However, Neil and Melanie’s control over Daisy comes from a noble desire to protect her, which thus complicates the concept of choice, since good intentions may restrict choice as well.
Themes
