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Chapter 31
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
In the morning, Elijah announces that they need to move Nicole again as soon as possible. Gilead is using its large and aggressive military to pressure Canada into going after Mayday. They’re not sure where to put her, however, since Canada is becoming less safe and most European countries have closed their borders to Gilead refugees. They’d had a source—they don’t know who—in Gilead who was smuggling information through microdots glued onto Pearl Girls’ brochures, but that method was discovered after The Clothes Hound was broken into, so their information’s been cut off.
Once again, Canada and the European countries apparent fear of Gilead suggests that their military might—which echoes America’s military might before it—allows them to bully others and maintain their authoritarian practices, even while the rest of the world maintains their democracies. Mention of their source, who is obviously Lydia, again suggests that Lydia has been an integral player in Gilead’s resistance efforts, even while she supported and operated within Gilead’s power structure.
Themes
However, before their contact with the source was severed, the source told them that they have a cache of incriminating documents and information that could bring Gilead down if it could be smuggled out. The source proposed that the only way that could happen is if they send Nicole back into Gilead as a new convert, and she could be used to traffic the information back out. This plan disturbs Nicole, but the others assure her that Gilead would never kill her since she’s too valuable, and they’ll teach her how to act and defend herself.
Nicole is effectively pressured into taking on such a role, whether Mayday asks for her consent or not, by the circumstances around her and the fact that she is the only person capable of smuggling the information and taking down Gilead. This demonstrates the manner in which an individual’s choice may be limited by circumstance, forcing them to sacrifice their own personal agency for a greater good.
Themes
