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Chapter 42
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
For the next several days, Jade and Garth live together in the streets, sleeping under bridges or in a cemetery. Garth wraps his arms around Jade whenever they sleep since he’s posing as her boyfriend, but Jade lets her mind pretend that he truly is her “first boyfriend.” Garth keeps her away from other street people as much as possible, since any of them could be a Gilead operative. Jade mentions that she is impressed that Garth protects her even “from himself.” He never takes advantage of his position, even though it must be obvious that Jade is infatuated with him.
Garth, only ever portrayed as an upstanding character, is careful to respect Nicole’s sexual agency in spite of their conditions which would make it easy for her him to take advantage of her. Nicole’s appreciation of this fact and Garth’s depiction as a good man in general again suggest that respecting an individual’s personal agency is critically important for anyone, but especially for women.
Themes
