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Pearl Girls are Aunts who serve as Gilead’s missionaries, traveling to Canada and other nations to find young women to convert to Gilead’s faith and transport back to Gilead. However, because they move openly in other societies, Pearl Girls often act in espionage roles as well, gathering intelligence in other countries and relaying information for the Aunts. When a Pearl Girl returns to Gilead with a new convert, called a Pearl, she graduates from being a Supplicant to a full-fledged Aunt.
Pearl Girls Quotes in The Testaments
The The Testaments quotes below are all either spoken by Pearl Girls or refer to Pearl Girls. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 24
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I did not wish Aunt Sally dead: I simply wished her incoherent; and so it has been. The Margery Kempe Retreat House has a discreet staff.
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Chapter 44
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Aunt Beatrice ordered in pizza for lunch, which we had with ice cream from the freezer. I said I was surprised that they were eating junk food: wasn’t Gilead against it, especially for women?
“It’s part of our tests as Pearl Girls,” said Aunt Dove. “We’re supposed to sample the fleshpot temptations of the outside world in order to understand them, and then reject them in our hearts.” She took another bite of pizza.
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Chapter 62
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As we went north, the friendliness decreased: there were angry looks, and I had the feeling that our Pearl Girls mission and even the whole Gilead thing was leaking popularity. No one spat at us, but they scowled as if they would like to.
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Pearl Girls Term Timeline in The Testaments
The timeline below shows where the term Pearl Girls appears in The Testaments. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: Ardua Hall Holograph
...made of them while they are still alive. In the sculpture, a Handmaid and a Pearl Girl stand at her sides, and a taser hangs from her belt. The taser only reminds...
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Chapter 8
Pearl Girl s often come to the store as well. As Gilead’s missionaries, the young women in...
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Melanie always promises the Pearl Girl s that she will keep a little stack of brochures in the store and gives...
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Chapter 10
...by an organization called SanctuCare) telling their stories, and lots of Baby Nicole posters everywhere. Pearl Girl s are there as well, counter-protesting with their own signs and glassy smiles. Anti-Gilead protesters...
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Chapter 11
...Neil and Melanie watching the news, which they never do. The report is about a Pearl Girl named Aunt Adrianna who was found in a hotel. Her death appears to have been...
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Chapter 12: The Ardua Hall Holograph
...two members of the Mayday resistance movement—which runs the Underground Femaleroad—with the help of Lydia’s Pearl Girl s. The Pearl Girls, like many other things, were established by Lydia, since she reasoned...
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Chapter 24: The Ardua Hall Holograph
...bride.” However, the reason he has called Lydia is to announce that Aunt Sally, the Pearl Girl who was partnered with Aunt Adrianna when she died in Canada, has returned to Gilead.
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Chapter 32
...had a source—they don’t know who—in Gilead who was smuggling information through microdots glued onto Pearl Girl s’ brochures, but that method was discovered after The Clothes Hound was broken into, so...
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Chapter 33
...out for her, posing as her boyfriend. Hopefully Nicole will get picked up by the Pearl Girl s and taken into Gilead. It will be difficult, and they’ve sent operatives with Pearl...
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...on her forearm. The source made this stipulation non-negotiable, perhaps as a way for the Pearl Girl s to identify her. Nicole thinks this is hypocritical, since she was raised an atheist,...
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Chapter 34: The Ardua Hall Holograph
...which point Becka would be a Supplicant Aunt until she served her mission as a Pearl Girl . Becka eagerly accepted all of this. Lydia asked Becka if she was ever sexually...
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Chapter 39
...through her probation and become a Supplicant Aunt, and in nine years she’ll become a Pearl Girl . Probation is not so hard, she reassures Agnes, one only has to work hard...
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Chapter 42: Transcript of Witness Testimony 369B
As they are sitting on the sidewalk, two Pearl Girl s approach and Garth warns Jade to stay silent. When they ask Jade if he...
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Chapter 44
On the fifth day, while Garth is away getting food from a fast-food joint, the Pearl Girl s approach Jade while she is alone, introducing themselves as Aunt Beatrice and Aunt Dove....
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Jade goes with the Pearl Girl s to their rented condo, and privately wonders if this is the same one in...
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They eat dinner and Jade goes to sleep, noting that the Pearl Girl s lock her in at night and never allow her to be alone while she...
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Chapter 45
...Gilead. Aunt Beatrice walks her down the steps between rows of black-uniformed men, whom the Pearl Girl warns Jade not to look at. Jade feels more vulnerable under their stares than ever...
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...where all the new Pearls will be welcomed. In a large hall with many other Pearl Girl s and recent converts, all around Jade’s age, Lydia stands and makes a speech, welcoming...
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Chapter 47
Agnes first sees Jade at the Pearl Girl s ceremony, and though she thinks Jade looks around in a manner “that verges on...
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Chapter 53: Transcript of Witness Testimony 369B
...very difficult, and she realizes that she truly knows nothing about the country. After the Pearl Girl ceremony, new Pearls are made to kneel in an all-night prayer vigil. One of the...
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Chapter 56: Transcript of Witness Testimony 369A
...who her true mother is, and will not until after her missionary service as a Pearl Girl .
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Chapter 58: Transcript of Witness Testimony 369A
...as usual, though Agnes wonders if she and Becka will still undertake their mission as Pearl Girl s soon. Less than a week before they are set to be sent on their...
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Chapter 59: Ardua Hall Holograph
...breakfast. Vidala is deeply concerned about Aunt Immortelle (Becka) and Aunt Victoria (Agnes) undertaking their Pearl Girl missions at such a young age. She is particularly skeptical of Aunt Victoria and believes...
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Chapter 60: Transcript of Witness Testimony 369A
...soon, so they must hatch their plan tonight. Lydia will have their clothing, passports, and Pearl Girl dresses ready for Nicole and Agnes by tonight, but Becka must hide herself for 48...
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Chapter 61
...is amiss right away and tries to grab Nicole by the fake pearls of her Pearl Girl outfit, breaking the string which falls to the ground. Nicole delivers a heartstopper punch and...
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Chapter 62: Transcript of Witness Testimony 369B
...is all lower-class people on the bus, they warmly salute Agnes and Nicole in their Pearl Girl s uniforms, as do the Angels at the intermittent checkpoints. One of who tells them...
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...waiting for them. He tells them to leave all of their old gear in their Pearl Girl s backpacks, and he’ll dispose of them himself. With normal clothes on, Nicole starts to...
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Chapter 68: The Ardua Hall Holograph
Word arrives that two Pearl Girl s were spotted making their way through New Hampshire, seemingly headed for Canada, and most...
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Epilogue: The Thirteenth Symposium
...discovered a statue, dated several decades after Gilead fell, of a young woman in a Pearl Girl s outfit with two birds on her shoulder, and an engraving at its base dedicating...
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