Bringing in the Pearls

Bringing in the Pearls is a hymn central to the Thanks Giving ceremony at Ardua Hall, the institutional heart of the Aunts' power in Gilead. The song transforms the recruitment of young women from foreign countries—a process that involves deception, coercion, and human trafficking—into a sacred, celebratory act of religious devotion. It is sung by the assembled Aunts and Pearl Girls as newly converted recruits, dressed in temporary silver dresses, are paraded down the aisle and presented to Aunt Lydia, the chief Founder. The hymn's lyrics, adapted from the traditional gospel song "Bringing in the Sheaves," replace the agricultural metaphor of harvesting crops with the harvesting of human souls: "Bringing in the Pearls, / Bringing in the Pearls, / We will come rejoicing, / Bringing in the Pearls." This substitution is deliberate: the "Pearls" are the young women themselves, each one a "Pearl of Great Price" who has been "saved from certain destruction" in the degenerate outside world. The hymn thus frames the girls' coerced entry into Gilead as a rescue mission, a narrative that the Aunts and Pearl Girls themselves appear to believe, or at least perform with convincing sincerity. The ceremony is described through the eyes of Nicole, the Canadian-born protagonist who has infiltrated Gilead under the alias Jade. She observes the "older women in the brown uniforms of the Aunts" and "younger ones in Pearl Girls dresses" singing with what seems like genuine happiness, smiling and nodding at her. The hymn's function is not merely liturgical but also psychological: it creates a shared emotional experience that binds the community together, reinforces the righteousness of their cause, and masks the violence and coercion underlying the recruitment system. The song is also a tool of indoctrination for the new recruits themselves, who are made to feel welcomed and valued even as they are being processed into a system that will strip them of their autonomy. The hymn's cheerful, communal tone stands in stark contrast to the grim realities of Gilead, where women are subjected to forced marriage, sexual servitude, and execution. It is a piece of propaganda set to music, designed to make the intolerable seem not only acceptable but holy.