Spring Green

Spring Green is the color of the outfits that young girls of marriageable age must wear in Gilead: "spring green with white accents - pocket trims collars, for spring and summer, and spring green with dark green accents for fall and winter" (159-60). While the color functions as a sinister reminder of the girls' fate, it does also signify hope and renewal - the potential for a life for Agnes beyond what is being forced upon her. Considering this more positive interpretation, it makes sense that the cover of The Testaments is in a spring green/navy blue color scheme.

Girls as Flowers

Young girls in Gilead are told they are "precious flowers" - which, for the Aunts, is a metaphor to scare them into seeing their bodies and their virginity as sacred: "we were precious flowers that had to be kept safely inside glass...