Black and Red the two colors of human existence, so simple, so tribal, yet significant to us all as they are burned into our bones from when we exist as only atoms to when we die as galaxies and they stretch beyond that to the lives our stars burn out into. While they seem so simplistic there are deeper meanings in these colors that run deeper than the blood in our veins.
Red shows our fatal flaw: passion. A word of seven letters just as the seven sins it destroys us. With so much ambition towards our greater passion we misjudge things, overlook others, and forget the simplicities of life. Perhaps this is why when I think about how the future is going to be painted my heart starts to clench and I remember all the what if’s that could’ve happened somehow. It goes like this. Passion is the simplest instinct us humans have, you, me, and anyone you’ve ever met has had passion towards something. Whether it be acting, singing, or whatever have you, it’s always there and with no doubt it will tear you apart. Don’t deny the fact, there is no honor in passion. We all end up the same, disease ridden with vibrating dreams bashing against the walls of our hearts, driving our brains up a wall. It’s true I’m sorry to say, we all end up mad in a way. Your passion drives you to forget that others exist and suddenly your brain is spinning the thought that you’ll make it and the white noise around you will fall. Maybe that’s true but what happens when your inferno burns out and you’re just a shell of what you wanted to be. Do you still have what it was you did? Or are you drifting in the black hole of society? Perhaps during your incubation of hibernation you’ll have discovered the meaning of our color black just as I had.
Black oh doesn’t it seem ...
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...one of the millions of stars that burn in me to make me glow so intensely that my body burns to the touch the heat of a million impressions. Yet skin regenerates itself and all of your impressions, those marks left by your trembling lips during the bewitching hours, they're gone. As I fear the thought they'll never be imitated by another or restored by yourself my lonely star that refuses to burn out.
So it is for you my dear star, that I paint my lips red. The blood from my heart stains my lips with the most sinful of colors, if only to show that you're still burning in me. My fingers are stained permanently black from your last touch. Good bye. It reeks, it's so dismal, but all I think about at night. Your hands lingering on mine seeping black ooze just screaming for the attention you so desired, and as I wished I could show you now you've moved to another galaxy.
For example the connotation ‘red’ is the colour of fire, danger, power, caution and malice. ‘Red’ is an emotionally intense colour and is a consistent theme that builds up like a heated fire because Peter is full of rage and wrath and he is the “red herring” because he is distracting the mum from the truth about the abuse he is causing.
Hurst, the author of The Scarlet Ibis, uses the color red to symbolize a recurring theme throughout the story which is: Pride can aid, but if not controlled will cause harm. The color red is used throughout the story symbolically, to convey the author’s message. The color in itself has two sides to it; one being that it is a royal color, meaning pride, love, and power. The other is that red represents danger, blood, death, and destruction. Just like the color, pride also has two sides to it. Pride encouraged Brother, the narrator and protagonist of the story, to teach Doodle, his younger brother, to walk. However, pride then began to pull Brother into dangerous territory, and caused harm to Doodle. Pride, like the color red is filled with the yearning to see our loved ones do well. Just like the alternate side of the color red that brings destruction, pride’s alternate side
Where are the memories of our pasts held? In scrapbooks full of photographs, or perhaps written on the pages of a locked diary? Picture though, something as simple and ordinary as a closet full of clothes. Think about its contents, where they have been worn, what they have been through, the stories attached to each item. The nameless protagonist of Diane Schoemperlen’s short story Red Plaid Shirt does this as she recalls a snippet of her past life with each article of clothing she picks up. Red plaid shirt, blue sweatshirt, brown cashmere sweater, yellow evening gown, black leather jacket…each item has a tale of its very own, and when combined they reveal the full story of the main character’s life.
If one were to trace the color red through the book, it would be almost impossible to give it one decisive meaning- and that is the point entirely. The color red appears to symbolize not
How far can you go to lose yourself? What distance are we willing to tred to dim the glow of your own starlight? In Jerry Spinelli’s Stargirl several characters have vastly different personalities. Or do they? Is Leo Borlock really different from Hillary Kimble? Do they not both care for normality? For the attention of others? When Stargirl Caraway arrives, a butterfly engulfed by mist, the world shifted and grasped for an opportunity to hold onto something… divergent. An anomaly so far down their path, they could hardly reach it. So they grow to hate it, dead grass rising but never quite touching the soft delicacy of Stargirl’s petals. If something can’t be understood, it is not good enough to be loved. That’s how we’ve all been raised; to comprehend and to discover and to keep stretching out our arms to the answers when they just flow through the cracks of our normalcy like water. Society stones it until the mountain is just as low as the dirt itself, and no one has to be jealous anymore. No one has to wonder how they could have touched the docility of grey clouds. No one has to wonder what distance they went to not to be that sole splash of color in a world of white.
...Plessis, Eric H. du. “Deliberate Chaos: Poe’s Use of Colors in ‘The Masque of the Red Death’.” Poe Studies/Dark Romanticism 34.1-2 (June-December 2001): p40-42. Literature Resource Center. Web. 8 April 2012.
Another view of the American flag is the colors red, white, and blue. Some Americans see the color red as blood for all the blood shed on the battlegrounds. Another color white for victory or triumph in our great nation of America. Lastly, the color blue for the sadness or sorrow felt because of the lives lost in war.
Although colors are usually represented and used for the recollection of joyful experiences, Death uses the colors of the spectrum to enhance the experience of the Book Thief and as well as him own life too. In Death’s narration, his use of the colors illustrate the great ordeal of suffering and pain throughout the book’s setting. As an example Death says “The day was grey, the color of Europe. For me, the sky was the color of Jews” (Zusak, 349). This quote effectively describes Death’s use of the colors by relating it to the events taking place. The colors give perspective to the agony and painful hardships going on in the life of WWII. In a regular setting, colors are used to describe happy memories and any basic descriptions of a setting. Death says “Whatever the hour or color…” (Zusak, 5). By saying this quote, Death establishes the colors a...
hunts and runs into in the book. The author puts great detail in how Raptor
Red is by far the most used color in this book. It is used so much because it has so many meanings. The color red is interchangeable with the colors crimson, ruby, blood, and rose. Red comes in various shades too, but with each different shade comes a different meaning. There is light red, pink, dark red, and
In Sunset Limited, Black conveys Kierkegaard’s philosophy through his own life and words. In the beginning of the play, Black and White argue over the meaning of life—the former loving it, the latter trying to end it. Early on, Black tries to identify with White’s suicidal argument by noting that “Suffering and human destiny are the same thing” (55). Of course, Black’s admittance does not mean he believes in White’s argument, but instead that he understands White’s pain. Likewise, Kierkegaard’s description of life is similar to Black’s reasoning. In his writing, Kierkegaard recounts both the painful way a person is brought into the world and then taken out of it, saying, “[…] and then tell me whether something that begins and ends thus could be intended for enjoyment.” But the undertone of both Black and Kierkegaard’s statements cannot go unquestioned, and White replies, “You’re not making any sense” (55). White fails to understand that everything is common sense for Black, who has not only suffered more than White could ever imagine, but also believes in a force outside White’s wildest dreams. Originally a convict, Black turns his life around after a near-death experience, believing God chose him of all people to talk to. He lives in hopes of delivering God’s message and love to those bereft of it, for what pain can someone experience if God is on the other side? Comparatively, Kierkegaard’s detailed analysis of despair calls the obvious solution faith alone. Somehow, Black evinces Kierkegaard’s belief through becoming a productive member of society. After believing to have heard the Savior in his sleep, Black leaves his former friends and refrains from various forms of pleasure so he can help those less fortunate than himself. I...
as the color of our skin or our eyes. With our soul firmly planted, we
The colors red and white appear repeatedly in the story. However to understand the motif, it is important to know what the 2 colors mean. The color red is used to describe Aylmer’s “wife’s liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and decay” (Pg. 2).Meanwhile On the other end of the spectrum, white represents the purity and the life of an object. An example of how these 2 colors interact in the story are how
The color red seems to symbolize death. The beginning of the story presents the pit bank with "flames like red sores like its ashy sides" (2111). However, death is not presented as a dreadful thing in this story. In the end, death is freedom for Elizabeth. Even John says, " I do think its beautiful to look in the fire . . . . It's so red, and full of little caves-- and it feels so nice" (2114). In a way, he is commenting on the mystery and beauty of passing on to the afterlife. When Elizabeth goes to look for her husband, there, again, is "The red smear of the burning pit bank on the night (2117). Finally, she lays her dead husband on "the old red tablecloth" (2121).
I saw her walk over to the dressing table. I watched her appear in the circular glass of the mirror looking at me now at the end of a back and forth of mathematical light. I watched her keep on looking at me with her great hot-coal eyes: looking at me while she opened the little box covered with pink mother of pearl. I saw her powder her nose. When she finished, she closed the box, stood up again, and walked over to the lamp once more, saying: "I'm afraid that someone is dreaming about this room and revealing my secrets." And over the flame she held the same long and tremulous hand that she had been warming before sitting down at the mirror. And she said: "You don't feel the cold." And I said to her: "Sometimes." And she said to me: "You must feel it now." And then I understood why I couldn't have been alone in the seat. It was the cold that had been giving me the certainty of my solitude. "Now I feel it," I said. "And it's strange because the night is quiet. Maybe the sheet fell off." She didn't answer. Again she began to move toward the mirror and I turned again in the chair, keeping my back to her.