COLOUR IMAGERY: THE ROAD

Transcription

1 COLOUR IMAGERY: THE ROAD The road is packed with colour imagery. It is a very prominent and noticeable part of the novel. The imagery throughout the novel helps develop the dark mood, theme, and setting. As you can see when looking at this colour imagery graphs, it becomes obvious that the road is a very dark and ominous book. However, just as there are glimpses of hope throughout the novel, there are also glimpses of brighter colours throughout the graph.when examining the graph you can tell that there is colour imagery involving red, black and grey, white, orange, yellow and blue. Grey Throughout The Road, McCarthy uses grey colour imagery to describe and enhance the setting and theme of lifelessness, despair and barrenness. The colour of the ash, snow, dawn, afternoon, light, and sea are described using dark coloured imagery. An interesting aspect of the grey colour imagery is that things that are usually thought of as bright (dawn, light, snow) are described with dark and grey adjectives. This helps us truly connect with the dark and somber setting. Everything that used to bring brightness and light in the world is now dark and worn out. The imagery allows for vivid mental images that help us as readers visualize the writer's works. Examples: Ash, Snow, Dawn, Afternoon, Light, Sea Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before. Like

2 the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world. (page 3) appeals to our visual senses using the phrase cold glaucoma helps us envision the darkness of this desolate world. Glaucoma is a condition that damages the optic nerve resulting in partial blindness. It is so dark that it s comparable to being blind. The shape of a city stood in the greyness like a charcoal drawing sketched across the waste. (page 8) appeals to our visual senses using the phrase charcoal drawing sketched across the waste helps us envision the landscape (dark, grey, and hopeless) Symbolism: Lifelessness, Despair, Barrenness, and Monotony Black Another of the prominent colours McCarthy uses throughout the novel is black. The use of this colour in the descriptive imagery develops and enhances the themes of despair and death that we see so often. He uses black to describe the dead trees, and other things that have been burnt by the fires that have ravaged America, the murky waters of once clear lakes, the road, the sky, and the darkness that surrounds the two main characters almost constantly. Examples: The dead trees, The road, The murky water, The melting blacktop, Ash, Lines on the map, The dark, Smoke The blackness he woke to on those nights was sightless and impenetrable. A blackness to hurt your ears with listening No sound but the wind in those bare and blackened trees that cold autistic dark. (p.15) appeals to our visual senses using the phrase those nights was sightless and impenetrable appeals to our auditory senses using the phrase a blackness to hurt you ears with listening The soft black talc blew through the streets like squid ink uncoiling along a sea floor. (p. 152) appeals to our visual senses using the phrase like squid ink uncoiling along a sea floor

3 Symbolism: Death, Despair, Isolation Blue Although it isn t as common as the dark colours, imagery involving the colour blue is also present in The Road. McCarthy describes the blue sky in the father s dreams, the blue flame of the lighter, and the tarp with graphic and striking imagery. Throughout the novel, imagery involving the colour blue is connected with hope, survival and safety. The blue tarp and the lighter for example provide safety for the boy and the man, but is also needed for survival. The colour blue is also connected to fire, which is a large symbol of hope throughout the novel. The colour blue most often appears in his dreams. Only artificial things in this new world are blue. The sky, the water, the mountains are no longer blue: It has all been destroyed. This shows us that blue is a memory of what used to be. Colours are slowly draining from the world resulting in less and less hope. Examples: Father s dreams, Blue flame of the lighter, Tarp And the child and the sky was aching blue but he was learning how to wake himself from just such siren worlds. (p.18) appeals to visual senses using the phrase the sky was aching blue helps us truly understand how beautiful the world was before the apocalypse this imagery serves to further contrast the temporary state of the world in The Road turned and lay holding the child, watching the blue flames through the plastic. (p. 183) appeals to visual senses using the phrase the blue flames fire is very symbolic throughout the book. It signifies hope for humanity but also hope for survival Symbolism: Hope, Survival, Safety, Sadness Red / Orange Colours such as red and orange contrast starkly against the darker, bleaker colours that we see more often in this novel, and McCarthy takes full advantage of this contrast to emphasise the meanings behind these colours. In a world that is almost entirely comprised of dark and dreary colours such as black and grey, any sort of colour is striking and stands out, especially warm

4 colours such red and orange. In the novel, these two colours, orange especially, are used mainly to describe fire and the light it gives off, but they both are also the colours of other things, such as the scarves of the marauders and bad guys, and blood. Generally, the presence of these two colours in the novel is ominous, and we come to associate them with danger and violence and destruction, but sometimes, the fire is described in a more positive way, when talking about the light and warmth it provides, both of which are scarce in the dark world. Another example of a more positive image which uses the colour red is the Coca cola can that the man finds in the supermarket early on in the novel. Although McCarthy doesn t explicitly write that the can is red, he uses the brand s popularity to his advantage. The brand is so well-known worldwide, and is so closely associated with the colour red that it immediately instils the right image in the minds of the readers. In this case, the colour red and the can itself represents a piece of the old world, a piece that sticks out like a great deal in this monotonous, grey world. Examples: Forest-fires, Snow in firelight, Scarves/bandanas of marauders, The birth of the boy, Blood There were fires still burning high in the mountains and at night they could see the light from the deep orange in the soot-fall. (p.26) appeals to visual senses using the phrase the light from the deep orange in the soot-fall. [...]all wearing red scarves at their necks. Red or orange, as close to red as they could find. (p. 77) Groups together all the bad guys and forms an association in the reader s mind between these colours and danger The snow orange and quivering.[...]the color of it moved something in him long forgotten. (p. 27) appeals to visual senses using the phrase The snow orange and quivering He held aloft the scrawny red body so raw and naked[...] (p. 50) appeals to visual senses using the phrase scrawny red body Symbolism: Danger (bad guys), Violence, Warmth

5 Yellow Throughout The Road, McCarthy uses yellow colour imagery when describing the boy s hair, the toy truck, the man s old home, and the man at the end of the novel in the yellow parka. The yellow imagery is used to emphasize the theme of rescue, hope for mankind, a golden world. Throughout the novel the colour yellow is connected with good and innocence. The way McCarthy describes the yellow objects reinforces the idea that they are good, a symbol of hope. The yellow objects throughout the novel (the boy s hair, the toy truck, the man s house) also foreshadowed the ending: the man in the yellow parka. In The Road, all yellow things symbolized goodness. So when the man with the yellow parka comes along we can assume that he is a good guy because he is connected to the colour yellow. Examples: The boy s hair, The boy s truck, The father s old house, The man in the parka at the end of the book He sat beside him and stroked his pale and tangled hair. Golden chalice, good to house a god. (p. 64) appeals to visual senses using the phrase pale and tangled hair symbol of goodness They walked through the dining room where the firebrick in the hearth was as yellow as the day it was laid because his mother could not bear to see it blackened. (p. 22) appeals to visual senses using the phrase yellow as the day it was laid symbol of goodness, a better time The boy found toys he d forgot he had. He kept out a yellow truck and they went on with it sitting on top of the tarp. (p. 30) symbol of innocence, purity, simplicity The man that hove into view and stood there looking at him was dressed in a gray and yellow ski parka. (p. 237) symbol of hope and goodness just like the boy he is connected to the colour yellow (the good guys) Symbolism: Hope for mankind, Innocence, Good

6 White The colour white is not used as often as some of the other colours, but, unlike most of the aforementioned colours, it has multiple different, somewhat opposing meanings throughout the novel. In some parts of the novel, it is used as a description of purity, such as the white quartz they found, described as being as perfect as the day it was made. It is also used in one of the rare descriptions the readers get of the boy s appearance. The boy s skin is described as pale and so white as he is running in the ocean. This can be interpreted as showing and symbolizing his youth, purity and innocence. Another example is when the man drops a white stone into a dark river and it is immediately engulfed by the murky water. This quote can be interpreted as a representation of the novel as a whole. The white stone portrays the innocence of the human race, and the goodness that we can see every day in our current society, all of which would easily disappear when faced with a darkness as great as the one that befell the world in The Road. On the other hand, white is used as the colour of the cannibal house that the man and the boy barely escape from. When you think of a scary house, you think of it being run down and dark, probably painted black or build from dark wood. When thinking about a white house, we all most likely think of a clean, bright house in a good, safe neighbourhood. From the outside, the house seems fine, and being painted white could have given an impression of purity and innocence, but the reality of what lay inside was dark and horrifying. The outwards appearance of the house was misleading and the man could have been, however subconsciously, deceived. Examples: The boy s skin, The eyes of the creature, The white quartz, The white rock, The Cannibal s House It was white quartz, perfect as the day it was made. (p. 172) pristine, perfect quartz, developing the ideas that connect white with purity He stood naked, clutching himself and dancing.[...] So white. (p. 183) Paleness: symbol of youth and innocence, rare description of the physical appearance of the boy Symbolism: Purity, Innocence, Deceit Colour Mentions in the Road:

7 One stripe per page: One stripe per colour mention: