Raise The Red Lantern

The Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich is a short about the lives of two Chippewa brothers living on an Indian reservation in North Dakota. Erdrich uses the symbol of red to show emotions associated with red and the setting which allow readers to understand the text while providing opportunity to read a lot more into the story. Color associations varies with many different cultures. Although Erdrich created a Native American story, she draw readers of different backgrounds to find some relationship with colors. There are two specific connotations of the color red.

The rose bushes and the red blossoms symbolize the strength the rose bush needed to survive in its elements to thus provide happiness in others. That one lone beauty, growing in such a dark and gloomy place, provides a ray of hope for those living in despair and loneliness inside the prison gates. The elements the rose bush is exposed to, act as a metaphor for Hester and her hardships which she slowly learns to adapt to.

Symbols, imagery, and figurative language are present multiple times throughout James Hurst’s story “The Scarlet Ibis”.

McCarthy provides rich examples of imagery to lure the reader in and to understand the secret symbolism of fire. He writes about depressing scenarios such as “the cans in the galley floor [not looking] in any way salvageable and even in the locker [seeing] some that were badly rusted and some that wore an ominous bulbed look”.(McCarthy 119) This imagery helps the reader understand what kind of situation the characters are in and how hard it

In literature, red is often associated with blood and violence. Four researchers, Erella Hovers, Shimon Ilani, Ofer Bar-Yosef, and Bernard Vandermeersch, studied colored symbolism and concluded; “Color symbolism is one of the symbolic frameworks used extensively by contemporary societies to convey information and abstract messages through material objects” (Hovers et al.,2003.) Through the use of colors, May vividly expresses the emotions of the speaker towards society, regarding the topics of warfare and education. He specifically selects certain colors, like black and red, to stir up emotions within Jontae. The colors create a symbolic image, ultimately leading up to represent the violent scenes taking place. May writes his fear; “I know how often red is the only color left to reach” (18-19), to show his apprehension for Jontae a young male in society surrounded by warfare. Red in literature often represents blood, sacrifice, and violence. Using colors throughout the poem, creates a more vehement atmosphere, in which Jontae is left to choose between warfare, and discovering his identity in an alternative

In addition to mirroring life, the Sea of Flames sets the stage for Doerr’s most pervasive yet inconspicuous analogy. When asked what he wants readers to take away from his novel, Doerr replies “that war is more complicated than they [the readers] might have thought, that there were civilians on both sides making really complicated moral decisions, [...] [that] little miracles” sprouted in the least expected of places (Schulman 27). The Sea of Flames is a central messenger for this theme at individual points of the novel but also in its overarching structure. The reader is first introduced to the Sea of Flames when it is housed at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, marked only by “an iron door with a single keyhole,” a series ending with a “thirteenth [...] no bigger than a shoe.” (Doerr 19-20). All the Light We Cannot See is partitioned into fourteen fragments- but it is labeled zero through thirteen. Just as passing through each door brings one closer to the gem, Doerr seeks to guide his reader through the locked gates of compassion and conflict to arrive at his own gem, which is revealed after passing through the thirteenth gate, into the last chapter of the novel, as Marie-Laure contemplates all the invisible electromagnetic waves, “ten thousand I miss yous, fifty thousand I love yous” passing “over the scarred and ever-shifting landscapes.” Transient messages connecting ephemeral people who eventually fall away, like the Sea of Flames, and “rise again

The novel, Ceremony, weaves a message through the eyes and mind of Tayo, Laguna Pueblo half-breed who just returned from World War II in the Philippines. Leslie Marmon Silko, the author, uses strongly developed characters, their interactions with Tayo, and Tayo’s reactions to those interactions to emphasize and illustrate the many themes of this story. Like large stones at the bottom of a river, these characters help these themes resurface again and again throughout the novel. A recurring theme throughout the entire book is this thought of witchery and deception. And the white man in all his inglorious brutality, is both the creation and the embodiment of the witchery and deception. Two characters that Silko uses to emphasize this idea to

Robert Corman’s Masque of the Red Death (1964) is a quality example that epitomizes the many connections between fairy tales in the gothic genre. Throughout the movie, candlesticks and candelabras appear in nearly every scene. Known to symbolize truth seeking and enlightenment (“Dreamicus”), they are a very powerful symbol in the darkener of the gothic. They are doomed silently to burn away as the inevitable struggle of self-sacrifice and the joys and pains of love submerges an individual (“Dreamicus”)—much like how Prince Prospero sacrifices himself in his devotion to Satan and endures the pain of allowing his new love, Francesca, to leave

“I've told her and I've told her: daughter, you have to teach that child the facts of life before it's too late” (Hopkinson 1). These are the first three lines of Nalo Hopkinson's short story “Riding the Red”, a modern adaptation of Charles Perrault's “Little Red Riding Hood”. In his fairy tale Perrault prevents girls from men's nature. In Hopkinson's adaptation, the goal remains the same: through the grandmother biographic narration, the author elaborates a slightly revisited plot without altering the moral: young girls should beware of men; especially when they seem innocent.

The memoir contains a number of other fires that claim houses, sheds, and injure other characters. Fire is said to represent a trend of chaos that is both natural and staged by man. The theme of fire relates closely to other themes concerning nature and pollution that

"Riding The Red"at first glance is a simple narrative with a grandmother telling a story about a wolf, but with further analyzation the two themes of first love and innocent become very clear. The author’s repetition of certain words like blood and dance directs your attention to a deeper meaning hinting and connections to the "Little Red Riding Hood" which reflects back to the underlining message of what happens when a girl grows up.

James Hurst, the author of the scarlet ibis, employs the technique of symbolism, and inanimate objects like the color red to convey hidden meanings that further clarify important themes in the story. Through his use of the color red, Hurst denotes both personal and universal emotions. Brother leads the reader through the many symbolic uses of the color in the story. Some of the ways the color is shown as a symbol is when Brother is comparing the red scarlet ibis to a broken vase of red flowers, the bleeding tree that Brother saw from which the scarlet ibis falls to its death and when Doodle dies in front of a red nightshade bush. When Brother finds his “Scarlet ibis,” he describes Doodle with these words, “Limply, he fell backwards onto the

One other juxtaposition of this film is war. In this scene, It detonates the firebombing of civilians which is an act of 'war crime' and the colour red connotatively being the sign of danger. Therefore by reading this scene, it is a reflection of Miyazaki's anti-war pacifism and disapproval to war. It also signifies civilians being victimised in this film while the palace is protected by magic. Suggesting that politicians are allowed to stay in a safer place, while civilians are victimised despite the fact that they are not directly responsible for pursuing the war.

Poe’s use of symbolism is very evident throughout the story of “The Masque of the Red Death”. Much has been made about the meaning of the rooms that fill Prince Prospero’s lavish getaway. One such critique, Brett Zimmerman writes, “It is difficult to believe that a symbolist such as Poe would refuse to assign significance to the hues in a tale otherwise loaded with symbolic and allegorical suggestiveness” (Zimmerman 60). Many agree that the seven rooms represent the seven stages of human existence. The first, blue, signifying the beginnings of life. Keeping in mind Poe’s Neo-Platonism and Transcendentalism stance, the significance of blue is taken a step further. Not only does blue symbolize the beginning of life, but the idea of immortality is apparent when considering these ideas. “Perhaps ‘The Masque of the Red Death’ then, is not quite the bleak existential vision we have long thought it to be”, expounds Zimmerman (Zimmerman 70). Poe’s use of each color is significant to the seven stages

According to Kong, “Red in Chinese culture symbolizes ‘luck’ and ‘popularity’ and is commonly used in important rituals and ceremonies…the color red is a vital signifier that is often charged with a special ironic power” (123). Red is often associated with passion and lust, though the latter is true to this film, the symbolic representation of red amount to sexuality as a means of gaining political power within the Chen household. The dining table scene where 3rd mistress arrives fashionably late dressed in a bright red gown shows that she currently holds the power in the amongst the four mistresses.