Toni Morrison awarded with the Pulitzer Prize for her contemporary novel, Beloved. The author uses color to portray the effects of the main characters like Sethe, Beloved and Paul D. After the slaves are free, they notice that the world is not only consisted of two colors, black and white, which represent the two races during slavery, but also other beautiful colors. Mainly the colors used in the novel represent freedom after the conflict of slavery. Universally the color red is bold and signifies passion due to which it fades the colors around it. Although the meaning of the color red diverges, it persists throughout the novel, mainly meaning hope, death and love.
Morrison shows how Beloved frees Paul D's emotions that he stores in the "tobacco tin." Beloved seduces Paul D,
She moved closer with a footfall he didn't hear and he didn't hear the whisper that the flakes of rust made either as they fell away from the seams of his tobacco tin. So when the lid gave he didn't know it. What he knew was that when he reached the inside part he was saying, 'Red heart. Red heart,' over and over again. Softly and then so loud it woke Denver, then Paul D himself. 'Red heart. Red heart. Red heart' (137).
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The visual image of the "tobacco tin" shows how Paul D controls his memories. The color red of the "red heart" shows Paul D's emotion Beloved released to free him. After getting his heart freed, Paul D leaves 124 Bluestone. Basically Morrison shows that at first the tobacco tin took place of his heart. After Beloved seducing Paul D, the red heart is replaced back by the tobacco tin.
The color red can also represent death. Sethe can't forget what she did to Beloved, "Every dawn she saw the dawn, but never acknowledged or remarked its color. There was something wrong with that. It was as though one day she saw red baby blood, another day the pink gravestone chips, and that was the last of it" (50). The color red represents Sethe's daughter blood which was splattered when Beloved's throat was cut open. Red signifies pain, death and oppression. Pink which is part of the red, from the spectrum is the color of the gravestone Sethe buys for Beloved.
Red signifies violence which shows that colors are harmless. Stamp Paid finds a red ribbon with hair,
Tying his flatbed up on the bank of the Licking River, securing it the best he could, he caught sight of something red on its bottom. Reaching for it, he thought it was a cardinal feather stuck to his boat. He tugged and what came loose in his hand was a red ribbon knotted around a curl of wet woolly hair, clinging still to its bit of scalp (208).
The red of the "red ribbon" not only symbolizes blood but also the violence the slaves suffered. Morrison mentions that the red ribbon is attached to scalp of a girl, which means that the girl was a slave and was probably beaten up by her master.
Amy's search for carmine velvet shows the ineffectiveness of her dream. Amy's desire of carmine velvet is shown,
Clean and new and so smooth. The velvet I seen was brown, but in Boston they got all colors. Carmine. That means red but when you talk about velvet you got to say 'carmine.' She raised her eyes to the sky and then as though she had wasted enough time away from Boston, she moved off saying, 'I got go'" (44).
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In this case, "red velvet" is an image of Amy's desire, hope and dream. Velvet is considered rich, which is shown to be Amy's need and desire of a royal future. Amy mentions that the velvet is "brown" which represents calmness, boldness, friendliness, and at some level disgust. However later she mentions that in Boston they have different colors of velvet especially red which foreshadows her moving to Boston for a brighter future.
The color red represents death, love and hope in the novel. It's interesting how one color can have many different ideas. As for the future, would the list of the significance of the color red emerge? As Morrison says in her interview, "Don't use fiery language to describe fire." Red has many different meanings culture wise around the world; like in China it represents good luck, in India it represent purity and integrity, and mourning in South Africa.
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