Analysis Of Bluets By Maggie Nelson

When we fall in love with someone, it is easy for us to consider him/her as the object we desire. In the hybrid-genre book, Bluets, written by Maggie Nelson, the speaker is obsessive for the color blue. Therefore, when the speaker meets her former lover, she thinks that he is the prince of blue. The speaker mixes her two desires by telling readers her fragmentary memories about them because she got so confused why her relationship with her lover ended so quickly. In the book, she creates a work that conveys much more than a meditation on the color itself, but rather wrestles with the implications of the color blue, humanity, inappropriate love, betrayal, depression, grief, and healing. Because of the speaker’s heartbreak, many passages in Bluets

For instance, in passage eighteen, she states that she goes to a hotel to have sex with her lover, but at the end she says, “It was a smear of the quotidian, a bright blue flake amidst all the dank providence. It was the only time I came” (7). She has a good time with her lover, but the things impressed her most is the bright blue flake. She looks at her lover, but sees the color blue instead. At that time, maybe only the color blue can best describe her enjoyment and happiness. In addition, in passage ninety-four, she says, “This is the disease talking. This is how much I miss you talking. This is the deepest blue, talking, talking, always talking to you” (35). The color blue often refers to sadness and depress. Therefore, only the ultramarine pigment can completely represent this “disease”

On one hand, this represents her actual confusion because she is so depressed that she does not think things clearly. On the other hand, by mixing two, she is able to metaphorize her heartbreak by searching the meaning of the color blue. In passage 67, the speaker compares herself with the bowerbird, which “spend weeks adorning with blue objects in order to lure a female” (26). Similar to the bowerbird, the speaker also always collects blue things and reminds of her prince of blue. She writes this book to record her collections and this is the reason why there is a number for every passage. Moreover, the passages in this book are fragmentary and they jump around, which can make the readers can feel the same ways as the speaker feels. The tone of this book is depressed and desperate in the beginning. Then, she keeps collecting blue things and expresses her emotion by writing. At the end, she decides to “stop hoping” and set herself free (231). She finally healed