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The Color Red In The Handmaid's Tale

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In The Handmaid's Tale, the title character and all of the other women in her position wear red. In the west, we have our own clear understanding of what the color red implies. Or do we?

One of my favorite instances of the color red is in Spielberg's Schindler's List (1993). The whole movie is a masterpiece, crystal clear cinematography, a beautiful score and a fantastic cast of a-listers.I can't seem to forget that image of Liam Neeson lounging around in that sharp suit, smoke obscuring his stern face. There is something so wonderfully old-Hollywood about those party scenes. It makes the reality of the film that much more chilling. To have to go from Casablanca in one shot to, well, Schindler's List in the next is shocking and unexpected. The black and white puts some much needed distance between the movie's horrific events and the audience. But the color red does appear, and not where you would expect. …show more content…

You might not, as she comes and she goes and she's never given a name. This little Jewish girl wears a brilliant red peacoat and in one scene, she wanders around amidst the dead and dying unnoticed by the Nazi officers. When I first watched this movie, with my mother, she told me that red was the color of the innocent. That blew my mind. Red was always a sexy, scandalous color. The Scarlet Letter, the Lady in Red, Jessica Rabbit were the kinds of objects that came to mind when discussing the color red. Red is the color of sex, passion, blood. Isn't

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869 Words | 4 Pages

This red hair symbolizes the red anger that of the father if he found out that his daughter was seeing a black man. As the dark colored man hops into one side of a car and out the other it is symbolic of him entering a role in society. He is now an acceptable partner for this white girl. The author tells us that the girl is white in the poem when he writes, “Her back’s pale skin…” ().

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The first colored object to be mentioned is Mattie Silver’s scarf. The scarf Mattie wears help her stand out in Ethan’s bare life in Starkfield. Ethan says, “ … after diving about there and there in the throng, drew forth a girl who had already wound a cherry coloured ‘fascinator’ about her head, “ (Wharton 23). The color red is frequently connected to words like danger, vibrancy, and passion, to which can be

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957 Words | 4 Pages

The use of mainly red, in the undertones and background, represents pain and anguish. The painting also uses saturated colors in order to make the piece more

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964 Words | 4 Pages

The first time the girl in red was shown was during the liquidation of the, and the red girl hid under the bed to keep herself protected. The second time the audience and Oskar Schindler 's sees the red girl was during the burning of the bodies in Chujowa, Gorka in April, 1944. During this scene the prisoners of the camps and “Exhuming and incinerate the bodies of more than ten thousand jews slaughtered in Plaszow and Krakow Ghetto massacre” (Schindler’s List). During this scene Oskar visits Amon Goeth and spectates the incinerating process and sees the girl bruised, black and dead. After the seeing the innocent little girl dead, Schindler 's in motivated and inspired to write a list of “workers” to “work” in his factory.

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499 Words | 2 Pages

This passage is from the book Cinderella Ate My Daughter, by Peggy Orenstein. The overall purpose of this book is to inform the readers of the stereotypes girls must face as adolescents. The author is able to express her opinion as a parent and give advice to other parents with daughters of how to overcome the stereotypes so girls do not succumb to the girly culture that bombards the media. The book touches on Orenstein’s role as a mother to her daughter Daisy and the challenges she faces due to all the stereotypes for young girls. This passage focuses on girls conforming to the stereotype regarding pink is the color for females.

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260 Words | 2 Pages

The color red is intense; it is often associated with emotions that fall on opposite ends of the spectrum. Passion, desire, and love are polar opposite of fire, war, and blood. James Hurst used the color red throughout his short story, The Scarelt Ibis, to create literal and figurative symbols, which illustrated the dichotomy of the narrator’s memories of his younger brother, Doodle, to convey both beauty and tragedy. A reader is immediately introduced to the symbolism of the color red, and its beauty, the moment they read the title of the short story, The Scarlet Ibis.

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484 Words | 2 Pages

The color red is shown for when symbolizing for death or fire. But in this case it is known as the death of Doodle. For example when it says “A grind stone stands where the bleeding tree stood…” (Hurst 595), the author tries to tie together the death of Doodle and the death of the Scarlet Ibis. In this way we can see that the Scarlet Ibis had struggles just like Doodle. But unfortunately in the process in trying to succeed in their struggles they did not make it.

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191 Words | 1 Pages

There are a lot of different theories about the girl in the red coat considering she is the only color featured in the film. To me, I think she represents the innocence of children throughout the holocaust. There is definitely a significance of the color red, because red conveys a lot of different emotions, like love and hate. Many of the adults in the movie become numb to their emotions because they know that there is a very slim chance that they will make it out of the holocaust alive. I think that the girl being in color represents the children’s hope that everything will turn out all right.

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996 Words | 4 Pages

The Handmaid’s Tale is based in a futuristic world and it contains a strictly enforced control on all the people. This system is called The Republic of Gilead. All must follow the rules set in Gilead and not dare to overstep them. The laws are due to the decreasing number of fertile women and based on biblical teachings. The Handmaid’s roles in this novel are significant; however, their freedom and rights are viewed inferior towards men.

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770 Words | 4 Pages

In a person’s life, many situations transpire and make them feel pride over one’s self. Readers can see this in the short story,” The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst. “In his spare time Hurst wrote short stories and plays, but The Scarlet Ibis was the only work of his that become famous “(gradesaver.com)”. In the short story, “The Scarlet Ibis” James Hurst uses red to symbolize warning, death, and guilt to show the change the older brother goes through, as he takes care of Doodle. The first instance when red is used, is to express warning and the older brother’s attitude, is at Doodle’s birth.

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2005 Words | 9 Pages

We can see this in several objects: the smoke whenever she disappears, her sand clock counting down to Dorothy's death, the decoration in her chamber, the red details in her broomstick, the costumes of her servants, including the flying monkeys with red details in their apparel, the potion she develops for the "sleeping" poppy field (which is red again), her glass ball changing from green to red colours. The colour red is always present around her, maintaining the balance between green (her skin) and red, which needs to be maintained throughout the film. STILLS And most importantly also in red, the ruby slippers, which will link her to

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542 Words | 3 Pages

Answers Part A (7)The girl with the red coat - The girl wearing the red coat is a young Jewish girl. The red coat is the only coloured object in this black and white film. Schindler sees her from over a hill while the Jews are being gathered up in the Ghettos. To Schindler, she represents the innocence of the Jews being slaughtered. This is the monument when Schneider realized that innocent Jews are being killed by the Nazis and he is a part of it.

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1008 Words | 5 Pages

Red is usually a mystery when it comes to stories and is determined by the context of what’s going on with the character’s life. Sometimes it means lust romance and love other times it’s used to describe violence, anger, and evil. It’s well-known that the devil is painted red in stories for a reason. The symbol of red in Heart of Darkness should obviously take a darker approach. The narrator is describing his entrance into the Congo and states, “There was a vast amount of red - good to see at any time, because one knows that some real work is done in there,”( ).

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1274 Words | 6 Pages

The color red can represent sin, as stated in another analysis of the poem, “The wine and steak and newborn bloody child indicates perhaps this sexual act is sin; red often symbolizing sins in religion.” (Jessica Myers, Analysis of Sex Without Love by Sharon Olds, 2014) but what I find is that it has a double meaning which signifies lust as well. In the poem, red is a double edged sword to promote both the idea of lust and self enjoyment during sex, as well as sinful nature deeply rooted in different religions. It’s not difficult to imagine the speaker thinking often about such a situation in their

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1220 Words | 5 Pages

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margret Atwood is very descriptive when the main character, Offred, is describing color in the environment, and in particular the color red. The color red is the color that will decide the future of the handmaid’s. It is a color correlated with shame and with pregnancy, showing both signs of failure and success by the handmaid’s. The use of the color red and shame are often linked together through Offred describing blood in violence and death. The red in the blood relates to the female reproductive system, resulting in a failure by the Handmaids.

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