Imagine this, you are sitting in a movie theater watching an old, yet classic, movie. The movie was made in the year 1928, so there is no color in this movie other than plain old black and white. You finish your movie and get up to leave when you realize everything is black and white. You desperately close your eyes and shake your head violently. You open your eyes, but still there is no color anywhere. Every color you had ever seen was gone. What if you never saw color again? What if no one could see color? Could humanity bear such a cold, dreary world? In Lois Lowry’s novel The Giver all citizens are unable to see color; however, these citizens do not understand or know what color is. They are simply never given the opportunity to see color. …show more content…
In The Giver this is exactly what happens, and Lois Lowry reveals this in a rather startling way. The main character Jonas is selected to receive all of the memories of the past so that he may provide wisdom when important decisions must be made. Some of the memories he is given introduce him to color. Jonas has never seen color before and begins bombarding his mentor with questions about color. “Why can’t everyone see them? Why did colors disappear?” (Lowry 95). His mentor, The Giver, explains to Jonas that people long ago decided to get rid of colors, hills, mountains, different skin colors, and all of this diversity to enable them to move towards something known as “Sameness”. Sameness meant that there were no more colors, everyone had the same skin color, all terrain was completely flat, and there was simply as little diversity as possible. While this may seem quite absurd the logic and thinking behind it makes sense, yet it is very strongly opinionated. The thought is that if one could do away with differences there would be no more conflict. While this may prove effect, what would be the point if every human being lived the exact same life? How would society ever become better than it was the day before? Unfortunately, society couldn’t progress and there is would be little point in
What does it mean, in the context of this film, to be ‘colorless’? To be ‘colored’? - To be colorless in Pleasantville essentially alludes to possessing characteristics of dullness and defined morality (false dichotomy) along with conformity. On the other hand, in order to be “colored”, it takes strength to jump out of one’s comfort zone and think/act outside of the box which is ultimately considered a positive characteristic. By the time Pleasantville goes full color, with what values does the viewer associate color?
Those of us with simple color-vision deficiency face more mundane problems” and “Because the most common form of colorblindness involves distinguishing red and green,
Have you ever thought about being colorblind and not having feelings? In The Giver the community's members actually are colorblind and don’t have feelings because of equality. In the book, “Harrison Bergeron” people are also equal but they must wear weights and ear pieces that they call handicaps. This is supported by the quote by Barry Goldwater “Equality, rightly understood as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences; wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism.” The quote by Barry Goldwater shares a central idea about equality and how it is greatly misunderstood an used incorrectly.
They do the same with blues and reds and yellows. Ivanito asks her, “If the grass were black, would the world be different?” (84). Through Felicia’s memory, and perception of events, she crafts a way in which she can test the boundaries of reality. She questions the limits of nature by turning the world around her into a canvas that is alterable at her will.
Olds’ use of striking imagery and point of view helps the speaker realize that color is a
Some might argue that everyone being the same would allow a more unified and peaceful society, but the effect the implementation of such totalitarian laws would have on the individual citizens would far outweigh the potential benefits. For example, in the story, Harrison's father is one of millions of intelligent people who are forced to wear handicaps to bring them down to a common level. This has a negative effect on their ability to think and communicate effectively. They are reduced to the level of everyone else, and their individuality is suppressed. Similarly, the ballerinas in the story are forced to wear handicaps to bring them down to the level of everyone else.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, color symbolism is used to reveal important character traits and create a variety of moods throughout chapters 1-4. Fitzgerald incorporates the color white to demonstrate the virginal purity and initial innocence of some of the characters. He also uses this symbolism of the color white to differentiate between social classes. Fitzgerald then affiliates the colors gray and yellow with the dismal corruption that engulfs the novel. To tie everything together, he develops a pattern of the color green to portray how Gatsby’s world revolves around a greedy, yet romanticized dream, only attainable through money.
Jimmi Hendrix said “anything not founded on truth will fall eventually; like a castle made of sand melts into the sea.” Throughout both past and modern societies, this quote has proved the truth can be hidden or its appearance seemingly changed, but ultimately what is truth and what is lies will be separated. In The Giver, Lois Lowry depicts a society that has been sheltered from all “bad” in the world and disguises murder, emotions and even death by renaming them, hiding them, and divulging only partial truths. In doing so, they only bury the concepts of truth and reality, placing their weight upon selected individuals. When the majority of the public is filtered from these vital aspects of life, they not only lose hold of reality, but of
One of the main themes in “The Giver” is the importance of individuality. The people in the community are not given any freedom to be individuals. They are not allowed to be different, and this creates less understanding of the world. This is why the community needs a receiver to understand these things for them.
In the movie The Wizard Of Oz Dorothy lives in Kansas which is portrayed in black and white and all the characters are in agitated, pitiful moods with faces that show no emotion like a plain white piece of paper; even when someone tries to make a joke no one seems to understand. Meanwhile when Dorothy lands in Munchkin Land a world bursting of color so much that it can overwhelm someone with jovial and happy emotions. People’s moods are often portrayed by the colors that surround them in everyday lives. The horrid, plain place Dorothy called home was full of dull colors; shades of black and grey made everything seem very outdated and the characters duller.
Have People ever thought about different color people? Have people ever wonder about slaves and how they were treated? Think about adults, children, and baby hands piling up. For example, people color like blue, green, and purple.
In Lois Lowry’s award-winning novel, The Giver, Jonas’s society is considered to be utopian because the society has an overall sense of sameness, organization, and minimal problems. To begin, the society is utopian because of sameness. In Lois Lowry 's, The Giver, Jonas is selected to be the Receiver of Memories and he comes to learn that when his community decided to go to sameness they were getting rid of color, emotion, and choice. At first the Giver tells him it 's to "protect" them from making the wrong choices. As stated in the text “Our people made that choice the choice to go to sameness”.(Lois Lowry pg 95)
What do colors mean? Colors represent different things, trigger different memories. Colors have a wide variety of meanings for different people. Colors spark different things for people. Some relate the color pink to a girl and blue to a boy, other people may relate blue to sadness.
This is probably one of the most famous sequences in The Wizard of Oz (1939). In minute nineteen of the film, it is the moment in which the Technicolor world is revealed, merging the black and white (or sepia) world with the coloured one. Thus, depicting the change from black and white to colour film (both metaphorically and literally) there is no wonder that this film will attempt at a wide exploration of colours. In this essay I will explore the usage of colours in The Wizard of Oz, attempting to show how colours are used for different purposes and how their meanings can be changed.
Many years ago the world shone with colours. But for colours to exist they need to be loved and appreciated, and the people were far too busy with their lives too notice them. So slowly, but eventually, the colours faded into nothing. This is the story of Ivy: the girl who brought colour back.