Color

Notes/ Thoughts/ Rough draft 

Color: In Beloved red represents death, hatred, sadness, emotion yet even life. Red I believe without coincedence is the also the color of blood. In beloved blood has been spilled multiple times. In the matter of death red represented the death of “the crawling already?”, sethes third child. The child that she murdered in the woodshed. It also represents hatred…… But on the completely other side of the spectrum, red represents life. Red represents the blood of sethe birthing her children; loving them, fighting for them, keeping them “safe”.

In the very beginning of Part 1, we are introduced to “red”. When Paul D first enters 124 he enters “a pool of red”, a haunting emotion that filled the house. Sethe then simply replies “its not evil, just sad”. Paul D later thinks to himself, describing the sadness and urge to cry that fell over him as he walked through the red light. Later in the book red reappears when Sethe is remember the birth of Denver. The girl Amy, was on her way to Boston to find red velvet. As Sethe was sufferering the pain of birthing Denver, Amy comforting her with the images and story of her quest of that Carmine (red) Velvet. Another instence of red. Is when Paul D takes sethe and Denver to the carnival, and the streets are lined with “doomed roses”. I believe that these roses foreshadow the sadness and “doom” that comes when Beloved arrives later in that chapter.