Never Beam Down in a Red Shirt, pt. 2
Using Color In Your Writing
by Karen L. Oberst

  This is part two of the sixth installment of an irregular series about the use of color in writing. Part one (in the Mar. 15 issue) discussed the various hues of red, the associations of red, red in phrases, how red affects people, and some of the use of the color in The Handmaid's Tale.

This half of the article will discuss red in nature, including animals, plants, and food. It will also mention red in packaging of materials, red in the titles of books, stories, and movies, and how various professions interpret red.

Introduction

  Red in Nature, Animals, & Plants Red is a color often found in nature, most obviously in fire, and dawns and sunsets. Animals can be red too. Some of them are foxes, cardinals, lobsters (after cooking!), and crabs. There are also red wolves, red pandas, the red admiral (a butterfly), red deer, red ants, red snapper, redfish (a kind of bass), Hereford cows, and red wing (a European thrush). Some animals are called red, but are really brown, such as Rhode Island reds (chickens). The best known imaginary red animals are dragons, such as the red-gold Smaug in The Hobbit, and Scarlet in Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth saga. Also The Cat in the Hat has a red striped hat symbolic of red's energy.

Red is also often seen in the plant world. Flowers, both wild and domestic share this brilliant hue. Roses spring to mind immediately. There are also tulips, bleeding heart, fuchsias, crimson clover, poinsettias, and azaleas. Wild flowers include the crimson columbine, the scarlet pimpernel, the scarlet fritillary, the surprisingly named snow plant, the firecracker flower, some thistle flowers, such as the showy thistle, coral bells, the scarlet creeper, red-root (an herb used for dye), and the berries of the desert Christmas cactus, sometimes called the crown of thorns plant.

  Many trees have red as part of their names. A few are red oak, red cedar, red maple, red pine, red spruce, and especially redwood. There is also the red osier, a shrubby dogwood. In places where there are definite seasons, leaves turn a glorious red in the autumn, a sight which can never be conveyed by words or pictures, but must been seen to be really appreciated.

Foods share the red with other parts of nature. Many fruits are red, such as strawberries, raspberries, mangos, cranberries, rhubarb, cherries, and apples. There are red bananas, red pears, and red grapes. Red vegetables include tomatoes (technically a fruit), beets, radishes, red peppers, red cabbage, Indian corn, red onions, red potatoes, and kidney beans. Some unnaturally red foods are red licorice, candy canes, and jawbreakers.

Red in Trees & Food

  Red in Packaging Red is often used to package food. Both Town House and Ritz crackers come in red boxes. Campbell's soups have red on the labels. Most items that are seen as Italian have at least some red in the packaging, such as tomato sauce, and pizzas. So does Mexican food, picante sauce, for example and often Oriental foods likewise. Kit Kat candy bars come in red wrappers, as do Mounds. Interestingly enough, so do Sun Maid raisins. Since red is considered a patriotic color, it is often used as an accent on all sorts of packaging.

Books are often bound in red. The Merriam Webster's tenth collegiate dictionary is red, as is the original Roget's thesaurus. You will find it as either the spine color or as the lettering on many paperbacks. Packaging for blank diskettes, or video or audio tapes is often red, most likely to indicate excitement.

  Red is a very common word to use in titles. Some books and stories are: Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls, "The Adventure of the Red-Headed League" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Red and the Black by Stendhal, Big Red by Jim Kjelgaard, Clifford the Big Red Dog (and its sequels) by Norman Bridwell, "Little Red Riding Hood," The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers, Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy, "The Little Red Hen," "Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe, The series of the Michelin Red Guides, The Red Pony by John Steinbeck, "The Ransom of Red Chief" by O. Henry, The Red Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, "The Red Shoes" by Hans Christian Andersen, and "Snow White and Rose Red."

Some movies that have contained red in their titles are The Thin Red Line, The Big Red One, The Man With One Red Shoe, The Red Balloon, Wake of the Red Witch and The Woman in Red. There is also the British science fiction/comedy Red Dwarf.

Red in Titles

  What Red Means to Different Professions Red may mean different things according to a person's profession. For those in finance, or business ownership, red is the color of loss (red ink). For those in the practical science industries, such as engineering, chemical processing, etc., red is the color of danger and poison. For the health professions, red is the color of health. For a psychologist, red may signal agitation. For those in education, red can indicate a mistake, since corrections to papers traditionally get made with a red pen. For those in religious professions, red is seen as the color of sin and the devil, and so has very bad connotations. For car dealers/buyers, red indicates youth and excitement. Depending on your character's profession, s/he will relate differently to the color, and you can use those feelings to describe why s/he dresses in or decorates with, red.

Being aware of what colors mean to your characters--and to you--can make your stories richer and stronger.


Copyright © 2000 by Karen L. Oberst

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