| This is the fourth in an irregular series about the use of color in writing. The first was It's not Easy Bein' Green, and the second, Blue Christmas, and the third, When I am on Old Woman, I Shall Wear Purple. You can use color to add authenticity to your writing in at least two ways: by using more precise wording when you refer to a color, and by being aware of the connotations attached to various colors. |
"You can use color to add authenticity to your writing..." |
| In a box of 64 crayons, there are eight different colors of yellow." | As always, starting with the crayon box, towards the orange side of yellow are maize, goldenrod, and yellow orange; in the middle, the color called simply yellow, canary yellow, and lemon yellow; towards the green end, yellow green; and finally, the metallic gold. Outside of the crayon box is amber, a warm, brownish color. There is also blonde, and its cousin, flaxen, the tasty butterscotch, and the almost green chartreuse. |
| Yellow also lends its name to various phrases. Yellow dog is an adjective applied to those who oppose unions. By association it came to denote someone mean or contemptible. Yellow fever (yellow because jaundice is a symptom) was a feared disease during the digging of the Panama Canal. The yellow jack (from yellow fever) is a ship's flag indicating quarantine. Yellow peril was the unflattering name given to the Oriental immigrants in the United States. Yellow journalism (from the color of the cheap newsprint) is nonobjective, florid or sensationalist news reporting. The yellow pages are the part of the telephone book that lists services and businesses. There is also the Yellow River in China, so named for the silt carried along it. It's interesting that virtually all of the phrases are negative in connotation, since that is not at all the way most view the color. Yellow is the brightest and most cheerful of the warm colors. It can remind you of a warm, sunny day, and is incandescent, radiant, and inspiring. It tends to indicate happiness, high spirits, and energy. What could be more cheerful than the bright yellow rain slickers children wear? According to a Web page which no longer exists, if yellow is your favorite color, you are communicative, expressive, and social. |
"Yellow also lends its name to various phrases." |
| Yellow in Nature | Yellow is a very common color in nature. There are many yellow foods, such as bananas, lemons, peaches, wheat, corn, golden delicious apples, egg yolks, summer squash, and butter. Among flowers, there are sunflowers, daffodils, golden rod, forsythia, saffron (which produces a yellow dye), buttercups, the flowers of Oregon grape, scotch broom, varieties of roses, iris, pansies, tulips, and many others. Among the trees are yellow birch and yellow pine. In those, the color refers to the bark or shade of the wood. Some places yellow appears in the animal kingdom are butterflies, bees (especially yellow jackets!), baby chicks, canaries, goldfinches, lions, tigers, giraffes, rubber ducks, and of course Big Bird. |
| Literarily speaking, there is the book Old Yeller, about a boy and his yellow dog. One of the most famous commands in literature is, "Follow the yellow brick road!" from The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz by Frank L. Baum. Several movies have yellow in the titles. In 1944, Roy Rogers starred in Yellow Rose Of Texas. She Wore A Yellow Ribbon was a 1949 John Wayne vehicle. In 1967 came I Am Curious (Yellow), which shocked a generation. There are at least three songs with yellow in the title, "Yellow Rose of Texas" (J.K., 1853), "Yellow Submarine" (Lennon/McCartney, 1969), and "They Call Me Mellow Yellow" (Donovan 196?). On a less positive note, yellow can serve as a warning color on the Enterprise ("Yellow alert, Mr. Sulu!") and in traffic lights or road signs. Yellow is also a warning color for signs attached to chemicals. It can indicate ill health, if the patient is jaundiced. A coward is called yellow. |
Yellow in Literature and Other Thoughts about Yellow |
| Using Yellow in Your Writing | In your writing, you need to be conscious of your character's profession, to know how yellow will affect him or her. If he is a doctor, he will associate yellow with jaundice and ill health. If she is part of big business, she will see yellow as important and substantial. If he is an engineer, he will think of yellow as a cautionary color. If she is a cook or gardener, she will certainly use yellow a great deal in her work. (Most of these come from Projecting a Professional Image with Color) Being aware of what colors mean to your characters--and to you--can make your stories richer and stronger. |
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