Hello, I was wondering how people have used colour symbolism in there writing. As a general experience, do you use it much? If you do, how strong is the colour choice vs the narrative associations they have? I.E do you use say red as angry colour or more associate red with certain characters it is connected with? What associations do the colours have to you, in general? What does purple represent in your mind versus blue? Kind of an open-ended discussion, I'm curious to hear any thoughts on the subject.
I don't think I ever have, well, maybe aside from red representing blood. Not sure I've even done that really. To me color symbolism is custom-made for movies since they're a naturally visual medium. In a story you don't see colors so they don't have the immediate, visceral effect they have when seen, instead you're writing about seeing something, which puts it at a remove. Like writing about music or something—it's far more effective when people can actually hear the music or see the colors. I might use it if it seemed right anyway, but I tend more toward things that work better in writing. In movies or shows often they'll set up certain colors to mean something, for instance all that green you see in Breaking Bad represents money. That's a super important theme since money is exactly what Walt desperately wants to amass in order to set up his family for after he dies. You can set it up through association. If you always use a lot of strong green for instance in scenes where a lot of money is being made then people will get it, hopefully subconsciously if not directly (subconsciously is supposed to be far more effective). Green in Black Swan however represented envy. Both money (in America) and envy are associated with green already. In Black Swan pink represented forced infantilism. Anyone seen wearing pink or with it displayed in their personal room is someone who's been forced by their mother into a lifelong infantile state. In Jessica Jones purple represents Kilgrave, the telepathic/mind control villain. In the original comic book he was actually purple and was called The Purple Man, but for the TV show they made him a beige man (white) but he always wore a purple suit or if Jessica was having a flashback to some terrible thing he forced her to do you'd see a lot of purple in the scene, like strong purple lighting from a nearby neon light.
It's an interesting question. I wouldn't say I consider colour much at all. I think that Xoic may be right in saying it works better in film. I would say that these things often pass me by (it's news to me about the green in Breaking Bad, hehe). What was the deal with the the character obsessed with purple? I may have to google now. Rabbit holes await! 500 Days of Summer used colours to show how incompatible the main characters were: https://filmschoolrejects.com/we-dont-belong-together-the-500-days-of-summer-color-palette-theory-a50b2d3728a6/ I think it is a whole lot of effort to go to, and maybe just a gimmick in the end. Food for thought!
That didn't really represent anything, it was just a nod and a wink to the readers of the Alias comic, where he was literally purple. It was to get them to go "Oh sh*t! Look, Purple Man!" and then chuckle.
The anime RWBY places a bit of significance on color. Though not very much, there's certain themes with character names. I don't think it was by accident that the monkey faunus character who can make multiple clones of light was called 'Sun' and has a magical staff that can transform in various ways. Though character lore is more based on fairy tales and the like.
I must say I largely agree. Even as much as I pay attention to symbolism, I almost never notice color symbolism in movies until I read about it later, and then it seems really clever, but I don't know how well it works even subliminally. Except some of the really visceral and obvious ones like red for blood meaning violence or anger. Other kinds of symbolism work much better, like for instance you see a woman getting out of her car with grocery bags and a car comes careening around the corner and you hear the brakes screech. You don't see it actually hit her, but it shows a slow-motion close-up of the carton of milk she had bought falling to the street and bursting open to splatter all over the blacktop. I'm not sure most people would grasp anything more abstract from it like 'oh, a vase-like container represents the female body in its capacity to contain fetuses, and milk is a birth symbol', but they definitely get that it's a stand-in for showing her get splattered on the street.
Now, if she was pregnant and wearing white, they just might get that. Especially if she was seen earlier in the kitchen pouring milk for children and handling eggs, and maybe dropped one on the floor where it broke and she had an over-reaction to it. You might not put it together while watching, but quite possibly afterwards, or on a second or third watching, especially if you had already noticed other symbolism and were looking for more. Throw in some reinforcement, like have her tell a friend that she's terribly afraid she's going to miscarry, and maybe she's had dreams about it as well, and people will see the symbolism. You could even take it farther, The filmmaker in me just came up with this—a shot of her in the kitchen, wearing a white shirt, up close to the camera so all you see id the huge curve of her pregnant belly swelling and taking up half of the shot. He hand is closer to the camera, holding a white egg so that it's curvature completely mimics that of her belly behind it. She;'s talking, maybe the phone rings, the doorbell is ringing, the kids are going nuts, a typical too-much-going-on stressed-out scene. She drops the egg and the camera follows it in slow motion until it splatters on the floor. Later the milk carton looks very similar in its fall. Put them together and the symbolism is very strong and obvious. Perhaps unlike what I originally said she doesn't die in the crash, but loses the baby.
There was some great symbolism in The Queen's Gambit. (Again, only appreciated after watching) She was dressed as a white queen chess piece at the end, and, yep, I missed it. I do love symbolism though, more so in writing. Shakespeare was amazing at it. https://emotionsblog.history.qmul.ac.uk/2016/09/o-well-painted-passion-colour-and-emotions-in-shakespeares-othello/
I worldbuild my colour symbolism and wield that in my world. It's a bit iffy because I have to include scenes that "lead" the reader from RL symbolism towards my world's. But it aligns much more with what @Xoic wrote (specific symbolism for the work in question) and also extends to music, uniforms, animals, plants, architecture, hairstyles, etc. I always try to make these easy & consistent. Cultural association, most of the time, as well as association with noble houses which in extension translates to politics (and more culture). I tend to associate colours with their cultural and historical significance over any emotion or ideal. For me, red represents revolutionary thought, blue represents warfare and purple stands for royalty and the church. In general, I find works that build on colour symbolism awkward and pretentious. When I read that an evil emperor is clad in red it generates absolutely no emotions of war, anger and revolutionary strife - all I think of is that "Yeah, the author searched colour symbolism red in google and because they did it in English, they went with the cliché association in anglo culture". I prefer when colour is used as a signal to communicate worldbuilding or lore, and not as a vague symbolic whip of self-stroking pretentiousness. EG, establish that a noble house's symbol in your world is a purple poppy, and have them wear purple. The next time you see troops in purple gambesons march into a village, you don't have to describe what family they belong under.
I agree if that's all it is, but it could be done. I'm thinking again of a scene in a move or a series. But I could see a scene where everyone is wearing cool blues and greens or brown or very low-key colors and a warlord in bright red rides in and slays several of them violently. Show blood hitting the ground several times, and show it splattering into his red cloak, onto his face, his hands etc. Later if a group sees a silhouette on a hilltop of a horseman wearing bright red and you hear ominous music, you'll remember that scene and the carnage and know fear. I think you do have to work a bit to establish symbolism, just showing something being red by itself won't do anything.
I'd ask why the warlord was wearing red in the first place and assume the author's got a mild obsession with the British.
