Holi is basically a pigment throwing free for all. People chase each other and throw handfuls of colorful pigment at each other. Some throw balloons filled with colored water. Really anyone is fair game and it's a magical thing to be apart of and to observe but what is most interesting to me is the unifying factor; people of different socioeconomic classes, gender, religion and gender come together to celebrate Holi and it is really a beautiful thing.
In Midnight's Children, the festival of Holi is only mentioned once and while that mention is fleeting I do believe the colors of the novel hold significance outside of normal descriptive nature to show and challenge the differences in Eastern and Western cultures.The color of Midnight's Children that are symbolic are blue, white, saffron (orange), green, black and red.
The blue is, of course, the Kashmiri blue of Saleem and Aadam's eyes. According to color theorist John Gage, in Eastern cultures blue represents an infinity of sorts. Blue is the vastness of the sky and ocean, specifically in Hinduism, blue is what the love-god Krishna is usually depicted as being. Translated into Western culture (and the novel's dealing with Catholicism), God is love and his love is limitless. The novel's characters like the bishop use this extended meaning to bridge the religious gap between East and West.
The white, saffron and green is scattered throughout the novel but most notable is that of India's flag. Gage states that in Hinduism saffron is a sacred color that represents the fire that burn impurities. White is view by the West as virginal but in the East represents death. In both East and West, green is fertility, youthfulness, renewal; conversely, green is jealousy, envy and misfortune. To me it's interesting that the three come together to represent India to the world. In the novel at the moment India becomes independent the author uses saffron and green continuously to describe clothing and atmosphere, to the point where it seems trite but I think it's an attempt to make the reader understand that with saffron India is burning away the impurities of colonial rule and with the green they are being reborn into a country united (no matter how fleeting that unity may be).
The black and the red are more descriptive than allegorical; in the Eastern sense. Black is used to describe skin and hair color and red is used to describe hair color as well as blood. The novel's use of these two are, again, to show the differences between East and West. In the West, black is the color of death and power while red ranges from love to war. In the East black varies, it is most commonly associated with masculinity and anonymity but in certain regions is the color of evil. Also in the East, red is the color of happiness and in India, red relates to purity and is often worn by brides to bring luck, long life and happiness.
Color used to describe emotion, at an elementary level, is to use red for anger, black for loss, yellow for happiness and blue for sadness. As we move past that and start to deal with different cultures other than our own it becomes more complex. In Midnight's Children we see the mingling of East and West and I think it's very important to acknowledge, however subtle, Salman Rushdie's use of color to further intertwine the two.
Also, the film has an incredibly vibrant color scheme which is hard to ignore.
Curated by: Jasmine Hosein.
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"Celebrate Holi." Holi Festival. Society for the Confluence of Festivals in India.,n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
Gage, John. Color and Meaning: Art, Science, and Symbolism. Berkeley: U of California. 1999. Print.
Rayhan, Shawon, Khalid. Portrait of Shy Bengali Woman. 2012. National Geographic, Bangladesh, India. Web.
Rushdie, Salman. Midnight's Children: A Novel. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2006. Print.
The usage of a festivals of color to explain the novel is quite fascinating, as it does seem to have quite a lot based within and related to colors. Especially the explanation as to how colors can also represent emotions, as these are such a major part of the novel. As well as the fact this is a Hindu holiday, as religious strife does seem to play a major part throughout the novel. Red does seem to be a major issue in the novel, from the three drops of blood which begin Aadam’s retreat from religion, to the issues in which the country is caught up in as they try to separate from England, to the likely color of the bits and pieces of Saleem which will be floating around India, if his depiction of his fate is to be believed. It is also interesting that green represents youthfulness and envy, as these qualities in Shiva are part of what lead to the eventual downfall of all the Children of Midnight. I would add there is another important element of the novel which is inevitably linked to green, however; Pickles. For all this story is is a collection of pickle jars, after all.
ReplyDeleteComment by Zachary Lewis
Jasmine this is a great artefact contribution and a super in depth analysis within colour theory. It’s honestly fascinating to not only read about the festival of Holi and how the colour palette corresponds and relates to the text, but the fact that we are discussing colour palettes and theory within the frame of a textual narrative is eye-opening in itself. I can safely say that I’ve never really associated the (sometimes endless seeming) stream of black ink upon white page of the physical aspects of a novel with this array of colours. And obviously your discussing it from a content and context point of view, but I can’t help but wonder about it in the sense of format as content. What if we applied the actual colour theory within the novel? As in, to the actual inked words within it? Would we see specific stories and characters words laced with specific colours? Would these vary throughout the text? Would we have intermingling colours within a same sentence? It might be the on setting sleep deprivation, but I’m thinking about how cool it would be if we could see that literally reflected within the text’s format.
ReplyDelete- Paula Febles Bustillo