Previous
Symbols
Guest uses color to represent characters' emotional states. Because Conrad and many of the other characters in the novel are deeply affected by changes in their environment, the appearance of places, things, and even people come to represent various states of being. Three colors occur most often. Blue represents anxiety; it is manifested in the outfit Jeannine wears when Conrad sees her for the first time, and is also the color of Dr. Berger's piercing eyes. Gray symbolizes failure; many of the narration's descriptions of weather mention the gray sky of early-winter Illinois. Lastly, gold marks truth or insight; ideas or characters that are valued highly by a character are decked in the color, as Jeannine is in later parts of the novel, as is Cal's bathroom mirror in the second chapter.
Color Quotes in Ordinary People
The Ordinary People quotes below all refer to the symbol of Color. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 24
Quotes
She pulls in her breath, and her arms are around his waist, her head on his chest. He stands, holding her; tests the feeling of someone leaning on him, looking to him for support. He feels as if he could stand here holding her forever. Her lashes are wet, golden in the harsh overhead light. He lifts her chin with his hand and kisses her. Her face is tear-streaked, her mouth loose under his, turned slightly down. He has never felt so strong, so needed.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Epilogue
Quotes
In a letter that she wrote to his grandmother she said, "The Aegean is bluer than the Atlantic, and rough and bumpy. It looks just the way the boys drew it on those funny school maps." For she had saved them all—the maps and papers and a construction-paper valentine trimmed with Kleenex-lace that he had made for her—and packed them away in a box he had found in the basement, when they had moved out. Do you save stuff like that if it means nothing to you?
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Ordinary People LitChart as a printable PDF.
Color Symbol Timeline in Ordinary People
The timeline below shows where the symbol Color appears in Ordinary People. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 16
...out to the parking lot – and by surprise he encounters her again, noticing her blue skirt and blue car. Nonchalantly, she apologizes for embarrassing him, flirtatiously complements his good looks,...
(full context)
Chapter 17
...Berger. Like his son, Cal is struck by Berger's crazed appearance and the "sharp, stinging blue" of his eyes. His nervous attention to detail runs wild in Berger's office, causing his...
(full context)
Chapter 18
...handful of details as he glances around the classroom: his peers hard at work, the blue shadows of trees on the snow outside, his teacher passing through the aisles of the...
(full context)
Chapter 26
...Conrad is jolted awake; he looks around and realizes that everything in his room is blue. In the next dream, Conrad revisits the moment he slit his wrists.
(full context)
