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Color Imagery In A Red Dress 1946 By Alice Munro

Decent Essays

In “A Red Dress 1946”, a short story by Alice Munro, uses the significance of color imagery throughout the story. The color red represents nonconformity, standing out or being unique This is because of the narrator’s unwillingness to be a unique girl. However, the color blue represents conformity, being able to blend in with society, and the ability to be like everyone else due to the narrator’s lack of courage to be unique and to be herself. Both of these colors point out different aspects of the narrator's inner self and show how much she desires to hide her unique red self and appear blue. Color imagery is used throughout the short story, “A Red Dress 1946” in order for the author to demonstrate the inner thoughts of the narrator. In the short story, “A Red Dress 1946” by Alice Munro, Color imagery is used for signifying a girls point of view of her world and her own self by using the color red which represents nonconformity. The narrator has only a slight interest in being red, but she really wants to be blue, just like everyone else. Munro writes, “When I was asked a question in class, any simple little question at all…that I had blood on my skirt”.(2) The narrator is just so nervous about being red she is thinking of bad things that can happen with the color red. She is thinking of all the bad times the color red could do a girl badly, just like a girls period could leak at any moment. In “A Red Dress 1946”, a short story by Alice Munro, she uses Color Imagery to show the significance of the narrator’s view of the color red and all the “Evil” about it.

In a short story by Alice Munro, “A Red Dress 1946”, Color Imagery is used to represent the inner feelings of the narrator and how she wants to be blue. The narrator’s dream is to live a blue life, a life where she is just like everyone else. Munro writes, “when I was unaware of the world’s opinion. Now, grown wiser, I wished for dresses like those my friend Lonnie had, bought at Beale’s store”(1). Lonnie is able to buy things like her dresses from stores which just makes the narrator want to be blue. The narrator wants to be blue even more because of how Lonnie and many other girls can buy things but if she wants a nice dress she can’t buy it she

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