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K. L. Stewart's Dark Angels blog gives details into the characters, worlds, and inspirations related to all of the books in my Angels and Shadows series.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Red Symbolism

     I recently had a poll up on the site asking what color affects your mood.  Blue was the winner.  So thanks for voting!  I do plan on having a blog about blue, so keep reading, and I hope to have it up soon.  For now, though, I have prepared a blog on the color that affects me the most, which is red.  So, why does any of this really matter, and what importance does it have to my book?

     Color is important, symbolic, and mood altering.  I love colors, all of them!  My personal favorite is red.  Personally, I like it because it is a vibrant and passionate color.  It is an exciting and adventurous color for me.  
     In my writing I use it as both a color that represents pain, and as a color that represents life and love.  I use it hand in hand with the symbolism of blood.  Blood can symbolize pain, or life and love.  I thought that blood would tie in well as a sacrificial symbol.  Such as the blood of Christ in Christianity.  It is both pain (from his death on the cross)  and it is life (eternal life for us, since he was sacrificed to save humanity from their sins).  It is also found within all of us.  We are who we are because of our genetics, which are passed down through our DNA, so our traits are "in our blood".
    I made the angels cry tears of blood when they feel pain.  When they read souls, red is the color that show the emotions of pain.  The robes that Celeste wears while held captive in Shea are red, representing her pain both physically and emotionally.  Also I thought that there should be an exchange of blood when the dark angels free a soul.  (Slatkin and Angelik don't count in the blood symbolism because although angels, they are not dark angels, so their symbolism is different.)  For fans of the book, perhaps there's a reason for certain characters having red hair...hmmm  (like Belle).  Red is one of the royal colors of Sark.  This represents life for these people.  They live in a black and white world of snowy forests.  The idea is that the red banners of the castle would stand out like a flame against the black and white, bringing hope to the people.

 

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