COLORS, REVISITED. . .

As I said once in another forum, teaching Lord of the Flies to ninth graders is a bit redundant. That said, I've learned something new about the book during my most recent trip--probably my 15th or 16th journey into Golding's abyss with the English schoolboys run amok.

I had no idea that Golding used so many colors in his writing. This time through I noticed that, on almost every page, Golding uses color to create a more vivid experience for the reader.

Here are some examples:

Describing the conch shell: "In color the shell was deep cream, touched here and there with fading pink " (16)

Describing Jack: "Power lay in the brown swell of his forearms " (150).

Describing the destruction of the conch: ". . .the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist" (181). And in the same paragraph:

Describing the death of Piggy; "His head opened and stuff came out and turned red" (181).

There are a thousand other examples I could cull from, as I said, most every page. I have been sensitive lately to the use of color in writing since heeding my colleague's advice to add more color to my own writing, especially in School Spirit. In subsequent drafts, I plan to write the word "colors" at the top of the chapter I'm revising and look for strategic places just to add a color or two to make the scene more visual, vivid, and, well, colorful.

"You need more colors," my colleague said.

He was right.

Golding novel proves it.