One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Color Analysis

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Can We Paint with All The Color of These Two Unseemingly ‘Related’ Novel? As Thomas Foster declares in his How To Read Literature Like a Professor, “there’s no such thing as a wholly original work of literature” (Foster 24); he also informs that “there’s only one story” and all texts grow out of other texts whether the influence of these original texts are direct or indirect (Foster 27). Intertextuality – the dialogue between older and newer texts – allows readers to augment their reading experiences by adding more depth to their experience with a piece of literature by adding more layers of meaning to the piece. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and 1984 are intertextual pieces; although these two works seem like they don’t have much in common…show more content…
Whether it be by denoting social status or the importance of Big Brother, color plays an important role in 1984. Gray is the most common color seen throughout the entire novel – even if something isn’t specifically stated as being gray it can be assumed that it is gray; gray is the color that is mostly associated with the society that Big Brother has built – dull, dreary, in the exact middle of two extremities, essentially, boring. Black and blue are two other colors that appear frequently throughout the novel; these two colors denote social class. People in the Inner Party of the government ruled by Big Brother wear black overalls while people in the Outer Party – including Winston and Julia – wear blue overalls. Black and other darker toned shades similar to black are typically associated with evil; both Julia and O’Brien are known for their black apparel – Julia with her hair and O’Brien with his Inner Party overalls. By having these characters known for their black apparel, readers are able to see the foreshadowing that these characters are actually evil. O’Brien being characterized by his entirely black overalls allows readers to note that O’Brien is evil and has been evil since they first meet him – even though Winston thought he was part of the rebellion against Big Brother, unlike Julia who is only characterized as “the girl with dark hair” rather than the having an all-black outfit like O’Brien (Orwell 11); this helps show that although Julia isn’t against Winston the entire novel but only decides to betray him when her safety was on the line while she is being tortured. Black is also associated with the Thought Police – a group of people whose job it is to make sure that no one is saying or doing anything rebellious against Big Brother. Before Winston is arrested, he is approached by Mr. Charrington – a man who rented him
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