Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry is about a girl named Kira who lives in a village where the citizens have no freedom. In the beginning of the book, Kira’s mother dies and is taken to the field. In this village, the sick and the weak are dragged to the field and left to die. Once the people in the field have died, someone in the village is required to sit in the field for four days and watch the person’s spirit leave their body. All of Kira’s life she has been told that her father was taken by beasts. But, one day one of her friends, Matt, goes and finds blue, a color nobody could make. When he returns he brings back a blind man. The blind man turned out to be Kira’s father. Kira starts talking about one of her other friends, and her father says her friend is the person that attacked him. Lois Lowry is a gifted storyteller who uses great symbolism throughout her prose to keep her readers engaged and her stories entwined with profound meaning.
First of all, in the story, “Gathering Blue”, there is an abundance of symbolism. One of them happens to be blue. In the story blue represents freedom, something this village does not have.
“She nudged Thomas. ‘Look’, she whispered, indicating the color of the man’s loose shirt. ‘Blue’.”
Blue is a color nobody in this village can make. Just like nobody can grant the citizens in this village freedom. Nobody in this village has ever had freedom.
“‘You need the woad,’ she said. ‘Gather fresh leaves from first year’s growth of woad. And soft rainwater; that makes the blue...I have nought. Others do, but they be far away.'"
This quote helps explain some of the reason why they do not have any freedom. The people in the book who dye the threads do not have the supplies to make blue either. This book makes you think that the characters are never going to have blue.
Another point of symbolism the author uses is chains. In the book, chains represent slavery. This point goes ba...