The Color Red

Kelly uses the color red to represent the German nationalism that has bled into Kasia's life, overtaking and coloring over everything in the life she knew. When Kasia's home is first taken by the German soldiers, red is present in the details of such a terrifying encounter as Kasia notes that one of the soldiers held, "his chin so high I could see the blood through a little piece of white paper stuck on his Adam's Apple where he's cut himself. They even bled Nazi red" (32). Red bleeds into the moments of the first upheaval in Kasia's life: when Germany invades her town. The next upheaval in her life, her arrival at Ravensbrück, is also stained red, as Kasia notes that on the camp road, "Even the Salvia planted at the foundation of that brick building was Nazi red" (154). Later, at another moment...