The color gray

The color gray symbolizes the colorless and uncertain new world that many of the characters feel they are facing.

There is a constant presence of the color gray - the buildings being painted "gray-gold" (location 137) by the sun, the gray buildings and towers and sky setting the scene at the beginning of the novel, and later the gray of the tear gas and smoke.

Gray is also used as a foreshadowing technique, with Victor's mother using solely gray charcoal to make art with, using it to portray destroyed buildings, and also animals and people.

The infamous gray sky - and skyline - of Seattle makes the city a fitting one in which to set the story.

Smoke

Smoke symbolizes both the ending of old ways of life and the beginning of new ways of life in the city of Seattle.

From the moment Victor...