Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide

In the Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf there are different ladies with different colors. Every lady and every color is very significant to this book. This text by Shange is full of symbols; each lady can be described differently. I believe each lady can be identified with a more specific description or feeling throughout the different poems that can be related to their color for example: passion for red, sadness for blue, fun for orange and so on. I will start with Shange’s Lady in Red because it is the first color of the rainbow. Her second line in this book is “it was good!” (Shange, 11) in the poem “Graduation Nite” (Shange, 7). Right away there is a sense of passion from Lady in Red. In the poem “No Assistance” (Shange, 13) she explains how much she has loved this man, sending packages, writing poems. In spite the fact that she loved him at the end of the poem she just leaves him the plant so he can water it himself. The words that Shange used for the ending of this poem emit a very strong emotion-passion. Lady in Red is someone who does not hold back for anything or anyone; she will say whatever is on her mind. The color orange can be related to party, carnival overall: FUN and I think Lady in Orange is full of fun. For example in Shange’s poem “I’m a Poet
Lady in green appears she has changed. In “Somebody Almost Walked off Wid Alla My Stuff” Lady in Green is in search of her own identity Shange says “now why dont you put me back & let me hang out in my own self” (Shange, 49) this line truly shows growth in her. Lady in green no longer wants to be mixed with anyone else but go back to her own self. This can be any woman who has lost herself in a man but now searches to become her own