93 pages • 3 hours read
Lois LowryGathering Blue
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2000A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
Kira’s scrap of threaded cloth
Kira’s little scrap of threaded cloth, created as she sat next to her mother’s deathbed, becomes a kind of talisman for her. She feels that it speaks to her through her fingertips and she uses it to guide her choices. As the last thing that Katrina sees, the scrap is a symbol of Kira’s bond with her mother. As the first thing Kira makes that feels truly inspired—her fingers “followed where [the threads] led” (50) rather than directing them—it is also symbolic of her artistic genius.
Katrina’s pendant
The pendant that Matt saves from Kira’s cott is also symbolic of Kira’s connection to her mother, and of her parents’ commitment to each other too, as the pendant was a gift from her father to her mother. Because Christopher has his own pendant, with the other half of the stone that forms Katrina’s, Kira is able to recognize him before he tells her who he is. Also significant is the fact that the stone is purple, a color that Kira cannot make without blue.
Blue
The color blue is representative of what is missing from Kira’s society. When Matt returns from his secret trip to find blue dye for Kira, he brings back the color “of sky, of peace” (209), and peace is what is missing from their village. Their society is characterized by its constant social and interpersonal strife—strife that is both fostered and controlled by the Council of Guardians, who enforce policies that encourage selfishness and fear and then use that fear to maintain a rigid social order.
The end of the book also illustrates the possibility of peace—as opposed to order—as the blue “quiver[s]” in Kira’s hand, as if it “was beginning to live” (241). Given Kira’s maternal role model and her protective attitude towards Jo, this figurative “infant” she holds is likely to thrive. Given that blue is the “color of sky”, this image of Kira holding the blue fabric in her hand is also suggestive of her holding the world in her hand, which supports our understanding of her as the author of her “world”, or her community’s future.
The Beasts
The beasts are representative of the fear of the unknown that drives the society in Gathering Blue. Though presumably no one in the village has ever seen a “beast,” the people are all terrified of them. The beasts are also representative of rumor and half-truths, as this is the method by which their existence is affirmed, and they function as a form of social control, much like rumors do.
The beasts are also a perfect representative of the Council of Guardians, whose fear of difference and diversity plays out in every aspect of their government. In this society, everyone gets up at the same time, goes to work at the same time, finishes work at the same time, wears the same clothes, and lives in similar houses. Difference—primarily conceived of as disability—is forced out of society and other types of difference—such as artistic genius—are kept under strict control. Even the future—the greatest unknown—is controlled by the Guardians, which leaves no room for creativity, spontaneity, or diversity.
The Pen
The word “pen” resonates in several ways in this story. One way is connected to Thomas’s use of a pen to write down the instructions that Kira receives from Annabella. Kira is worried that she will not be able to remember everything she needs to know to make dyes on her own, so Thomas offers to write it down and read it back to her, since reading and writing are forbidden to girls. Even though it is forbidden, Kira secretly begins to learn to read while observing Thomas’s writing while he is reading aloud, and thus the pen, already a symbol of knowledge and a new kind of understanding of the world, also becomes symbolic of the courage and resistance that Kira shows when she dares to learn to read .
The word “pen” is also used in connection to Vandara, who wants Kira’s land to make a “pen” for her chickens and her children. While Thomas’s pen has the potential to open the world up for Kira, Vandara’s pen is meant to close it off—not just for the children enclosed within it, but also for Kira, whom Vandara wants to banish so that she can lay claim to Kira’s land. It is significant, then, that Vandara’s “pen” is the one that Kira leaves behind, and Thomas’s “pen” is the one she moves toward.
Kira’s needle is another instance of a pen in the novel. From the beginning of Gathering Blue, Kira is described as a storyteller. Vandara criticizes her for distracting the children with her stories (31), and Kira offers to tell stories to Matt and his friends in exchange for helping her build a new cott (11). Once she becomes the Threader, however, her storytelling skills shift medium, and the needle she uses functions as a kind of pen with which she weaves—rather than tells—stories. Her needle is also related to the symbolic meaning of both Vandara’s and Thomas’s “pens”: confinement and power, respectively. Over the course of the book, Kira realizes that her position as Threader is a type of prison—the door may not be locked, but she is not free to go. However, she also realizes that she can use her position to take control of the story and create a different future for herself and her society.
Related Titles
By Lois Lowry
