Green Suit Symbolism

While on board the Discovery four spacesuits of different colors are seen by the viewers of the film. Three are in the pod bay and one is in the emergency airlock used by Bowman to reenter the ship after being locked out by HAL. The three spacesuits in the pod bay are hanging near the wall opposite the pod bay doors and can be clearly seen at several points in the film. From left to right while facing them they are hanging in this order: red, yellow and blue. The fourth spacesuit is green in color and is located in the emergency airlock. I believe that there is a symbolic purpose to these colors beyond simply making it easier for the viewer to know which astronaut is wearing them when the actors' faces are not visible. Kubrick intended the
They are placed in the pod bay in a row that if viewed from left to right the order will be red, yellow and blue.If the reader looks at having a blue suit at the end of the row instead of a green one as disqualifying the analogy the green suit does show up at a key moment in the film. I think Kubrick put the blue suit in the pod bay to prevent the traffic light analogy from being too obvious. Significantly, the blue spacesuit, which does not fit into the color symbolism I am asserting, is never utilized by any character in the film. As all three traffic light colors are used in the film, let us examine how they are used and what it means. Poole wears the yellow suit. One possible reason for this is that a yellow suit stands out better against a background of outer space than any of the other
Later, when Bowman returns through the emergency airlock, he puts on the green space helmet located there. So one can see Poole's death in yellow as the warning or caution to the human race that it is close to missing its chance at the light of transcendence to the new form of the star child and, therefore, a new level of being. Bowman, in red, represents the human race at a temporary stop on its evolutionary development. He is the last chance for the crew of the Discovery to complete their mission. When he outsmarts HAL again by gaining entrance to the emergency airlock he finds the green spacesuit and dons the green helmet. The symbolism here is that when he was not in control of the situation before him he was all in red. Now that he has regained control he is now partially in green. He was stopped, as one is at a red traffic light, and now the light is green and he is able to continue on his quest. When he goes through the star gate he is once again all in red (suit and helmet) as befits the fact that he has once again returned to a passive role with regard to the