Cecil Bonstein's It Will Grow Again: Sadness through a Color
Liam Shiels
Mr. Forsyth
ENG- 3U
14 February 2013
Sadness Through a Colour
In Cecil Bonstein’s short story, “It Will Grow Again”, the colour grey is used to
symbolize sadness, the life of the narrator revolves around the colour grey, but
throughout the story the grey fades away making life easier to live. The narrator first
witnesses the colour grey “on a dull day” where everywhere he looks he seems to find
“grey in the workshop, grey outside, everyone in a grey mood” (Bonstein 4). The narrator
describes the workshop, atmosphere and the people around him to be in a grey mood
meaning everything is sad in his eyes. The colour grey is used to symbolize sadness
which the narrator is expressing his feeling about how he sees life, a dull, sad place with
no hope. Sadness will never completely go away but it will be in the background if you
make it stay their. The narrator is about to marry the women of his dreams and on that day
it was “dull… The street was an avenue of grey brick lining a black asphalt road”, he saw
“grey pigeons and grey sparrows” sitting above houses looking down, “but the
surroundings did not matter, Rachel [was] smiling, black hair to her shoulders, long white
dress, a bouquet of red roses held in her small hands, drew all eyes to her… The grey was
[now] in the background from which he beauty blazed” (7-8). On the narrators wedding
day, a very important day, the grey was still there. He still saw everything around him
saddening even on his wedding day. The only thing important to the narrator was Rachel
which made him not care about what was going on around him. When he saw Rachel in her dress with the bouquet of red roses the grey was put into the background, no longer
was he feeling sad. Rachel makes the narrators grey feelings go away because of the love
he has for her. Now that the narrators sadness is in the background because of his happy
Mr. Forsyth
ENG- 3U
14 February 2013
Sadness Through a Colour
In Cecil Bonstein’s short story, “It Will Grow Again”, the colour grey is used to
symbolize sadness, the life of the narrator revolves around the colour grey, but
throughout the story the grey fades away making life easier to live. The narrator first
witnesses the colour grey “on a dull day” where everywhere he looks he seems to find
“grey in the workshop, grey outside, everyone in a grey mood” (Bonstein 4). The narrator
describes the workshop, atmosphere and the people around him to be in a grey mood
meaning everything is sad in his eyes. The colour grey is used to symbolize sadness
which the narrator is expressing his feeling about how he sees life, a dull, sad place with
no hope. Sadness will never completely go away but it will be in the background if you
make it stay their. The narrator is about to marry the women of his dreams and on that day
it was “dull… The street was an avenue of grey brick lining a black asphalt road”, he saw
“grey pigeons and grey sparrows” sitting above houses looking down, “but the
surroundings did not matter, Rachel [was] smiling, black hair to her shoulders, long white
dress, a bouquet of red roses held in her small hands, drew all eyes to her… The grey was
[now] in the background from which he beauty blazed” (7-8). On the narrators wedding
day, a very important day, the grey was still there. He still saw everything around him
saddening even on his wedding day. The only thing important to the narrator was Rachel
which made him not care about what was going on around him. When he saw Rachel in her dress with the bouquet of red roses the grey was put into the background, no longer
was he feeling sad. Rachel makes the narrators grey feelings go away because of the love
he has for her. Now that the narrators sadness is in the background because of his happy
Cited: Bonstein, Cecil. “It Will Grow Again.” Best English Short Stories, Issue 2. Ed. Gordon, Giles. Hughes, David. Norton, 1990. 1-9. Print Shiels 1