The Green Greed

Erin H

Mrs. Zurkowski

10/27/10

The Green Greed

            “The Masque of the Red Death”, by Edgar Allen Poe, has many colors that are very symbolic to the story. There are seven different rooms with seven different colors in each. The colors are blue, purple, orange, white, violet and black. Another one of the rooms was green, and had green casements and matching green window panes. Green is symbolic to many things; wealth, adolescence, energy, environmental, envy and sometimes it is even associated with evil and the devil. In the “Masque of the Red Death”, by Edgar Allen Poe, the green room symbolizes greed.

            The color green has to do with the earlier part of human life, around the ages of 13-20 years old. During those years people start to gain money and know what it is worth. They begin to become greedy and then want to have anything and everything. Once people start to gain their own well earned money they either spend it and want everything or save it and not spend it on anything. So, they become greedy with either wanting everything or greedy with wanting more money.

            This color relates to me very much since I am 14 and in that age group of 13-20 years old. I do not save my money at all; I like to spend it on everything. Whenever I get money, whether it’s from Christmas, my birthday or my allowance, I go right out and spend the money, usually on clothes or jewelry. But, on the other hand my brother saves his money very much. He never buys anything with his own money, he always asks my parents to buy it for him. When humans reach their teenage years, they want to own and have everything and they do not really think about the cost of it. Teenagers can be very greedy.