One Day When We Were Young
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One Day When We Were Young
Every single human will enter puberty; every one of us will become more corrupt in our thinking. The innocence as a child will vanish, leaving us with a spoiled mind filled with sex and guilty pleasures. But what makes us transform into these “new” people? Do we lose our childhood fantasies and plays, to become adults?
Mikeys world has until now been filled with fantasy and an instinctive role to be the leader. He is continually the hero in the troika, because he has the bulkiest imagination. F. ex. The family picnic, where he was allowed to hold the reins, and he suddenly began to fantasize about danger and being the leader. His imaginativeness was his cosmos.
Mikey steps into the world of an adolescent for the first time, when Cecil suggests they should spy on the girls. He saw girls as a torment, and they were put on this earth as a coincidence. But when Mikey takes his first glance at these girls barely dressed, his childish mind seems to move a step towards a young manhood.
The only so-called female relationship he has had to any girl at his age is his sister, which is a negative correlation.
“She was a fact of life, like rainy days and school: all had to be gone through with gritted teeth and the thought that nothing lasts forever.”
In Mikeys imagination all girls were as Nelly. Of course Clara Jowett changes his point of view on females generally, and his view on females begins to slowly change into something positive.
As it was said earlier, Mikey steps towards a more mature side and this is obviously because of Clara. When Mikey first takes a gander at Clara he can not forget her again. His fantasies approach a more sexual and mellow side.
As sex seemingly starts to lay at the surface, the writer gives Clara a pair of red panties on. Red is supposedly the first color perceived by Man, it is associated with fiery heat and warmth. In antiquity some cultures believed that red was the most important color endowed with life-giving powers and was believed to be the color of victory. It was considered a sacred color and represented sunlight, which also is put into play here. One can even overreach by referring to a Freudian interpretation. But as there are so many different references to the color red, it would be reasonable to suggest that this even refers to the female genitals, which fits in well, with Mikey entering his puberty and the fact that he had gotten some new mixed feelings about spying on these girls, somewhat fright and delight, wishing he could go back.
Adverting to Mikeys puberty, it is said that a childs mind will corrupt within the aging process, going from innocence to a more erotic state of mind. A reference to Edvard Munchs oil painting Puberty is ideal. A typical child like Mikey will only see this girl on the painting as a girl, nothing more nothing less. There is no hint of sexuality in a childs mind at this age. It is just a mere girl. But in the “new” stage that Mikey is in, he will automatically put a sexual tone in it. This girl is sexual and adult fantasies will come into play. At puberty the mind is already iniquitous.
Relegating to the sunlight, it shows that the writer is well-aware of what colors to use.
The sunlight is not one color, the spectrum is red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and purple; the 7 basic colors:
Red – action, confidence, courage and vitality
Orange – endurance, vitality, play and creativity
Yellow – wisdom, joy, happiness and intellectual energy
Green – life, nature, fertility and well being
Blue – youth, spirituality, truth, peace and distance
Indigo –