The Color of Emotion: Kimos Armitage’s Pictorialization of a Native Hawaiian Conflict in Onelauena
If there ever was a painting of emotion, one would see red. The color red is one of the warmest and most diverse colors in the visual spectrum. It has the ability to capture and deliver any message. Red has often been used throughout the world to indicate love, anger, fortune, success, strength, pain and even death. Kimo Armitage, in a monologue entitled Onelauena defines his own meaning of the color red. By utilizes the color red through cultural knowledge and sarcasm, Armitage eludes a crucial conflict occurring within the Native Hawaiian community.
From the very beginning, Onelauena has the ability to captivate its audience through the perspective
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The central conflict within this piece is presented as a Native Hawaiian conflict when Armitage states that “ever since statehood we have been losing a lot of things that make us Hawaiian” (Armitage 5). Hawaii’s statehood brought about a lot of changes. There were laws that were past that have intermixed Hawaii with other cultures resulting substantially in the decrease of present authentic Hawaiian culture. Although this loss is presented, Armitage creatively adds culture back through implicating culture knowledge in Onelauena. Onelauena is the dynamic character throughout the piece that can truly elicit a reaction out of other Native Hawaiians because he is one of them. He shares knowledge of the same culture and some of the same experiences as other Native Hawaiians, which allows him to be the voice of his people. With the help of Onelauena’s influence, Armitage could persuade Native Hawaiians to address this crucial …show more content…
The color red, which was once a representation of Onelauena’s home and lovely childhood memories, is now a representation of protest. As explained by Onelauena, the Native Hawaiians that marched against genetic modification of taro and non-access to Makua Valley all wear red in protest. Armitage’s drift in the interpretation and meaning of the color red justifies the sarcasm used against political figures within the literature. The use of sarcasm not allows the audience to “see their motivation for the things that they were doing” (Armitage 5), but, allows them to view each political figure in Armitage’s
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