Annotate With Sara

What Made me Decide to Annotate This

I annotated the color white in Danica Nava’s new 340-page workplace rom-com because it jumped out at me from the get-go. Plus, the dramatic arc hinges on the main character’s little white lies and how they eventually spin out of her control.

There are three major mentions of the color white in the first 20 pages. My radar detector for annotating went off after the third one. Here’s the details that pinged my radar:

1. The opening lines mention white lies.
2. Ember, an aspiring accountant dealing with 37 job rejections, decides to check the “White” box instead of “American Indian / Alaskan Native” box on her next application. No surprise: she gets a call back, an interview, and the job.
3. Her new workplace is decorated like “a world of sterile white and cool shades of gray” (page 17).

“I was not always a liar. I mean, sure, white lies were inevitable.”

– the opening lines of The Truth According to Ember by Danica Nava

So, What Is The Meaning of The Color White?

SPOILERS

I had to ask myself this question a few times. It was almost like…(I’m going to get corny and meta here)…the meaning was behind some opaque barrier that suddenly became clear—like Mr. Stevenson’s creepy high-tech office glass!

No idea what I’m talking about?
See page 80 in Chapter 8!

White & Deception

White is heavily associated with deception in this book. I annotated over 30 instances of the color!

The color shows up in big things like:

• White lies that spin out of control.
• Checking white on the job application.

The color shows up in little things like:

• The fakeness of Joanna’s platinum blonde wig, a color that Ember says she just couldn’t pull off (Chapter 10, p 94).
• The color white is associated with the office decor where Ember works, the place where all her white lies started.

Bye Bye Deceptions, Bye Bye White

Check out this correlation between the color white and Embers character growth: When Ember starts letting go of the deceptions she created, the color white starts to leave her life too. When she gets fired, she leaves that “sterile white” office for good. She trades in her white SUV for a cheaper, less flashy Camry (Chapter 35). She finally opens the white envelope with her dad’s letter, seeing a new truth about him and her relationship with family (Chapter 33).

White is a Lone Actor Like Ember: A Color Theory Interpretation

In Color Theory, white is defined as an absence of color. Nothing is mixed with it. So, it has no help from other colors being what it is.

Technically, pure white is the absence of color. In other words, you can’t mix colors to create white. Therefore, white is the absence of color in the strictest sense of the definition.

– except from Color Matters

Put in other words, white has no community! It’s a lonesome dove, a one-color show. I find this really fitting for Ember’s character, who is on this huge journey of figuring out that she can’t do things alone. This is a story about how she embraces more than just romantic love. By the end, she learns to embrace love and help from her family, friends, and community. With this loving support, she’ll never have to tell a white lie again.