The Earth Tones of the Outer Provinces
At multiple points in the book, Ky takes note of things like the reddish sand of the earth he moves to dig graves, the colors of the Outer Provinces being “the red orange brown of [his] childhood” (40), and the “fire colors of the sandstone” in the Carving (46). As with many instances in Matched, he associates the color red, though now also colors like orange and yellow, with his birthplace, the place he has now returned to.
Various Moments of Blue
Blue comes to represent and describe many things over the course of Crossed: it's the first image the reader obtains when Ky is standing in the river at the book’s opening. It’s the color of Ky’s eyes and of the blue tubes in the Cavern, of the tablets that Xander gave Cassia that made her sick, of the sky reflected in Vick's dead eyes, and, finally, of the lines on the farmers’ bodies, including the corpses Indie and Cassia found. That Hunter reveals they represent connection is perhaps fitting for the book, as it serves as the second in a trilogy and therefore connects the story’s exposition and initial unfolding in the first book to its broader climax and conclusion in the third.
Cassia as a Butterfly in a Cocoon
When Cassia is worming her way through the crevice into the Cavern and becomes stuck, she evokes the image of a butterfly trapped in a cocoon "with blind eyes and sticky wings" to parallel her tight situation, using the dramatic parallel to emphasize both her panic at feeling stuck and to foreshadow the character development she has still yet to undergo.
Ky's Love for Cassia
In Chapter 31, Ky describes his love for Cassia in terms of colors, saying, “Love has different shades… but as we walk through the canyon together I realize this could be more than a new shade. A whole new color” (234). Color has been an important theme throughout the book, particularly with Condie's consistent employment of green, blue, and red. This comparison helps the reader imagine Ky's feelings for Cassia as unique and previously unexplored.
