Flowers

=Flowers as a motif in 'Triage'= - "... The bouquet of roses Mark had given her on Friday hung upside down from the coat hook, wilted to black." page 72. The red roses represent Mark and Elena's relationship. The way they are discarded and falling apart is symbolic of the struggles they face in their relationship. Elena has allowed them to 'wilt to black', showing us that Elena is not giving Mark enough attention, showing enough care.

- ""Maybe we should get some flowers," he said. "Not like a grave bouquet, just some nice spring flowers."" page 211. The fact that they're spring flowers represents new beginnings. As Mark leaves the flowers to wilt, neglecting this 'new beginning', it reflects his inability to confront Colin's death.

- "He lay beneath a blanket of torn flowers. They were scattered over his chest, gathered about his neck like a garland. Occasionally, the wind found his resting place; stems shifted, loose petals took flight." As flowers are usually very positively connotated, it is symbolic that the flowers and are 'torn'. The damage done to these flowers represents the damage now affecting his body and mind. In his 'resting place', the way the flowers are alike a 'garland', sets it up almost to be a funeral scene, helping to set the atmosphere with the essence of death. As the loose petals take flight, it represents the freedom that Mark does not have, the ability to simply float away from the situation.

- "He came to the last stalk of flowers and held it for a time. It was a kind of flower he did not know - a wiry, brown stem, a profusion of tiny orange blossoms with petals that felt like paper. He leaned forward to place it on the water, and as he watched it slip away among the birch trees, he felt Colin ebbing - the look of his face, the sound of his voice" page 234. The flowers here represent Colin. Even the description could be taken as a way of describing Colin. As he watches them slip away, it resembles Mark's letting go of the weight he was carrying and it's his way of saying goodbye to Colin.

- "He stands off the flat rock and the flower petals fall from his body." page 162. The flowers that were once resembling a funeral or death fall from Mark. This represents how he has escaped death, his efforts to keep on living.

- "He moved among the plants with terrible deliberation, stooping over a leafless shrub, a stubble of dried stalks, like some ruined gardener." The shrub and the dried stalks are shown to have a lack of beauty, a tinge of death and these are the plants he takes notice of. This represents the lack of beauty he can find within himself and the feeling of death, and Colin's death, that he is carrying inside, dwelling on. =[|makeup artists]=