Gray, Red, Pink, Pale, Green, and Brown. Steinbeck's color imagery in the very first paragraph of his book illustrates information about the dust storms and the gloomy mood brought over the land. All colors mentioned, with the exceptions of pink and brown, are repeated for a total usage count of at least two. Two of them - red and gray - are representative of the locations where dust storms would originate: "By 1934, the storms were coming with alarming frequency. Residents believed they could determine a storm’s point of origin by the color of the dust — black from Kansas, red from Oklahoma, gray from Colorado or New Mexico." Thus the setting is given to the reader right away, and one can know that the story takes place in Oklahoma; The "Red Country" refers to red dust from Oklahoma, and the passage explicitly mentions the state as gray. But if gray is not referring to Colorado or New Mexico, then it must refer to perhaps a connotation of the color. Gray indicates a feel of gloom, or lack of emotion, but not in the dark way of black. Pale evokes a similar emotion, but can also represent death; death of the land, since the topsoil, or "skin", is being blown away, much like how a body first begins its noticeable moments decay from the skin. Pink represents a lack of willpower, and as such, the farmers have begun to give way and evacuate their loved lands. Green and brown require each other in this paragraph; Green is of life, and brown is decay of green and thus decay of life. Thus brown only appears after the first instance of green. Color thus sets the tone for the location that the story is to take place in.
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