Chapter ten of How to Read Literature Like a Professor explains the important role weather plays on literature. For instance, snow is not just snow in a novel. It symbolizes so much more in both positive and negative ways; it is stark, filthy, playful, and clean, and you can do just about anything with it. In “The Dead,” Joyce breaks his main character down until he can look out at the snow, which is “general all over Ireland,” and then the reader realizes snow is like death. It paints the image that “upon all the living are the dead.”
Rain and sun, snow and sleet, wind and fog can all possess varying meanings of symbolism in differing pieces of writing. In both A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway and A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley it is clear that weather can have numerous interpretations.
Weather plays an important role in emphasising the effect and mood of a scene in any piece of literature. While watching a movie, weather can influence the scene in any way the director intends. If it was a dark, stormy night while something horrific was taking place during a scene in a movie. The audience is going to feel more intrigued and involved in the scene based off of the surrounding weather. If a horrific scene was happening and it had a bright sunny day without a single cloud in the sky. The scene would not be as engaging because the scenery would provide a different explanation for what was actually happening, which would contradict what was actually happening in the scene. While the weather plays an important role in how a
When it comes to literature, weather can be used in many different ways. It can symbolize theme, set the mood of the story, and even affect the plot. In Tangerine by Edward Bloor, the weather acts as a plot device and as a symbol.
The Winter is the opposite of summer, during the winter not only does the winter change but the town's appearance. The houses that once looked artificial were exposed and looked abandoned. “Winter comes down savagely over a little town on the prairie...The roofs, that looked so far away across the green treetops...they are so much more uglier then when their angles were softened by vines and
Many believe that Steinbeck describes the weather to foreshadow events. In chapter twenty-five, Steinbeck describes the winter weather as being gray, cold, and wet. Chapter twenty-five is also when Steinbeck informs the reader that the beloved Samuel Hamilton passed away (Steinbeck, 2002, p.309). This is accurate foreshadowing because the gloomy weather is associated with sadness and sorrow which is what everyone felt when Samuel Hamilton died. Another important event that weather foreshadowed was when Abra arrived on the Trask place. Abra was a source of competition for the boys for she was one of the only womanly figures in the Trask boys lives and each boy wanted her all to himself. Just before Abra arrived, a thunderstorm had occurred where the boys were at. The storm represents the conflict Abra caused between the
Weather is very important in literature, not only does it help to set the mood, but it can also help reveal a character’s mood. When a character is happy, the sun might be shining and the birds might be chirping, or the opposite, if a character is sad then it might be raining or gloomy out. For example, in the “Great Gatsby” when Daisy firsts comes over to Nicks house unaware that Gatsby is there, it’s raining outside. The rain could represent Gatsby’s nervousness to see Daisy after so many years, and when the two finally do reunite, the rain continues. The rain could also symbolize the awkwardness between the two after meeting again for so long. When Nick returns, the rain stopped and the sun is shining, and we find that Daisy and Gatsby are
Crime and glimpses into the heads of criminal masterminds has always been something that fascinates people. Although crime is a terrible thing, the complexity and intricacy of it is something that people love to hear about. One can turn on the news at any given time and almost certainly hear an account of some form of a crime within ten minutes. In the novel In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, an account to a perplexing crime is taken to a whole new level. The Clutter family was a charming family of four that lived in the little town of Holcomb, Kansas. They were brutally murdered with no apparent motive by Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, two men that had
The life of crime is not for everyone but some people are just thrown into it and cannot really control it. On just a regular day back in 1959, the Clutter family of Holcomb, Kansas were murdered in cold blood by 2 men: Dick Hickcok and Perry Smith. Truman Capote heard about this and decided to learn more about it and once hearing about it more he decided to combine this real life event and a little bit of his own creativity to create this masterpiece. The established author Truman Capote wrote the fictionalized crime novel “In Cold Blood” and by using pathos, imagery, and ethos, he is able to convey his purpose of letting the people know that he can basically change the game of “non fiction” writing and create the first real life fictional crime novel.
Throughout the text, Michael mentions the snow. Considering the book’s about a blizzard, that’d be normal, right? However, in my view, the snow symbolizes something, like dreadful times. Scattered around, the context surrounding the snow can be interpreted as how you feel during those times. For example, later in the book, when the students realize just how bad it is, they explain it as, “There was no higher ground, no place left for us to go”(Northrop 158). Here, a relation to people feeling as if there’s nowhere else to go, so they’re trapped in the horrible event occurring can be made. Results tend to be mourning over those poor times in people’s lives. Similarly, Michael connects that to how we view bad situations. Early on in the book, description of the snow is showed as it being “small flakes”, “like grains of sugar… the flakes had fattened up and
The main season in the novel is the ’enemy’ of winter. Edith Wharton uses the climate to match the feelings of people in Starkfield, walking with a ’sluggish pulse’.
People learn what to expect from life from what has happened to them in the past. Perry Smith from In Cold Blood by Truman Capote gained a completely unrealistic view on reality. From his parents in rodeos, and his father and his search for Alaskan Gold, to his mother’s problems with alcoholism and infidelity, he grew to have an extreme disconnect from reality. Perry’s traumatic childhood left him with a skewed sense of reality, preventing any chance for him to live a normal life, and ultimately led to him murdering the Clutters.
It isn't difficult to see how the changing climates affect the characters’ moods as well. Many of the squabbles between Jim and Antonia and hardships faced by the two families occur in the fall or winter, whereas the author focuses on the more pleasant aspects of life and the prairie when the weather is glowing. The very lives of the men and women on the frontier are almost entirely dictated by the world surrounding them. They learn to live by the months and the weather, and develop symbiotic relationships with the land they till. As proved in the novel through the characters, the more work man puts into the earth, the greater reward he will receive.
Foster’s insights about seasons and weather in literature change the story’s interpretation by clarifying their purposes. Foster’s main idea in the chapter It’s More Than Just Rain or Snow is weather always has a purpose; for example, rain, which has an “association with Spring,” can allow a “character to be cleansed symbolically” and “can bring the world back to life.” This insight is clear in the short story as outside Mrs.Mallard’s room the “trees were all aquiver with the new spring life” and “the delicious breath of rain was in the air.” The rain and spring weather may be dismissed as merely setting, but Foster’s insights allow the deeper meaning behind the inclusion of rain and spring to be clarified. The rain and spring show how Mrs.Mallard was cleansed
Our mind’s will open to discern what is truly just when distinguishing the similarities between us humans. We fundamentally believe that all humans are equal and the identification of similarities further strengthens our bonds. On the other hand, our distinctive differences can further set us apart and we won’t feel acceptance. For example, in the early stages of the story, “Each had hate in his heart, and murder uppermost in his mind” (Saki 7). Ulrich and Georg viewed one another as a polar opposites and strayed apart from each other as individuals. The only thing that concerned them was shooting each other in “cold blood” (7). However, as the story progressed Ulrich “looked across at the man who was fighting so grimly against pain and exhaustion”