The Symbolism Of Weather In Literature

In this chapter, Foster emphasizes how weather is never just weather. Weather carries great symbolic meaning, and is constantly used in literature.Authors use rain, snow, sun, rainbows, and other forms of weather in a variety of ways to enhance the meaning of the story. Weather most often symbolizes change in renewal, for instance, a river flooding a small village and the village rebuilding itself. Weather can serve as a plot device by bringing unlikely characters together. However, weather can also separate characters and drive them to reunite."Rain mixes with sun to create rainbows, as mentioned before." Rain can take on a biblical meaning such as the case of Noah's flood. Fog most often relates to confusion. It blinds characters, impairs their judgment, leading to sticky situations.
It can do just about everything above, but it is often used to symbolize death. The weather in a story is very important, for it sets the atmosphere of the story. Not only is it a powerful tool to help with the progression of the plot, it is also a clever way to convey the mood, and can even be used as a symbol. Such as the importance of weather in the book Holes. There was a vast, vibrant lake that made the town living aside of it, survive. The lake produced every kind of nourishment for the town, it was the center of life. When Sam, is murdered, the town suddenly stops getting rain. The lake ends up drying up and the town lays to waste. The lack of rain symbolizes the harsh payback the murderers had coming, in my belief, but instead it was a punishment to the town. Stanley is sent to a camp, to dig holes in the dried up lake bed looking for a treasure.