How to Read Literature Like a Professor: Prompt #5

Thomas C. Foster points out that weather often serves as an important external force that impacts the aura of the story, moving forward a certain theme. Foster spends most of his time discussing rain. He states that rain often serves two main purposes in a story- either to show new life or to bring about death. He also points out that rain can cleanse but can also make the story dirty, it can be mysterious and it can be isolating. Rain plays a large factor in The Posionwood Bible at the end of “Bel and the Serpent.” After Ruth May dies, Father merely says “She wasn't baptized yet.” He then proceeds to walk out into the rain and proceeds to baptize all of the children in the village. Here the rain serves as a cleansing agent or it serves to make the community dirty- depending on how the reader perceives the spread of Christianity. Following the theme of the book of Christianity not being right for this Africa village, I would say that the rain here serves to help clean Father but to tarnish the community.
Foster also spends a little time discussing snow in literature. He admits the snow can really represent anything that the author wants it to but states that it, again, mostly represents either new life or death. A good example is in Game of Thrones when the famous line “Winter in coming” is spoken. This foretells all the death, cold-hearted violence, and deception that results from the different families vying for power during the snow-filled season.