Prompt #5 How To Read Literature Like A Professor

Weather is something that affects us all in our lives more than we comprehend. Waking up to sunshine will make for a diverse day as opposed to waking up to a thunderstorm. Within literature, weather does much more then set up “a dark and stormy night”.  Weather affects a characters well-being. Foster discusses the story of “Noah”, as well as many occurrences in which a character was affected mentally by weather. It can be used symbolically as well. For instance, a rainbow representing how the storm was over and God would no longer flood the earth, or snow representing “the great unifier”(75).

Within text that I have read weather has also helped to influence many of the topics Foster discusses. For example, in the novel “Les Miserables”, many of the characters face illness due to the frigid climates of winter. The same is similar in the book, “Little Women”. Beth grows weaker due to the icy winters. Weather symbolizing certain beliefs happens all the time in novels as well. In “The Diary of Anne Frank”, the sun is something Anne discusses several times as something she yearns to feel again. In “To Kill A Mockingbird”, there is a scene between the children where it snows and Harper Lee vividly describes the amusing times and games the children have with this rare form of precipitation. Weather is one thing a writer can manipulate within in a story in order to create not only a setting, but use as a tool to change a characters attitude and well-being, plus help them too create a symbolism for their novel.