I think this is a topic we all probably understood before we read this chapter--we just may not have recognized it.
The weather in a story or poem (or movie) definitely helps set the mood. When we read Macbeth, you will see how much the weather plays a role in the plot. It acts more as a reflection of what the characters are feeling. So what about what you've read before? Can you think of any stories where the weather was a factor? What about in the novels you've read? I am reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck. It takes place in a very dry part of California, and the quest for water is very important. The characters can't wait for the rain. It reminds me of their lives--for the most part they are very dry--but every once in a while something major happens (a rain storm???) and things get very interesting.
So now it's your turn. Think of a story, poem, or movie where rain or snow is factor and/or a reflection of what's going on.
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I believe that the weather in any story is definitely a big factor when setting the mood. One movie that I can think of is the movie Clue. In this movie a group of people are invited to a dinner party, but things take a turn for the worst when the rain starts picking up even more and it begins to thunder and lightening outside. This causes the lights to flicker and occasionally shut off. Suddenly people start dying and they have to figure out who is doing it before they all are killed. When the lights go off then come back on someone ends up going missing and another person is killed. If the writer of this movie did not add the fact of the weather to this movie, there would be no mystery and no fear. Therefore, the weather is essential to setting the mood.
ReplyDeleteWeather definitely helps set the tone for any movie, novel, story, anything. It helps determine and show the type of mood the characters are going to be in. When we think of stormy and gloomy, the characters are usually sad, as with beautiful weather they are usually happy and joyful. I read this novel last year, i forgot the name, that was about a single mother and her daughter moving to arizona on a quest to build a happy family. They lived in a broken down trailor and her mom was an alcoholic, and the weather was very harsh and dry, and they too wished for rain, and when her mother quit drinking at the end of the book it finally rained and helped the land grow, as the mother's end of the drinking habit helped her relationship with her daughter grow.
ReplyDeleteWeather can have a major effect on a story. I have read several book and watched many movies which involve the weather setting a character's mood or the overall tone of the story. In the movie Return of the Living Dead this disease, which causes the dead to be reanimated, spread through the rain. Soon, the whole city is covered with "zombies" who were brought about by the rain from the storm.
ReplyDeleteThe poem I remember vividly that involves weather with emotion is Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost. This is my favorite poem growing up. It includes the snow and the darks woods. Every time I read it, i get this clear mental image of myself riding in the woods on a horse and just looking into the deep darkness of the woods, and reminiscing over life. The snow makes its beautiful and calming.
ReplyDeleteI've watched two movies recently where the weather is important. X-Men 3: The Last Stand Storm (Halle Berry) controls the weather. In one scene, Professor Xavier can tell something is wrong. Storm is just standing outside and looking at the sky, not intentionally using her powers. In another movie called Australia, Drover and Sarah are talking and it starts raining. They are happy because it only rains every once in a while.
ReplyDeleteI think the weather plays an important part in characters' attitudes and moods. A movie I saw recently was The Proposal and it's like the two main characters live in NYC so the weather is pretty main-stream, like not too much rain-hot summers-musky air-gloomy horizons because of the skyscrapers...just the typical weather, well they go to Alaska where the atmosphere is much more illuminating, the sky is bright and the air is cold and chipper so it, in turn, completely changes the moods of the story.
ReplyDeleteThe first movie that comes to mind for me, granted it is my most favorit movie in the whole world, is Disturbia. On the cover it has a quote that says every killer lives next door to someone. Then in the movie the setting is sunny and pretty and like any regular summer day which is like how their lives are in more than one way. They are regular and predictable, like you dont even need a weather man to tell you what its going to be like the next day because its very consistent and predictable and nothing too exciting usually haoppens. Then it also gives the allusion when you watch it that it truely does seem perfect, just like the lives of the people that live there. But it's all a front. What we dont see is how miserably hot it is or how many mosquitos come out at night and attack you. This is also like the lives of the people because on the outside they seem perfect but on the inside they're far from it. Then in the fight scene where the two teens are running from the killer and fighting back it starts to thunderstorm fiercley. That sets a scary and violent mood which is perfect for those scenes.
ReplyDeletewell in Phantom of the Opera its snowing during the scene where shes in the graveyard i believe its supposed to symbolize her innocence with her greif for losing her father so the snow could be a represtation of her innocence or the cold that has settled over her heart after her fathers death
ReplyDeleteThe most recent storty where weather plays a role with the characters and their reactions would be "The Story of an Hour". Close to the end of the story the author uses their words wisely. They say "Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own." In my opinion the weather does affect how people feel and from the authors statement i believe it also shows in books as well.
ReplyDeleteJeff Abel
I can't think off the top of my head of a movie or story where the weather sets the mood. I'm sure there is one that i have saw but i just went blank. I do know though that weather does set the mood because usually if its rainy then the character is in a bad mood and something is wrong. However, if it's sunny out and good weather then it's a good day.
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