The Role of Weather

Alice Ahn 10E 08/09/09 The Role of Weather

Every day, people interact with nature through walking in the streets or exercising outside. Being the necessity and causing harm at the same time, power of weather in any piece of literature, as a plot device, is immeasurable. Alice Walker’s The Color Purple also uses weather as a plot device, to give strong effects to readers. The usage of weather in Walker’s novel enhances the quality of writing through clear transition, and the smooth progress of the plot.

Celie and Nettie are two African-American sisters who were raised by their stepfather. As time passed, Celie was sexually abused by her father and went through two pregnancies but, due to her father, lost her children to another family. The stepfather pained the two sisters once more by selling Celie to a Caucasian man and sending Nettie to the family whom raised Celie’s children. Along with her new family, Nettie went to Africa as a missionary, thus in consequence the absence of communication between the sisters.

Walker’s reason for using weather significantly is explained in chapter ten of Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor. Weather is a plot device, helping the progress of the plot. “The weather cool for the last of June… By now my heart is in my mouth and I can’t move. It’s Nettie…”(Walker 291). This quote had more significance than others because it was Celie’s first time to mention both time and weather at the same time. The rare usage of plot device has brought a greater effect then it would have. Without a plot device the scene couldn’t have progressed well and the transition would have been awkward. Weather in literature could simply be a description but it’s used more as a plot device for the tension and mood it creates is unobtainable through words.