Megan Ward

Katie Nelson

College Writing

Miss. Boeser

November 2, 2007

Montana 1948 Temperature and Weather Symbolism

"Storms pass by but mine seem to stay

Coming full force, no time to delay

Tossing my emotions, messing with my brain

Smashing my soul like a hurricane

No place to run, no place to hide

Can't find the sun, blue skies have died" ("Bad").

"Bad Weather" by Nothing Final is a song about how the weather affects and influences peoples' moods. It shows that, like in the book, the weather portrays events that are happening or are about to happen.  The harsh Montana weather symbolizes the good and bad events throughout the story Montana 1948. Whether it is hot or cold, Montana is very dry so it does not get extremely hot or extremely cold, just mild. The average day time temperature in Montana is 28 degrees Fahrenheit in January. The warmest temperatures usually occur in July, when the temperature ranges from 64-88 degrees. On summer nights, temperatures can drop to a cool 50-60 degrees. May to July is the rainiest parts of the year. The average annual precipitation is 15 inches (“Weather”). Throughout the story, Montana 1948, temperature and weather seem to foreshadow and represent events in the text that have or are about to occur. For example, the author uses the weather to foreshadow the death of Marie and Frank's suicide. Also, the fact that Wess begins to notice that the house's exterior is wearing away from the harsh weather and suddenly feels the need to repair them symbolizes that the “storm” is coming, which symbolizes that bad events are about to occur. Whether it is a change in season or a sudden storm rolling by, the weather and temperature never seem to let readers down in creating the mood of the story.

"It was mid-August 1948. Our corner of the state had been, as usual, hot and dry, though even in the midst of all the heat there were few signs of autumn-- a cottonwood leaf here and there turning yellow and sometimes letting go, and nights cool enough for a light blanket," the narrator states near the beginning of the story (Watson 27). At this particular point, readers learn that Marie is starting to get sick. Marie remains in her room all day with a temperature and is continually having coughing fits. The harsh Montana weather in the beginning of Autumn symbolizes her decreasing health (Watson 28).

Later in the story, Gail and Wesley go out onto the porch after discovering the shocking news of Frank's true nature. "Neither of them spoke for a long time. I wanted to stand up, to look at them. Were they embracing? Glaring at each other? For some reason I imagined them staring off in different directions, my father toward the front lawn and the leaves that fell before they should and my mother the other way, back into the house and toward the bedroom where Marie lay sweating in her fever and her shame” (Watson 48). When Watson uses language like “the leaves fell before they should,” it leads the reader to believe that something bad is about to happen and in this case it is referring to Marie's death. Another example of the temperature and weather foreshadowing Marie's death is right before Gail, Wesley, and David drive out to the grandparents' ranch. "We stood in the middle of of the yard while a gusty wind that lowered the temperature twenty degrees in less than an house whipped my mother's hair in front of her face and wrapped her skirt tight against her legs. A cool front was moving through-sure to ruin the fishing, the local fishermen would say” (Watson 63). The sudden weather change to a harsh, cold temperature symbolizes how Marie and many other Indian women are being effected by Frank. This shows that all of the foreshadowing in the story eventually leads readers to learn about Marie's death.  "Three days after my mother found Marie dead in our home, around four o' clock on a rainy Thursday afternoon, my father brought Uncle Frank to our house” (Watson 107).

Throughout the story, Wesley continuously worries about the exterior of the house and how it is chipping away from the weather. "My father clapped his hands, his usual prelude to action- time to out up the storm windows, to rake the leaves, to shovel the walk, to shake the rugs” (Winston 49). Wesley continuously asks David to make repairs on the house like the storm window and the chipping paint. His concern symbolizes that the storm is coming and he wants to make the house safe from the harsh "storm". "The paint. See how it's blistered and peeling?...we're going to have to paint the house..." (Watson 112). The idea of the storm coming symbolizes the bad events in the story that are about to happen. Wesley is getting ready or preparing himself for the worst to come.

The foreshadowing of Frank's suicide is the most obvious and stands out most in the story. "The next day was hot and windy," David comments shortly before the day of Frank's suicide (Watson 127). Many times David notices the weather becoming either dramatically worse (as in storms) or extremely depressing and cloudy shortly before Frank's death. At one point David notices "the wind gusting, the curtains reachning into the room” (Watson 133).  David is describing the day that his grandfather's friends came to free Frank from the basement. David goes describe the event, “and when I looked out the window I saw four men crossing our lawn" (Watson 133).  This event is crucial in the process of the decline in the story's plot.  It seems to get worse and worse for the family from the time that the men came to free Frank. Finally, on the morning of Frank's suicide David wakes to very depressing weather, "the morning was overcast, dim, so there was no sunlight flooding my room" (Watson 154).

“Montana weather is, to say the least, diverse. The combination of its northern latitude, its location in the Great Plains, the dramatic elevation changes and the numerous tall mountain ranges in the state all combine to produce some really wild, wacky and generally unpredictable weather” (“Montana”). All the different weather that Watson reveals to readers in Montana 1948 represents the various good and bad events that occured. The temperature and the weather used in the story also helps readers visualize a picture and feeling of the harsh weather changes in Montana.  

Works Cited

"Bad Weather." Other Song Lyrics. Nothing Final. 5 Nov 2007 <http://www.lyricsmania.com/lyrics/nothing_final_lyrics_31279.html>.

“Montana Weather.” Big Sky Fishing. 3 Nov 2007 <http://www.bigskyfishing.com/Montana-Info/montana_weather.shtm>.

Watson, Larry. Montana 1948. New York, New York: Washington Square Press, 1993.

"Weather and Climate." Us travel weather. 4 Nov 2007 <http://www.ustravelweather.com/weather-montana/>.