Chapter 20 of Thomas C. Foster’s “How to Read Literature Like a Professor: …So Does Season” examines
the symbolism and meaning behind the seasons and how they affect literary
events. The most basic analysis for the seasons is pretty obvious; Spring means
birth and new life/ a beginning, Summer is symbolic of youth and young
adulthood, Autumn is connected to middle age when all your hard work has paid
off, and winter is symbolic of old age and death.
Spring is
always associated with happiness and purity. Whenever you see references to
spring in modern day life its always accompanied with sunshine and flowers and
baby rabbits or ducklings. This is because spring is naturally when animals
typically give birth. Flowers begin to bloom again and the weather begins to
heat up. Because of this, whenever it is spring in a piece of literature it
usually is at the very beginning of the novel or some great struggle has just
been overcome (the winter). Characters will often times be represented as
extremely fertile and there will often times be festivities. A sad spring does
not exist in literature.
Summer is
known as the season of love and passion. In the natural world it is when many
animals mate and all wildlife is thriving with plenty of food and water. Thus
if a character finds a love interest or is fully coming into their physical
maturity it will most likely happen in the summer. Characters will often times
appear to be the most heroic and or immensely stronger than their foes if the
season is summer because summer is the peak of performance. Do not expect to
see your hero run into any serious trouble or challenges in the summer, they
will surely slay anything in their path.
Autumn /
Fall is the season of harvest, when you literally reap what you sow. Naturally the
fall is the very last harvest for the year, no more food will be grown and
animals will become scarce so if you have not prepared yourself you are in for
a terrible winter. This is why autumn is such a good analogy for a middle-aged
person: they are now past their prime and will not be getting any stronger. If
someone wasted their youthful energy and didn’t work until they made something
of themselves then they will either have an uncomfortable retirement or
possibly never be able to retire. The flip side being that their hard work has
really paid off and they get to live in the lap of luxury until the day they
die. Expect to see many festivals and bountiful feasts if you read about the
fall… Unless your character made unfortunate choices in the summer, in that
case, beware the struggles ahead.
Lastly
we have the dreaded season of winter: the season of death, despair, depression,
evil, hate, emptiness, old age, dread, and so on. Its pretty easy to see why
winter is the season of death; there are no leaves or fruit on the trees and
everything needs shelter to survive. Winter is all about survival and extremely
powerful struggles. Characters will often times be facing deep intrapersonal
problems, fighting their own demons if you will, and or be faces with a
seemingly impossible foe. What I find interesting is that western culture,
especially America, has turned the winter into the most joyous time of the
year. Our idea of winter is Christmas and jolly old Saint Nick. Americans
praise the winter as “the most wonderful time of the year” which is extremely
ironic. I believe this is most likely due to the fact that Americans have a
very high standard of living, therefore the winter is not a struggle.
