Rain, Rain, Should you stay?

in chapter 10 it talks about how weather in a story sets the atmosphere, the mood, and the feeling of a certain character. When I read the chapter I automatically thought of the use of symbolism so I looked up the meaning behind certain weather conditions.

RAIN- symbolizes a purification, often erases and wipes away the stain on a certain charcter.

SNOW- can have both a positive or negative meaning:  

1. can symbolize purity, good natured
2. coldhearted, death

DROUGHT- can symbolize helplessness or depression

Once I looked up these meanings some examples of this from literature popped in my head; "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck and "Holes" by Louis Sachar

In "The Grapes of Wrath"  the weather is barren and dry and dusty, along with the situation of the family. They are being forced from their land and it seems that their luck has run dry. The rain at the end of the story is even more important and signifies many things. The rain signifies the end of the drought which was the cause for their problems in the first place. Though the rain signifies spring and new birth, just like Rose of Sharon's delivery does, they both also bring death and calamity. Rose's baby is born all blue and dead from lack of food. The rain also brings the threat of death to the immigrants. The presence of the rain at the end of this story is so important to tie in the whole mood of the last couple chapters. Though the hard times are coming to a close, not everything is just right yet and there are still going to be some trials.

In "Holes" there was a vast, vibrant lake that made the town living by it survive. The lake produced every kind of nourishment for the town. It was the center of life. When Sam, the simple black man making a living from the lake crops, is murdered, the town suddenly stops getting rain. The lake ends up drying up and the town lies to waste. The lack of rain symbolizes the harsh payback the murderers had coming. It was a punishment to the town. Also Sam's girlfriend Kate is telling the story at that point, so the dried up lake means a sense of hopelessness for her. She wants to dry up and die just as the lake that Sam had lived on had done. When she dies a curse is placed on the people who live around the lake that in order to find a certain treasure she has hidden generations of their family must dig for years in order to find it. The drought continues for years as a symbol of hopelessness for everyone. Later on we see the story of Stanley Yelnats. He is the fourth generation of his family that has been under this curse placed. He is sent to camp to dig holes in the dried up lake bed looking for treasure. He is being taken advantage by having to dig holes from one person's obsession. In the end, the obsessed woman gets taken to jail and when that happens it begins to rain there and the curse is broken. The mood is no longer hopeless, but is joyful and happy. Weather is an enormous part of a good novel. It creates the mood and gives the reader a sense of what the characters are feeling. It simply makes the story more enjoyable and easier to understand.