A Dark and Stormy Complexity: The Symbolism of Weather in 'Saint Maybe' Anonymous 9th Grade

“It was a dark and stormy night.” A cliché used in many novels to not only display the setting, but as a form of symbolism that contains a deeper meaning about the text. Different types of weather and the seasons are commonly used in novels as symbols. The novel Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler is no different. The novel, centering around tragedy and forgiveness, follows the Bedloes, a seemingly perfect family of the 1960s. This all changes when Danny Bedloe, the middle child, commits suicide after learning from his brother, Ian, that his wife, Lucy, has been unfaithful to him. Lucy evidently commits suicide which leads to their three children, Thomas, Agatha, and Daphne, without parents to care for them. In a search for forgiveness, Ian finds the Church of Second Chance, headed by Reverend Emmett, to begin his spiritual life. After learning from Reverend Emmett that taking care of his deceased brother’s children will deliver his forgiveness, Ian drops out of college to care for them. After many years, his forgiveness is finally delivered when he has his first child with his wife, Rita diCarlo. Anne Tyler uses the seasons and weather in Saint Maybe to add depth to the novel by assigning a unique underlying meaning to the season or...