Cloudy With a Chance of Meat- I Mean Symbolism (Third Reading Assignment)

     During a scene in The Cloud Chamber by Joyce Maynard, the protagonist and his sister (Nate and Junie respectively) drive out through the snow to meet their father.  There are a few things to know before this is thought up to be a simple visit by a son and daughter to visit their father in a hospital.  First of all, their father attempted to commit suicide because of the failing state of the family business in farming.  Also, the rifle used could not be found and one of the police officers casts suspicion on Nate's mother by suggesting that she may have pulled the trigger.  One other thing.  The snow that Nate drives through in his mother's (who doesn't know he's taken it out for a drive) small, non 4-wheel drive car is actually a blizzard on slopping hills.
     Foster describes snow as possibly meaning as much as rain.  Specifically, he describes snow as "severe", "inhospitable", and "suffocating".  The severe blizzard seems to display the severe and inhospitable nature of the ordeal he and his sister are having to endure.  For a young student and his younger sister to suddenly be thrust into the severity of the world by watching their blood covered father escorted from their house may be compared to the suddenness of the blizzard.
     Much like rain, snow forces individuals to seek shelter from it and possibly gather together.  Luckily for Nate and Junie, their shelter (the car) is already at hand.  This sheltering together may in a way be representative that the only shelter Nate and his sister have in this whole ordeal are actually each other.  Another aspect of seeking shelter from the elements is that once under shelter, the individuals inside are isolated from the rest of the world.  Nate and Junie are isolated in a different sort of way.  After the attempted suicide and being called into question by the police officer, Nate's mother is left resentful, bitter, angry.  Her attitude pushes Nate and Junie away from her and farther out into the cold, harsh world.  Also Nate's grandfather openly expresses his distaste for Nate's father at home, further pushing them away from home and anyone else actually.
     (It goes On and On and On) Foster mentions sleet in the tenth chapter but says that his experience with sleet is too little to generalize.  However, the sleet on the winding roads to the hospital that Nate drives just may represent something.  Think of the psychological trauma that Nate (and his younger sister especially) must have been subjected to after witnessing their father as was half-drug by a couple of police officers to the ambulance.  Something like that would cause any mind to become brittle.  Or maybe a little slippery.  Just like the immediate and constant danger of slipping off the road (and dying), there is the psychological danger of spinning out of control and losing oneself.