We Are the Weather

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2019

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Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

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Symbols & Motifs

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Symbols & Motifs

The Holocaust

The Holocaust appears early and often as an important symbol throughout We Are the Weather. For Foer, it is a personal symbol, but it is also an accessible and poignant symbol for most readers, both of which contribute to its impact as a literary device. The Holocaust and the genocide of six million European Jews during WWII is one of the most horrifying and arguably well-known historical events of the past century. Therefore, it is recognizable to most readers, who immediately identify not just the event, but a host of emotions generally associated with it, like horror, pain, and shame. By utilizing the Holocaust as such a prominent symbol, Foer implies that climate change has the potential to be our generation’s Holocaust, both literally, in its deadly impact, and figuratively, in that it could illicit the same heavy emotions.

Foer returns to his grandmother’s escape from the Holocaust repeatedly to demonstrate the sacrifice she made, equating the sacrifices and horrifying results of the Holocaust to those demanded and threatened by global climate change. While the problem of climate change is complex and sometimes confusing, so was the Holocaust at the time, as evidenced by the story of Karski. Foer makes efforts to respect the gravity of the Holocaust. However, he also points out that the long-term effects of climate change could be more far-reaching than those of the Holocaust, killing all humans rather than a single population. He uses the comparison to discuss the courage necessary to make an escape and the personal and global implications of that courage.

In Foer’s final chapter, the letter to his sons, this symbol comes to a final, plaintive climax. Comparing the Holocaust to climate change, Foer brings the symbolic message of human devastation to the fore. To alleviate the crisis, we must work collectively, much like those in the Warsaw ghetto collectively fought and drove back the Nazis. As happened with the Holocaust, we can see the impact of climate change, but most people do nothing about it. This is because in both cases, they don’t believe. In this comparison, Foer informs the reader of the urgency of making changes and sacrifices to save the planet. His grandmother did just that, sacrificing all that she knew and loved. Now it’s our turn to do the same.

Home

Home is a metaphor throughout the narrative. Home is found in many things: It is our physical home, our family (represented by Foer’s grandmother and his sons), and our planet. It is both physical and ambiguous, defying definition or, at times, even perception. But when we can pause to appreciate it, it inspires awe and love.

Foer uses the home he grew up in to indicate how our perception of size and risk is of a different scale as we age and gain wisdom. In this case, home is interchangeable with aging, gained wisdom, and change. As with his discussions of belief, this discussion of home also points out the ways in which our realities are a matter of perception. Even in regard to something we know so intimately as our own homes—especially something we know so intimately as our own homes—our perceptions are often skewed. So, then, is our perspective of our greatest home, Earth, and its vulnerability to climate change.

Earth as home is something that Foer presents as sacred. When he pits the notion of Earth as home against the idea of abandoning it and going to Mars to escape climate change, he appeals to our souls and our moral insight. The implication is that those who favor abandoning Earth have come to see home as disposable, a position that Foer implies is practically sinful and dishonest.

It is such an important theme that the word “home” appears in two section titles and six chapter titles. The double entendre with the chapter “Mortgaging the Home” relates both to financial destruction and to the lifestyle we live that compromises the health of our planet. This lifestyle is one of greed, the accumulation of needless possessions, monumental waste, and poisonous emissions with no regard to the future. Doing so is an assault on our most intimate, beloved space: home.

The repeated references to home throughout the book are emotionally positioned to remind the reader that home isn’t just something we love, but the place we are meant to be yet poised to lose.

Vision

Throughout the manuscript, Foer speaks about what we as humans and other animals see. When he writes about “seeing,” he is playing on the words. Seeing is believing, so an inability to see things as they are is analogous to an inability to believe. And, as discussed above, an inability to believe results in an inability to take action.

This symbol of our faulty vision makes an appearance throughout the book and is most often tied to the theme of belief. For example, when he notes that animals do not recognize their reflection, it’s not that animals can’t see anything in the mirror, it’s that they just can’t equate it with a sense of self. It is also an obvious symbol when Foer discusses the astronomer Percival Lowell: Lowell’s entire theory about the tunnels of Mars was based on the fact that he adjusted the lens of his telescope for his cataracts. His adjusted perception impacted his vision and, therefore, his belief. This is also another example of Foer’s play on words. The dictionary defines tunnel vision as a drastically narrowed field of vision. Tunnel vision, which quite literally is what Lowell had, is often a metaphor for an extremely narrow or prejudiced outlook. Again, we see the use of this symbol as a way for Foer to represent his ideas about belief and making choices. We all have a certain degree of tunnel vision, and it greatly impacts our ability to perceive, believe, and react.

There are many other instances when this idea comes into play. What Foer is noting is that we can’t always trust what we see, especially when the word “see” also stands in for belief.