When In Doubt, Rain It Out (Literally)

I had never payed much attention to rain when reading a book; I always assumed it was just a mere setting detail and nothing more. Now looking back, I see it has a lot more to do with the story being told and the characters being affected. It’s interesting how weather can determine the fate of a person, and the same weather can mean a variety of symbols. Rain can symbolize clarity and rebirth, but also depression and death, while snow or fog can give off an eerie sort of vibe (like in Misery, the Stephen King novel turned Kathy Bates horror flick).
Rain appears in novels and films countless of times. Sometimes it’s for a purpose, and other times it’s just what I originally thought it was for - just detail. However, when it is for a purpose, a lot can come from story weather. I suppose it this isn’t the example you'd prefer, but I think the film Clueless very well fits what Thomas was trying to get across when he explained rain and its impact. In the film, the main character, Cher, is a very rich, naive, and extremely clueless teenager who decides, one day, to take a new student, Tai, under her wing. After turning Tai from a nobody into almost an exact clone of herself, Cher is startled when Tai confesses that she has feelings for Cher’s ex-step brother, Josh. After getting angry with Tai for telling the truth, Cher is confused about her feelings and her reasoning for getting so upset, so she leaves her home to take a walk in attempt to make sense of everything. Taking a long stroll through the neighborhood to clear her head, Cher contemplates her dilemmas that she has faced throughout the film. After having a failed relationship with an obviously-homosexual-to-everyone-except-Cher student, she questions love, her emotions, and the meaning to everything she has done in the past year. After finishing her walk through the city (and stopping for some retail therapy along the way), Cher makes her way back home. As she walks through her front yard, she begins asking herself a multitude of questions until she comes to the conclusion that she, herself, is in love with Josh (which is kind of gross, seeing as he is her ex-step brother and all). Right when she has this thought, Cher stands in front of the large fountain in her front yard as water begins to shoot out and the lights from the fountain glow behind her. In this scenario, the fountain acts as the rain. She was literally "clueless" and lost, but once the fountain turns on and lights up, displaying a rain-like effect almost, she gains clearness and coherence from her convoluted thought. I don't think it gets any clearer than that.
Personally I have never made any life-changing decisions or any sort of re-awaking while standing in the rain, but I guess I see how it could produce such an effect on us. Like Thomas said, water and its impression on us dates back to as far as we can understand, so really, rain and water speak to us on the most personal level there is.