Mayer, Sylvia. “Narratives of Resilience in Times of Climate Crisis: Angry Optimism and Utopian Minimalism in Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 and Jenny Offill’s Weather.” Journal of the Austrian Association for American Studies, vol. 6, no. 2, 2025, https://jaaas.eu/jaaas/article/view/227/237

• “Weather, in contrast, engages deeply with issues of climate-related cognitive dissonance, denial, and anxiety, which shape the narrator-protagonist’s responses throughout the narrative. At the same time, however, I argue that the novel also adopts a political stance of angry optimism and a sense of utopian minimalism, emphasizing the cultivation of personal resilience and, ultimately, suggesting a pathway toward broader social resilience” (13). Mayer talks about contemporary climate fiction novels exploring resilience as a way that people respond to crises. She uses two different works as an example, but she describes Offill’s Weather as “utopian minimalism.” She says that Offill captures “quiet optimism embedded in small acts of care and attention” (16). In this way, Mayer highlights that Offill uses everyday tasks as a way to cope with crisis, as it is something that is more manageable compared to dealing with the stress and anxiety that comes with being in a state of distress. 

Peinado-Abarrio, Rubén. “‘Fragmented and Bewildering:’ The New Risk Society in Jenny Offill’s Weather.” Revista De Estudios Norteamericanos, vol. 26, Dec. 2022, pp. 1–23, https://institucional.us.es/revistas/estudios/26/peinado-abarrio.pdf

• Peinado-Abarrio describes Offill’s Weather as an “anxious text,” to which her “fragmentary approach plays no small part in this” (8). He mentions that the fragments in which Offill writes, each one “invokes one type of anxiety or another, a sense of paratactical accumulation ensues, similar to how social media conveys information as a succession of posts” (5). All together, Peinado-Abarrio concludes that Offill’s choice of how she sets up her novel isn’t only stylistic but also political. It represents modern life while also encouraging awareness and highlighting how important it is to be connected to the things that are happening every day.

De Cristofaro, Diletta. “‘How Do You Sleep at Night Knowing All This?’: Climate Breakdown, Sleep, and Extractive Capitalism in Contemporary Literature and Culture.” Textual Practice, vol. 38, no. 10, 2024, pp. 1601–23, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0950236X.2023.2265887#abstract

• In this article De Cristofaro uses contemporary literature and culture to connect the climate crisis with the sleep crisis. De Cristofaro explains how they are both connected to extractive capitalism that constantly demands more from both the Earth and the human body. “There are structural parallels, Dimaline’s series suggests, between the impossible demands of a 24/7 system on the planet and on our bodies and minds” (11). Offill’s fragmented anxiety based narrative is a live example of this. 

Garner, Dwight. “In Jenny Offill’s ‘Weather,’ Paranoia Is Delivered with Humor (Published 2020).” New York Times, 31 Jan. 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/books/review-weather-jenny-offill.html

• This isn’t the best source, as it is not peer reviewed, and there is not much for me to pull and use in my essay. It is best that I find a different source as there isn’t much to work with in this one. 

Dean, Michelle. “A Fragmented Novel for the End of the World.” The New Republic, 2 Apr. 2020, https://newrepublic.com/article/156865/jenny-offill-novel-weather-book-review-end-world

• Dean makes some interesting points, such as modern consciousness being fractured and how he sees Weather as a “dispatch from this realm of consciousness.” However, it would be best if I found a different article that would be better to work with, as this one is not peer reviewed.

Essay Question: How does Jenny Offill use literary elements, specifically her fragmented style of writing and her use of humor in her novel Weather, to express and manage anxieties related to climate change, culture, and everyday life? 

Sources: Offill, Jenny. Weather. Vintage, 2021 

1.Mayer, Sylvia. “Narratives of Resilience in Times of Climate Crisis: Angry Optimism and Utopian Minimalism in Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 and Jenny Offill’s Weather.” Journal of the Austrian Association for American Studies, vol. 6, no. 2, 2025, https://jaaas.eu/jaaas/article/view/227/237

2.Peinado-Abarrio, Rubén. “‘Fragmented and Bewildering:’ The New Risk Society in Jenny Offill’s Weather.” Revista De Estudios Norteamericanos, vol. 26, Dec. 2022, pp. 1–23, https://institucional.us.es/revistas/estudios/26/peinado-abarrio.pdf

3.De Cristofaro, Diletta. “‘How Do You Sleep at Night Knowing All This?’: Climate Breakdown, Sleep, and Extractive Capitalism in Contemporary Literature and Culture.” Textual Practice, vol. 38, no. 10, 2024, pp. 1601–23, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0950236X.2023.2265887#abstract

4.Garner, Dwight. “In Jenny Offill’s ‘Weather,’ Paranoia Is Delivered with Humor (Published 2020).” New York Times, 31 Jan. 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/books/review-weather-jenny-offill.html

5.Dean, Michelle. “A Fragmented Novel for the End of the World.” The New Republic, 2 Apr. 2020, https://newrepublic.com/article/156865/jenny-offill-novel-weather-book-review-end-world

In order to find these sources, I used searches such as “Jenny Offill’s Weather and climate change” and “Jenny Offill’s Weather and anxiety” and “Jenny Offill’s Weather and fragmented writing style” and finally “Jenny Offill’s Weather and using humor to cope with anxiety.” For this research I used Hunter College Libraries OneSearch, where I was able to find two different sources, both of which are peer reviewed. From one of them I found another source using the work cited page. I used Google to find my last two sources, as I couldn’t find much about Weather on OneSearch. As I continue to look for sources, I plan to use other databases to expand my research.

This section of Jenny Offill’s Weather really highlights Lizzie’s growing anxiety about both her own personal crisis and the global crisis. This part of the novel also highlights the feeling of being overwhelmed. With Offill’s choice of writing style, which can be categorized as fragments, we are quick to witness Lizzie’s mental state. From her interaction with her family to answering Sylvia’s emails, thoughts of her brother doing drugs again as he seems to be newly sober, facts about global warming, and more. 

It seems that Lizzie becomes overwhelmed as others demand her attention. She continues to answer the library emails and questions. It is mentioned in the novel that mail continues to increase. “Even more mail than usual. I’m really hoping all these people who write to Sylvia are crazy, not depressed” (88). Despite how “crazy” these questions might be, Lizzie still makes it her responsibility to answer them. As for her brother, Lizzie has a lot of concern for him as he is now sober. She says, “When I come over with some groceries, Henry hightails it out of there before I even take off my shoes. You’re just smoking, right? I text from the bathroom. No pills or powders, he says” (95). To add on, her brother’s wife is pregnant, and she has been helping them with the journey. Though it does not seem like much, Offill’s choice of writing style makes it seem as if every situation is being piled on top of one another. 

To add on, this section of the novel also shows Lizzie becoming overwhelmed by combining worldwide problems with her personal problems. For example, the novel shows a conversation between Lizzie and her husband, Ben, talking about her job. “You don’t really even have a job, do you?’ Ben says one day when I come home early…” (81). This is a problem because in the previous chapter, it was said that they have money issues. As for worldwide issues, global climate is the main concern. “… I read about how the superrich are buying doomsteads in New Zealand” (97). This, combined with the question she answers for Sylvia, all combine to stress and make her anxious about the future, and seeing her close to her family, especially her son, most likely gives her more of a reason to worry. Going back to the writing style of this novel, it seems as if no thought is formed on its own and that the stress and anxiety from one thought has the ability to carry on to the next, leaving Lizzie with no time to calm her racing mind down.

Part one of Jenny Offill’s Weather introduces us to Lizzie, the married mother to her son Eli, telling the story. Offill’s choice of writing style offers the readers an insight into Lizzie’s character. The constant switch of topics allows one to visualize Lizzie’s thought process. The layout of the novel depicts Lizze as anxious and overstimulated. Each section of Lizzie’s thoughts reflects the way her mind is quick to sprint to another scenario that she’s encountered. Her thoughts focus on her family, her job (the one at the library and the one where she answers questions for that one character’s podcast), her brother and his girlfriend, and more. 

Not only does the styling of the novel allow us to see the way Lizzie processes her daily life and interactions, but it also allows us readers to see exactly how Lizzie processes the world around her and how she balances different emotions. For example, on pages 16 to 17 Lizzie goes from talking about a hospice worker who told her, “It is important when a loved one dies to try to stay alone in the house for three days,” to talking about the elevator in her building being out of order. Throughout the entire first part of the novel, Lizzie’s narrative continues to jump between different scenarios, interactions, and emotions such as humor and dread. 

Lizzie says, “I explain that I don’t use any of them because they make me feel too squirrelly. Or not exactly squirrelly, more like a rat who can’t stop pushing a lever. Pellet of affection! Pellet of rage? Please, please, my pretty!” (39). With her exaggeration, the comparison that Lizzie makes of a human to a lab rat is absurd, which is supposed to be funny. It also seems as if she is making fun of herself. The “squirrelly” tendencies that she has are probably her running to check her phone anytime she gets a notification, making her both funny and relatable to a lot of readers.

While reading this novel, I can’t help but believe that Lizzie’s humor might possibly be some type of mechanism she uses to cope with the dreadful part of her life. Maybe she uses humor to laugh off things that she’s done in the past that she now finds ridiculous. It is even possible that maybe she uses humor to bring joy to the days she experiences. For her, having a sense of humor might make her days easier, especially when having to deal with a lot of people while working as a librarian.

     How exactly does Ghosh illustrate the relationship between humans and nature in the first half of the novel? Throughout the novel, we see that each character, especially Piya, Fokir, and Kanai, all have different roles in the world they are surrounded by. Their roles all play a part in how they interact with nature. For example, Piya, who is from America but is visiting the Sundarbans as a marine biologist, sees nature and the animals she interacts with scientifically. On the other hand, Fokir is a fisherman who knows a lot about the nature of Lusibari, both as a local and spiritually. Despite being illiterate, Fokir holds a lot of ecological knowledge and understanding of the tides and channels, as well as the location of the dolphins that Piya was looking for. As for Kanai, it has been a long time since he’s been to Lusibari, and as someone from the city, his connection to nature is a bit more distant compared to the other two characters. From his perspective, it seems as if he may have trouble fully understanding the nature of the Sundarbans. Ghosh uses the different connections between humans and nature to highlight how different types of knowledge are just as valuable as others and how bringing them together, like Fokir and Piya working together, can lead to deeper understanding and new interest. 

     The Sundarbans is known for its danger and survival along with myths, displacement, and its history. The past lion attacks allow the people of the Sundarbans to connect with nature spiritually. Ghosh’s use of the legend Bon Bibi allows the reader to view how the people in this community, or the locals, combine religion and nature in their daily lives. The story behind the legend is not pretty, as it highlights the struggle between humans and nature, especially when living in a space where the environment of animal homes is being destroyed by human activity, leaving the animals no choice but to be pushed out, resulting in more human and animal interactions, which then leads to the dangerous encounters explained in the novel. This shows how humans, even as of today, affect the balance between nature and humans, proving that humans are not always the dominant ones. With this, the novel has a way of expressing how even emotions such as fear have the capability of bringing people together, creating mutual understanding of the world around them.