The signifigance of the snow in silent hill

Post by **AuraTwilight** » 13 May 2008

Alessa never dies. She's immortal. Thus my use of quotation marks around "died."

Oh. I was zoning on the other guy's use of the word "killed".

Post by **TheButcher88** » 14 May 2008

I think the significance of the Snow or should I say ash, was to show another of type of world, a nightmare world where things go bad and you die in the world, that is what I think the significance of the snow is Silent Hill...

Post by **The Adversary** » 14 May 2008

It's not ash, for the nth time.

Post by **PeachySakura24** » 15 May 2008

For real, people, it is NOT ash, it is snow. Although I thought this game would be taking place in summer, not spring.
The only source that ties Silent Hill to good old Centralia, Pa. (about an hour away from my house, so it was a shout-out to me....shut up, it was

) was the movie. So, for the last time, please....SNOW, not ash. SNOW. Snowflakes. Flurries.

Post by **emptimass** » 15 May 2008

But why was there ash falling from the sky? Was it from the fires underground?

It snowed here yesterday May 14th. It is possible to snow late in the year. In 1996
I remember that it snowed on July 5th.

Post by **DryFrankie** » 16 May 2008

True, it could have been an unusual but entirely possible weather pattern appearing. However, in the intro, which shows Harry driving and crashing, you can see that there's no snow falling, though I guess it could've started snowing while Harry was unconscious. Also, I'd think that if it was cold enough to snow, Harry and Cheryl would've been wearing heavier clothes.

Post by **Baal** » 17 May 2008

There was no snow falling in the intro probably because Harry and Cheryl weren't in the Otherworld yet.

Post by **AuraTwilight** » 17 May 2008

Well, OBVIOUSLY. That's not what's being discussed, though.

Post by **paladin181** » 19 May 2008

Harry was dressed somewhat warmly, in what amounts to a little more than a light Jacket.

Many have suggested that the "snowstorm" was to cover up graphical limitations. True. Look at Morrowind on the X-Box, and you'll see a pretty limited view range on a more powerful system. They used the fog to cover it up. The snow was to cover up the plainness of the fog.

As for symbolism, perhaps it is Cheryl's innocence as others have suggested, since the snow fall is light, and gentle. It probably doesn't stick because no one mentions it being exceptionally cold, just that snow is odd. It's probably too warm for snow (something they should have worked into the plot through dialogue SOMEWHERE) and that's what made it stranger. Or it could be that Team Silent aren't the "Gods of Allusion" that people think they are and it was just what I said earlier. I have come to believe that many classic authors suffer from this fate of being over analyzed for things that may have been simply meant to be taken at face value.

Post by **SilentMadness** » 19 May 2008

True, but you got to admit, it's fun picking at little things like this and taking on theories for ourselves.
I wonder though, did it snow throughout the whole game? i just ask becuase I don't have the game and haven't played it in 2 years.

Post by **paladin181** » 19 May 2008

No, it didn't snow througout the whole game... In otherworld outdoors it usually rained, and I don't remember it snowing at all in the Amusement park, but then, there was no fog there either.

Post by **PeachySakura24** » 20 May 2008

I think it only snowed when it was light out. After you get the three keys and pass through the door and it is suddenly dark out without it being the otherworld, there is no snow.

Post by **AuraTwilight** » 20 May 2008

You're right, it doesn't snow in the darker, grittier Otherworld or at night.

Empty_Eyes · Post by **Empty_Eyes** » 21 May 2008

Just a side note.... I really think a topic needs to be created that simply reads

IT'S SNOW!!! NOT ASH!!!!

lock it and sticky it to the top. God damn it's getting irritating seeing people insiting that its ash. News Flash ps1 well before Silent Hill: the movie. In other words... Snow not ash, play the game... it's not up for debate.

Sorry reading over the threads I know this has been quashed but it just irked the shit out of me.

As for the purpose of the snow aside from as was said earlier keep the draw distance hindering fog from making the enviroments to bland, it can also be seen as child hood innoncence. Also snow speaks of isolation (see also John Carpenters the Thing). The fact that it seems out of place for the season elludes to things being even more abnormal and considering that towards the end of the game it's apperance is not really there I think it just sort of was used as a tool to help construct an out of place world.

Post by **Harrys_Girl** » 22 May 2008

^ Actually, white is not always seen as a color of purity and innocence. That is only a popular Western symbolic meaning for the color white. White is only associated with child or virgin-like qualities.

In the far East, i.e. Japan, China, and Korea white is seen as the color of Sterility. The total opposite of the feritle colors of summer, when the world is full of life. White is seens as a color of coldness, as snow when the world is dead and in pain. It is more linked to the barren woman or man, unable to pass on more life into the world.

Post by **Mis Krist.** » 22 May 2008

White, as in snow, also hides what's really there - a white lie, so to speak. Just look at Angela's outfit...

Post by **PeachySakura24** » 23 May 2008

^ Actually, white is not always seen as a color of purity and innocence. That is only a popular Western symbolic meaning for the color white. White is only associated with child or virgin-like qualities.

In the far East, i.e. Japan, China, and Korea white is seen as the color of Sterility. The total opposite of the feritle colors of summer, when the world is full of life. White is seens as a color of coldness, as snow when the world is dead and in pain. It is more linked to the barren woman or man, unable to pass on more life into the world.

If you listen to the lyrics of "A Love Suicide" from Rule of Rose, they say "it is pure white, just like sin." That can be an interesting parallel too.

Post by **Harrys_Girl** » 23 May 2008

^That is a good example, Peachy.

And if it is as I suggested for the symbolic meaning of being sterile, then maybe it was a warning sign that the god was not going to be born Nothing can be born correctly in the cold of winter. Another example of a connection is the festive flowers for the Viatnames version of Mother's day. Everyone wears a rose that day. A red rose if your mother is alive or a white rose if your mother is dead and can no longer produce offspring.

Post by **AuraTwilight** » 23 May 2008

I have no idea how the hell sin would be associated with pure white. And the Mother's Day thing is interesting, but if Alessa figured the God wouldn't be born, she wouldn't be working so hard.

Post by **Harrys_Girl** » 23 May 2008

To AuraTwilight:
I meant that maybe it is snowing because Alessa is trying not to let the god be born. Making the world seem cold and painfu, sterilel could make the god think twice about coming into being back on earth. If you were the god, would you want to be brought through in an infertile envoriment, when the world is cold and dead?