In Chapter 2 of “Weather”, Offill brings more attention to upcoming climatic issues, through this, Offill sets a contrast between Lizzie and other characters; where Lizzie represents the informed and the other characters represent the naysayers and through that we see the relationship between the mindsets when stacked against each other, and the relationship between the mindsets and landscape.

An example of this can be found at the start of the chapter, where it is stated that, “…One thing that’s becoming clear on our travels people are really sick of being lectured about the glaciers. ‘Listen I’ve heard all about that,’ says the red-faced man. ‘But what is going to happen to the American weather?'” (Offill, Pg. 73) This piece of evidence emphasizes why the man fails to understand the significance of the glacier melting problem. He dismisses the information because he’s already heard it before, and only seems to care about “…American weather.” This situation is like the one that Ghosh exposes in his article titled, ‘The Great Derangement’, where he uses Hurricane Sandy as an example of how people are dismissive towards climatic issues, “No such instinct was at work in New York during Sandy…it was generally believed that ‘losing one’s life to a hurricane is…something that happens in faraway places.” (Ghosh, Pg. 25) The man in Offill’s example follows the same mentality, since it doesn’t affect where he lives, he doesn’t care; this isn’t the only form of dismissiveness that we see within the chapter.

Among Lizzie’s experiences of getting educated in, “climate departure”, Lizzie shares some of her insight onto Ben; his reaction to it was, “I only believe in math”, he mumbled. “Show me the math, okay?” (Offill, Pg. 88) This interaction indicates multiple things, for one it indicates the common ignorance that’s geared towards climatic issues, despite Lizzie’s ability to be educated on the topic, from a presumably credible source given that she’s read letters from scientists within the subject of these issues, Ben’s naysay attitude stops him from learning anything; it reveals how ‘naysayers’ percieve the informed as moments later he calls Lizzie, “…a crazy doomer.” (Offill, Pg. 89) Diminishing Lizzie as “mental” for expressing rightful concern about the landscape, while being so ignorant as to dismiss anything she has to say because it doesn’t abide by his way of processing information. Finally, it emphasizes the relationship between the informed and the landscape, we see that once Lizzie was given information her first course of action was to spread awareness and pass around this information in hopes of educating the people around her of the significance of these potential climate atrocities. Showing that those who are informed cultivate their information as a symbol of care for the land they inhabit, seeing this as an urgent issue enough to insist on telling other people about.

In Conclusion, Chapter 2 of Weather highlights the relationships between mindsets, and the mind and land through Lizzie and her interactions with other character’s ideas of climate significance.

In the second chapter of weather by Jenny Ofill there is much more information about the day-to-day life of Lizzie and the things she goes through and how it might trigger and activate this sensation of fear and worries of the future because she assists these shows with Slyvia which the main point is to talk about the future and what they can do and the worries it bring to these people thinking about the very unpredictable future and no one knows. She is in this situation where she is multi-tasking things based on the novel and how much it has brought problems into her personal life and her family. “My main bad decision is spending too much time traveling or being a fake shrink while ignoring the people I live with.” (87)  Lizzie expresses that her decision brought tension within her family because she spends more time traveling and putting on this facade about knowing what the people she has been dealing with go through in Slyvia’s shows and messaging them that only leads to her to worry about the climate crisis and that is another stressful thing she has deal while dealing other things.

“The guest today on the show is explaining that many scientists are in a state of barely suppressed panic about the latest data coming in. Their previous models were too conservative. Everything is happening much faster than expected.” (76) Slyvia shows are attended by people who are stressing and worrying too much about the future not just for themselves but for the upcoming generations and Lizzie she was offered to help Slyvia with responding to messages sent by people who may be delusional about the future and that’s what she has been endorsing which I think it probably got into her head to also start thinking about the future and questioning the unpredictable such as people in the real world some think beyond without having such evidence that can back up their claims and they are just unpredictable predictions because no one knows what the future holds for this world. “According to the current trajectory, New York City will begin to experience dramatic, life-altering temperatures by 2047.” (106) In this quote she was looking at her son Eli and then this random thought came which could relate to people in the real world because most out of nowhere start to think what might the future be like for their kids and how different it would be compared to right now. “The requirement is that they are disappearing faster than expected.” (85) In this part Sylvia states that nature is disappearing faster than what was expected and I think it’s nature because there is nothing else that she worries about but nature. “Lizzie’s become a crazy doomer.” (89) She later on speaks to her husband about climate departure and how they both have different opinions. For example in the real world, there are always two sides, and in this example, there could be one side in which a group believes that the world is going through a climate crisis based on the drastic change in temperature and other things while the other will deny and won’t believe because not everyone is on the same page and the ones who believe it is true could mean that they experience it and the other that denies it is because they haven’t experienced so they don’t know what it’s like to see a drastic change in the world. “According to the current trajectory, New York City will begin to experience dramatic, life-altering temperatures by 2047.” (106) In this quote she was looking at her son Eli and then this random thought came which could relate to people in the real world because most out of nowhere start to think what might the future be like for their kids and how different it would be compared to right now.

From my perspective from what I get from reading this novel, many individuals are unaware of their surroundings and the things nature goes through because they are busy with their day-to-day life and don’t have the time to start looking at their surroundings and notice the changes it is going through and why and whether it’s expected to get worse or not. But not to the extent that they have endorsed too much information that they develop this worry and fear of the future and what’s going to look like due to their overconsumption which will affect them psychologically.

In Part Two of Jenny Offill’s novel “Weather,” Offill elaborates on Lizzie’s unraveling mental state in order to show the psychological toll of living in a world filled with uncertainty and looming catastrophe. Essentially depicting what it’s like to live in fear. This section specifically highlights Lizzie’s feelings of isolation as she tackles her fears in regard to her husband, brother, and son.

What makes Offill’s portrayal of Lizzie’s fears so compelling is that her thoughts aren’t just theoretical. Her worries and fears fall into her day-to-day life and affect her relationships, like her relationship with her husband. Ben is supposed to be this calming and understanding part of Lizzie’s life. We can see that he tries to reassure her that things are not as catastrophic as she thinks they are, but Lizzie is against his attempts to calm her down. Because of this, she feels annoyed, alone, and alienated by his positivity. She sees it as him being almost in denial and sees his efforts of comforting her as pretty futile. Lizzie is constantly overthinking everything, so when Ben tries to calm her nerves, she sees it as him not taking things seriously. Lizzie seems to see the worst in every situation, while Ben tries to be more positive.

You can also see how her overthinking affects her relationship with her son, Eli. Because of her mind constantly racing with potential dangers and threats, Lizzie feels this immense pressure to protect her child from the world she sees is going toward disaster. This fear ends up shaping her interactions with Eli, and she begins to feel a much deeper sense of responsibility in regard to his well-being. While thinking all of this though, she is also aware that she can’t just shelter him from the world for the rest of his life. While thinking all of these overbearing thoughts, she also starts to contemplate her job as a mother, and she doubts whether or not she is being a good mom to Eli.

Finally, Lizzie also plays a role in her brother’s life as a caregiver. Henry is newly sober, so Lizzie feels this huge sense of responsibility over him. Lizzie has this immense feeling of exhaustion and burnout, especially with this constant feeling of needing to help everyone around her. She feels alone in all of it and feels as though all the responsibility must land on her shoulders. This could be because of the fact that she is a mother and feels as though a mother’s job is to have the responsibilities land on her shoulders alone.

Overall, we can see that Lizzie’s experience is not just of dread; we can also see that she is very vulnerable and resilient, and it’s the fear of collapse and the hope for survival that is pushing her to do ‘more.’

Offill seems to be almost ‘picking’ at people who overthink and see the world in this way. From the reader’s perspective, we see her thoughts as jumbled and all over the place, but it might just be Lizzie’s thoughts at the moment. Offill might be pointing out the fact that a lot of the time, the smallest things can have our minds going a mile a minute with worry and doubt, and she masterfully illustrates this through Lizzie.

I might have read more than I was supposed to for todays assignment so I’ll to only speak to what we read in Part 2. Unfortunately, not much has changed for me since my first blog post. I still have such a hard time following what she’s thinking and say, I find myself constantly going back and re-reading things because her thoughts jump in a way that are very confusing. However, I can definitely say that part two speaks more to the issue of climate. It is kind of hard to tell how she even views climate change until later on where we see the different fields that begin to peak her interest and that she begins to study/learn from like that of survivability. In this beginning part of the book, she instead seems to emphasize the kookiness of Sylvia’s watchers and people that take climate change to an extreme. Or maybe her mundane explanation and observation of it is indifference and i’m just inserting my own opinion. It really is extremely difficult to tell with the narrator, Lizzie. Part two also further introduces Lizzies brother, Henry, who is a recovering addict with quite an unstable past and a new life to start with his pregnant wife, Catherine. Henry’s role in this novel is quite confusing to me as well, in terms of how it connects to climate and the Anthropocene. But, he is a really important figure in the novel and in Lizzie’s life. From what we’re told and see later on in the novel, Lizzie has been taking care of Henry her whole life and it definitely has a strain on her marriage with Ben.

I was reading another blog post that I think connects this novel to our study of literature and Anthropocene, and it made a good connection. Climate in Weather explores the everyday reality of someone living during the changing climate of the Anthropocene, while learning about what climate change even means. It’s more so about how Lizzie learns about climate change and how it begins to affect her life and how she sees it, which at this point is pretty monotone, mundane, and with a lot of dark humor. This reveals a strange pessimism and indifference to the state of the world, and her life. She doesn’t see herself as someone with control over her life, let alone the world. However, not too get to ahead, she doesn’t totally succumb to this realization, but instead takes on a bit of Lauren Olamina approach in a much less extreme way since obviously their conditions differ greatly.

In Weather by Jenny Offill, Part 2 continues the narrative with Lizzie, the protagonist, as she grapples with her increasingly complex and anxious worldview. While reading part 2 I noticed many similarities between Lizzie and Lauren from Bulter’s novel, Parable of the Sower. Despite being in different settings and tones of their stories, both Lizzie and Lauren struggle to make sense of looming existential threats while trying to protect themselves and the people they care about, both Lizzie and Lauren are both preppers with that survivalist mentality and preparing for their looming danger. Both characters are also in caretaker positions, Lauren feels responsible for her family and community, and Lizzie feels the same for her husband, her son, and her brother Henry, which also extends to the people who write to Sylvia’s podcast.

The next chapter of this novel amplifies the amount of fear Lizzie feels causing her to strengthen her survivalist mentality. Lizzie delves more deeply into survivalist tips, fears of collapse, and the psychological impact of a world in crisis. Besides Lizzie’s anxieties and the current state of the world, she also has to take responsibility for her brother Henry. Their relationship to me consumes Lizzie’s life more than her husband and son. Their bond seems deep but complicated. Henry turns to Lizzie for help with his addiction, mental health, and dealing with becoming a father. “the due date is almost here and Henry is texting me every hour he is awake. I send him little things to distract him.” (Offill 97). She feels a persistent obligation to watch over him and help him find his footing, especially since he lacks a strong support network of his own. Lizzie also very noticeably feels obligated and trapped by Henry’s dependence, even though her love for him is genuine, her life becomes secondary to her sense of responsibility for Henry, she constantly sacrifices time and energy that could be directed to her family or self-care. When Lizzie tries to set limits and boundaries with Henry, it is hard for her, she keeps getting drawn back into whatever Henry needs rather than her own. Lizzie’s constant worry about climate change, her family’s future, and her son’s well-being make her relationship with Henry even more taxing. it’s very obvious that her caretaking role drains her emotionally and mentally, leaving little room for her mental health. Lizzie’s inability to fully step back from Henry’s issues, despite her need to protect her well-being, highlights her self-sacrificing nature. I hope as we continue to read Henry, he won’t rely only on Lizzie for comfort and he’ll begin to man up or grow up and take responsibility for his own life.