Hart has degrees in English literature and creative writing. Her published works are of literary themes. In this essay, Hart studies Wright's use of rain (and water) as a metaphor and as an effect on the mood of his short story.

Wright's short story "Bright and Morning Star" is filled with rain. From the first line, in which the protagonist Sue is said to be standing "six inches from the moist windowpane" as she wonders, "would it ever stop raining," Wright uses rain as a metaphor of gloom and sorrow. Sue is worried about her son Johnny-Boy's return. Although Wright does not show Sue crying, the moisture on the window so close to her face represents her tears, while her concern that the sun may never return addresses her apprehension that she has little hope that her life will ever improve. Thus, in the story's first sentence...