"The white clouds of snow began gradually to turn grey." .
White, the symbol of vitality and purity, represents the beginning of their life together- full of goodness and hope. However the relationship then takes a turn for the worse, becoming sour and violent as suggested by the grey, or darkness. The general gloom of the storm is also appropriately associated with his wife's death. .
Marquez too makes use of weather as a symbol. Since, he is making a factual analysis, and interviewing people, different versions of the state of the weather arise. The narrator repeatedly highlights the disputes over what the weather was like on that fateful day. It is interesting to note how the various people who know Nasar give their account of the weather. His cook, Victoria Guzman, "was sure it hadn't rained that day, or during the whole month of February."1 Later, the narrator states, "A cloudy Tuesday was breaking through."2 - referring to the day after the crime had been committed.
Victoria Guzman hated Santiago Nasar; as her daughter says: "she wanted them to kill him." If we associate rain with remorse, gloom and evil - the presence of clouds, thus blocking out of light - then it is appropriate that it had not rained - Victoria Guzman had no remorse for the events that took place. The narrator however was overcome with guilt, his version of the weather - cloudy, thus dark and gloomy - shows this further. It is this guilt that drives him to come back after 27 years to put the pieces of the murder puzzle back together. However, the author also uses the varying accounts of weather to muddle the story up, giving it a more factual, and thus more realistic feel. .
Chekhov's story "At Sea" also uses similar symbols. The "autumn rain" represents the narrator's inner conflict, the turmoil he is going through, and the shock he is feeling after witnessing what had just happened. Thus the use of autumn, a season associated with gloom and dullness, is appropriate.