Weeds Symbol Analysis

Weeds and unruly plants appear multiple times in this story, sometimes unexpectedly. They are used to emphasize the damaging effects of deprivation from the sun: both the physical environment and the inhabitants of Venus have become cruel and inhospitable in the absence of sunlight. Because of the constant rains, Venus is covered in sickly pale, overgrown vegetation, a jungle that “grew and never stopped growing, tumultuously, even as you watched it.” The jungle is described in vivid, uncanny detail as a “nest of octopi, clustering up great arms of flesh-like weed.” Venus is an untamed, inhospitable environment which the constant rains have covered in tangled grey weeds. Just as the rains have created this hostile environment, they also seem to have fostered hostility among the people of Venus: the unruly children are described in the opening of the story as “so many roses, so many weeds, intermixed,” pressed close together as they peer out the window. In the absence of the sun and in their feverish anticipation, the children have become themselves like uncontrolled weeds. Just as the lack of sunlight has turned the surface of Venus into a frightening jungle, it has also turned the children into an unruly mob. Weeds symbolize the ugly behaviors that have proliferated unchecked in this harsh environment.