This excerpt describes John Grady's journey from San Angelo to San Antonio. Snow was falling in the San Saba when they crossed it and snow was falling on the Edwards Plateau and
in the Balcones the limestone was white with snow and he sat watching out while the gray flakes flared
over the windshield glass in the sweep of the wipers. A translucent slush had begun to form along the
edge of the blacktop and there was ice on the bridge over the Pedernales. The green water sliding slowly
away past the dark bankside trees. The mesquites by the road so thick with mistletoe they looked like
live oaks. The driver sat hunched up over the wheel whistling silently to himself. They got into San
Antonio at three o'clock in the afternoon in a driving snowstorm and he climbed out and thanked the
man and walked up the street and into the first cafe he came to and sat at the counter and put the
satchel on the stool beside him. He took the little paper menu out of the holder and opened it and
looked at it and looked at the clock on the back wall. The waitress set a glass of water in front of him.
1. What is the mood or atmosphere of the setting?
2. What words best create the mood or atmosphere of the story?
3. How does this excerpt help the reader understand the story?