56 pages • 1 hour read
Sister SouljahThe Coldest Winter Ever
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1999A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Drugs
Drugs are simultaneously symbolic of power and ruin in the novel. For Winter, she sees drugs as a means to an end. Drugs are what made her family incredibly wealthy, and it’s what allows the men she pursues to be rich as well. Yet, even though drugs led to her family’s downfall and her mother’s untimely death, Winter upholds her view of drugs as a way to achieve what she wants. Much unlike Winter, Souljah views drugs as a pathway to ruin because it rips families and communities apart. In this way, Winter and Souljah are antithetical characters, divided by their view on drugs and its effect on the community.
Nicknames
Many of the characters throughout the novel use nicknames to simultaneously obscure their identity and create a new one. In this way, nicknames are symbolic of the fact that many of characters don’t really know each other. This is especially true of the men that Winter seeks out. For example, for much of the novel, Winter tries to seduce Midnight or daydreams of seducing Midnight. However, he brings up the point that she doesn’t even know his real name; she’s willing to give herself to him sexually, but she doesn’t even know who he really is.
