Alex Lemme "People in Hell Just want a Drink of Water"

What I found most interesting about Annie Proulx's story "People in Hell Just Want a Drink of Water" was the balance between the personification of the wind in conflict with the dehumanisation of Ras. In the introduction of the story and throughout, the wind is described as "hissing" and "shrieking". Apart from the descriptions being rather onomatopoeic, the action of "shrieking" alludes to the wind being an either horrified or enraged person. This case of personification made me see the wind as a central character in the narration and in my mind the image of the wind formed as a cruel mistress in the dry landscape.
Furthermore, this personification of an inanimate natural phenomenon starkly clashes with the dehumanisation of Ras, one of the main characters in the story. Ras was left severely disfigured and mentally damaged by a terrible accident and many characters in the narration refer to him as "it" and "that".
This chilling contrast really connects the reader to the environment of the story as well as the characters and how they are both perceived within the narration.