David Adams Richards's The Coming of Winter has been seen as a regional realistic novel; however, this is the surface perspective only, one which limits the understanding of the novel's symbolic depths. The three central characters -- Kevin, John, and Pamela -- are symbolic antitheses to one another, with John being the most active and vibrant (albeit misunderstood) of the three. Aging and death are constants in the novel, although Richards modifies this perception significantly in his later works. The Coming of Winter establishes the device of using symbolic dialectics to reflect the thematic implications of the action.
