I don't remember anything being said about Katy being near sick or even unwell but she spends the night out in the cold rain and has a temp of 105? I thought we proved many years ago that cold and rain do not cause disease.
shareIt can get quite cold in Wyoming at night, and combine that with her being wet and not having a decent jacket or anything, ya it's possible she could get sick. Let's try....next time there's a cold fall/winter rain, go outside in a flannel shirt, jeans, and boots for a few hours. See how you feel after that.
shareIt has nothing to do with how I'd feel. It has to do with germs and viruses. It seems highly unlikely that one night outside (and the weather did not indicate it was fall or winter) would create a 105 degree temp. She'd have needed to catch a germ or virus, have time to incubate and then get sick. It has to do with science, not temperature. It's unlikely.
share[deleted]
i wondered the same thing. i just figure it's because katy and flicka are, in her words, the same; since the horse was near death, so was katy.
although... i've never read the book, but an idea came to mind, so i just looked up the summary on wikipedia. in the book, ken [the character katy is based on] nearly dies from exposure to the cold. so, katy becoming ill from exposure to the cold and rain would stem from ken becoming ill from spending a night in a river.
If she was that sick that her father is begging her not to leave him (die), wouldn't prudent parents take her to the hospital. If she had that high a fever, she would need an IV to keep her hydrated. So what exactly was wrong with her? No cough, no labored breathing that would require oxygen. I can suspend disbelief just so far.
I guess it's like looking at clouds. You see one thing and I see another. Peace.
This happens all the time in movies...kid gets magically sick from being outside all night,or just outside in the wet in general.Other movies are:E.T,All dogs go to heaven,Madeline,frosty the snowman.For some reason im thinking of more cartoony characters,maybe because children don't understand how they get sick and they dont realize the flaws in this movies.There is definitely alot more movies that portray this.
shareI've got pneumonia working under the rain on a cold and windy Sandy, Oregon afternoon. I was in bed for almost 3 or 4 weeks if memory serves.
shareCold and rain don't cause disease, no. But they can tire your body out more, and your body spends so much energy struggling to stay warm and conserve body heat that it doesn't have enough left to fight off any potential virus or bacteria. And if someone were under a lot of stress (as someone who has just run off from her parents, is lost in the mountains, and just had a run-in with a mountain lion might be), that would also detract from one's ability to fight off potential infection. So, there is a correlation. Just not causation.
In the book, Ken spends a night outside with Flicka, sitting in a stream, and when they find him, he's suffering from chills and hypothermia, which turn into pneumonia as the days pass. That passage of time is condensed in the movie.
Also, as others have pointed out here, this isn't the only movie where a character spends a night in the cold or rain and has pneumonia the next day.