How to read literature like a professor question help?

In terms of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, your (1) above is on track. In C S Lewis' mind there were two ways of writing a novel. (a) The thriller approach, in which one exciting event happens after another, and the question is what happens to the hero next and (b) the atmosphere approach, in which all the characteristics of the book (events, characters, environment, weather) work together to create a believable total new world for the reader. Lewis preferred and wrote in the (b) sense. (So did Tolkien - the two were friends). For example, the White Witch kills her enemies by freezing them, drives a sled pulled by white reindeer, and lives in an ice palace. (She would not "fit" the story if she were a green witch riding a horse that killed her foes by lightning bolts). The weather supports this - cold, dreary, always winter and never Christmas, a hushed landscape with no promise of spring. The sense is one of the land slowly freezing to death. As you note, weather is also used as a symbol that her power is being broken. The snow begins to melt and stream begin to run again. In addition, Father Christmas appears (so he's not part of the weather, but he fits) as the thaw begins. Note her reaction to the dwarf who notices the thaw - rather negative.