Ice Break

“Ice break” - Astrid Blodgett, 2012

All families have problems. However, not all families are good at communicating and solving their problems. Sometimes it is just so much easier to ignore a bad atmosphere rather than fight against it. But it is better to “break the ice” and face the conflicts rather than keep them below the surface until they explode unexpectedly. This is illustrated in the short story “Ice break”, which was written by Astrid Blodgett in 2012. In this essay I will analyze and interpret “Ice break” with special focus on the structure of the short story and on the different themes it represents.

A first-person narrator tells “Ice Break”. The narrator is Dawn, who is a character from the story. She is one of the three children in the family that we follow. The fact that the story is told by a younger person makes the story very emotional. It is clear that it is a very heartrending and though experience that Dawn is going trough. As readers we get the perspective of children in family tragedies. The narrator Dawn has a limited knowledge. She does not have an insight in the other characters feelings. However, she makes suppositions on their behavior. For instance the text says: “I asked Marla, when Mom wasn’t near, what she meant about the Pichowskys, and she says she didn’t remember. But her faced turned bright pink, so I knew she knew. “ (Page 5, lines 165-166).

The short story begins in medias res at the moment where the ice breaks. This is the point of no return, and afterwards we are gradually presented to the characters.  The structure of the short story is not very typical for short stories. This one has two different timelines that we follow alternately. One of the timelines follows the story chronological and the other one is an ongoing climax.  The two timelines meet at the end of the short story at the funeral. This way of telling the story makes the readers observant, because we keep turning back to the climax and the suspense of the story. It kind of makes the story very confusing that is has two timelines, but also fascinating, and as a reader you do not want to let the story go before you have finished reading it.

The short story introduces us to five characters. The two parents and their three daughters: Dawn, Janie and Marla.  Dawn is the main character of the story. She is the middle oldest child of the three sisters. In the story we get the feeling that Dawn has a bad relationship with both her mother and her father. Maybe the relationship is not entirely bad for a teenager, but neither is it good. For instance she does not want to go on a fishing trip with her father alone. She even begs her sister to go with them, so she can avoid being alone with her father. The text says: “I didn’t want to be alone with Dad. He was always grouchier when it was just him and me. He was scary when he got mad. And he never knew what to talk about with me so it was uncomfortable and we both ended up saying all the wrong thing.” (Page 3, lines 90-93).
It seems almost as if she is scared of her father. Also she seems a little bit angry with her mother because the mother always makes excuses for not participating in family trips such as the fishing trip.

Dawn does not describe herself with kind words. For instance the text says: “I’m not just dead, I’m slow and stupid. I can’t unclip the buckle. My body is weighing it down…My fingers are stiff and fat and useless”. (Page 3, lines 83-86). This seems to indicate that she has a low self-esteem and blames herself for things that she should not.  
Both of the parents seem very busy and focused on their own passion. The mother is probably a career woman and the father a nature lover. It seems like they are very different and that they do not get along with each other. The fact that the mother rather wants to catch up on her work than spend time with her family is in any case not a sign of a great marriage or family.  All in all the communication in the family is not quite good. “I’d heard them talking once, him and Mom. He said he’d tried to talk to me and I just wasn’t receptive; and Mom said he had to get over the idea that someone will be how you imagine them to be, and just accept them.” (Page 3, lines 91-94). It is like the characters are afraid to face their problems and to confront each other. Another example of this is clearly shown when Dawn does not want to go out fishing with her father alone and pays her sister to go with them. Instead of talking to her father and try to get along with him, she chooses the easy way which is to avoid being with him alone.