The Snow Child
Eowyn Ivey’s Use of Setting in The Snow Child
In The Snow Child, by Eowyn Ivey, an Alaskan setting in the 1920’s contributes to the atmosphere of isolation, harsh conditions, and quiet.
An older couple has moved to the Alaskan wilderness to escape the reminders of their dead child. One day, they make a snowman, and after the snowman begins to melt, they notice the mittens and hat have disappeared, and they discover a young girl living in the woods. A strong fantasy overlays this harsh story, borrowed from the Russian fairytale “The Snow Maiden.” The tale exists in multiple layers. Is the child real? Or are the couple in the story suffering from cabin fever and have created a happy figure from the memory of their dead child?
Because this is set during the twenties, there are no TV or movie channels, no telephones. We are reminded of this when her sister encourages her to send more letters because “Whenever one arrives, we host a dinner party and invite many of our closest friends and relatives.” (251) During the day, whether inside or out, they are left with their own thoughts, that they do not share with each other. Her husband, it turns out decades into the story, did not even tell her the dead child was a boy. She had always thought it was a girl.
"Curious, isn't it? All that time the baby was inside me, tossing and turning, sharing my blood, and I thought it was a girl. But it wasn't. It was a little boy. Where did you bury him?"
"In the orchard, down by the creek."
She knew exactly where. It was the place they had first kissed, had first held each other as lovers. (233)
Violent book, , and reliance on killing and eating meat because there are no crops in the winter, and they must live on beans and meat. When the husband finally kills a moose, he despairs because there is no way to get it back to the cabin.
He'd done it. They had food for the winter. He would not go to the mine. He wanted to jump up and whoop and holler. He wanted to kiss Mabel hard
In The Snow Child, by Eowyn Ivey, an Alaskan setting in the 1920’s contributes to the atmosphere of isolation, harsh conditions, and quiet.
An older couple has moved to the Alaskan wilderness to escape the reminders of their dead child. One day, they make a snowman, and after the snowman begins to melt, they notice the mittens and hat have disappeared, and they discover a young girl living in the woods. A strong fantasy overlays this harsh story, borrowed from the Russian fairytale “The Snow Maiden.” The tale exists in multiple layers. Is the child real? Or are the couple in the story suffering from cabin fever and have created a happy figure from the memory of their dead child?
Because this is set during the twenties, there are no TV or movie channels, no telephones. We are reminded of this when her sister encourages her to send more letters because “Whenever one arrives, we host a dinner party and invite many of our closest friends and relatives.” (251) During the day, whether inside or out, they are left with their own thoughts, that they do not share with each other. Her husband, it turns out decades into the story, did not even tell her the dead child was a boy. She had always thought it was a girl.
"Curious, isn't it? All that time the baby was inside me, tossing and turning, sharing my blood, and I thought it was a girl. But it wasn't. It was a little boy. Where did you bury him?"
"In the orchard, down by the creek."
She knew exactly where. It was the place they had first kissed, had first held each other as lovers. (233)
Violent book, , and reliance on killing and eating meat because there are no crops in the winter, and they must live on beans and meat. When the husband finally kills a moose, he despairs because there is no way to get it back to the cabin.
He'd done it. They had food for the winter. He would not go to the mine. He wanted to jump up and whoop and holler. He wanted to kiss Mabel hard
Cited: Ivey, Eowyn. The Snow Child: A Novel. New York: Little, Brown and, 2012. Print.