What Happened During The Ice Storm

In the short story, “What Happened During the Ice Storm” written by Jim Henyen, a group of young boys are forced to contend with their conscience when put in the situation of determining the outcome of the life or death of another creature. The story begins with an introduction of the environment, it describes the winter weather as deceptive, stating that it is beautiful and enchanting, but on the other hand, states how harsh and cold and treacherous it can be. The story takes place in a rural farming land, the home to many animals. Because of the weather the animals are sheltered in a barn but one animal is left to face the harsh circumstances alone, the pheasants. The protagonists in the story, the group of brothers, go out in search of
the helpless peasants in order to save them, the author leads the reader into believing the story is a man vs. environment conflict because of the ice storm but turns out being a man vs. self inner struggle as the boys decide how to deal with the pheasants in the right way. The theme of this short story is that all humans are capable of compassion and that no one should be faced with the fear of expressing love and kindness because it is the right moral choice. As soon as the boys found the pheasants huddled by the fence they stood over them for a moment deciding what their action should be. At first the boys expected each other to react meanly to the pheasants by scaring them off but by watching the peasants struggle because of their lost sight and the position they were in the boys reaction changed. They saw how helpless the peasants looked and they showed an act of kindness instead:
They stood over the pheasants, turning their own heads, looking at eachother, each expecting the other to do something. To pounce on a pheasant, or to yell Bang! Things around them were shining and dripping with icy rain. The barbed wire fence. The fence posts. The broken stems of grass. Even the grass seeds. The grass seeds looked like little yolks inside gelatin whites. And the peasants looked like unborn birds glazed in egg white. (Henyen 67)
The quotes justifies the fact that the boys feeling changed towards the pheasants because at first they felt unsure of themselves and uncertain over how they should react to the pheasants. Later the boys felt compassion to the birds because humans feel the need to be empathetic to infants and children, especially the ones that are not even born yet, so the author describing the pheasants as ‘unborn birds glazed in egg white’ brings attention to how helpless and innocent the birds were.