Ice Break Analysis

Essay on ”Ice Break”

START SENTENCE. You might think that if you read Astrid Blodgett’s short story “Ice break”. The story is from the anthology “The Journey Prize Stories” from 2012. It’s about a girl named Dawn who is in a tragedy accident with her sister and dad. The two most central themes of the story are family and grief.

The story skips back and forward in time throughout the story, from the flashback of the traumatic accident, to the flashbacks from the time before and at the end, the time after the accident. All the bits of the flashback of the accident we get through the short story is all written in present tense. However, the other flashbacks from before the accident is written is past tense and so is the recount of the events

Before the accident her mother wouldn’t spend time with her dad, and sometimes they would be living apart for some time “” You could take Dawn” Sometimes they did that, one parent, one child” (line 22-23) The family’s problem is never directly addressed in the story. Despite the problems, at least some of the members of the family still care for each other, Dawn won’t let her father’s hand go, because she doesn’t want to lose him, and her father has to let go so he can save her sister. The dad sacrifices himself for the chance of saving her sister. It’s probably the same sense of responsibility and love for the children that have kept the parents together despite their differences. The same love for their children can be seen in the other theme, grief. Dawn’s mom is devastated about the death of her daughter and husband, not wanting to dwell on her differences with her husband “I wanted her to say the other part, what she talked to Aunt Helen about, that she was angry with Dad for going” (line 171-172) Whereas Dawn’s grief seems more childlike in nature as I have mentioned before, they both still feel the loss of their

However, Dawn can be clueless from time to time, and the reason for her telling the accident in past tense might be that can’t quite grasp the idea that her sister and father is dead. But it also might be because she is traumatized by the event, and might have survivors guilt, or just a mixture of both. Either way she acts ?out of character? when it comes to their death. Family is very important to Dawn and is also one of the central themes in the story. Despite the family troubles, they still care about each other, and that leads to another important theme in the story, grief. Is the love for her family that makes the mother grief, and not badmouthing her husband despite their differences. It also shows us Dawn’s grief or lack of it is very childlike, showing how she can’t quite handle death, but both mother and daughter feels the weight of the