If you haven't done your homework, be sure to read Ch. 1-4 in The Snow Child.
Answer questions 1-3 on the blog with a post for credit.
Work on your Montana 1948 short story.
Snegurochka (The Russian folk tale)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snegurochka
2. The Snow Maiden
http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/tales/snow_maiden.html
http://vd-crystaldream.blogspot.com/2013/05/legend-of-snow-maiden-russian-fairy.html
Magical Realism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_realism
Eowyn Ivey at Rochester Public Library
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlgm_Ob6DDI
Book Reviews
The best thing about The Snow Child—what sets it apart from genre fiction and keeps you reading—is the way Ivey declines to lay her cards on the table. Are we dealing with fantasy or reality here?... She is a careful, matter-of-fact writer, who, thankfully, doesn't resort to unnecessary poetics or artificial ratcheting-up of tension. This leaves your imagination free to hare off down as many trails as you like.
Carrie O'Grady - Guardian (UK)
Here's a modern retelling of the Russian fairy tale about a girl, made from snow by a childless couple, who comes to life. Or perhaps not modern—the setting is 1920s Alaska—but that only proves the timelessness of the tale and of this lovely book. Unable to start a family, middle-aged Jack and Mabel have come to the wilderness to start over, leaving behind an easier life back east. Anxious that they won't outlast one wretched winter, they distract themselves by building a snow girl and wrap her in a scarf. The snow girl and the scarf are gone the next morning, but Jack spies a real child in the woods. Soon Jack and Mabel have developed a tentative relationship with the free-spirited Faina, as she finally admits to being called. Is she indeed a "snow fairy," a "wilderness pixie" magicked out of the cold? Or a wild child who knows better than anyone how to survive in the rugged north? Even as Faina embodies a natural order that cannot be tamed, the neighborly George and Esther show Jack and Mabel (and the rest of us) how important community is for survival. Verdict: A fluid, absorbing, beautifully executed debut novel; highly recommended. —Barbara Hoffert
Library Journal
A couple struggling to settle in the Alaskan wilderness is heartened by the arrival of the child of their dreams—or are they literally dreaming her? Jack and Mabel, the protagonists of Ivey's assured debut, are a couple in their early 50s who take advantage of cheap land to build a homestead in Alaska in the 1920s. But the work is backbreaking, the winters are brutally cold and their isolation only reminds them of their childlessness. There's a glimmer of sunshine, however, in the presence of a mysterious girl who lurks near their cabin. Though she's initially skittish, in time she becomes a fixture in the couple's lives. Ivey takes her time in clarifying whether or not the girl, Faina, is real or not, and there are good reasons to believe she's a figment of Jack and Mabel's imaginations: She's a conveniently helpful good-luck charm for them in their search for food, none of their neighbors seem to have seen the girl and she can't help but remind Mabel of fairy tales she heard in her youth about a snow child. The mystery of Faina's provenance, along with the way she brightens the couple's lives, gives the novel's early chapters a slightly magical-realist cast. Yet as Faina's identity grows clearer, the narrative also becomes a more earthbound portrait of the Alaskan wilderness and a study of the hard work involved in building a family. Ivey's style is spare and straightforward, in keeping with the novel's setting, and she offers enough granular detail about hunting and farming to avoid familiar pieties about the Last Frontier. The book's tone throughout has a lovely push and pull—Alaska's punishing landscape and rough-hewn residents pitted against Faina's charmed appearances—and the ending is both surprising and earned. A fine first novel that enlivens familiar themes of parenthood and battles against nature.
The best thing about The Snow Child—what sets it apart from genre fiction and keeps you reading—is the way Ivey declines to lay her cards on the table. Are we dealing with fantasy or reality here?... She is a careful, matter-of-fact writer, who, thankfully, doesn't resort to unnecessary poetics or artificial ratcheting-up of tension. This leaves your imagination free to hare off down as many trails as you like.
Carrie O'Grady - Guardian (UK)
Here's a modern retelling of the Russian fairy tale about a girl, made from snow by a childless couple, who comes to life. Or perhaps not modern—the setting is 1920s Alaska—but that only proves the timelessness of the tale and of this lovely book. Unable to start a family, middle-aged Jack and Mabel have come to the wilderness to start over, leaving behind an easier life back east. Anxious that they won't outlast one wretched winter, they distract themselves by building a snow girl and wrap her in a scarf. The snow girl and the scarf are gone the next morning, but Jack spies a real child in the woods. Soon Jack and Mabel have developed a tentative relationship with the free-spirited Faina, as she finally admits to being called. Is she indeed a "snow fairy," a "wilderness pixie" magicked out of the cold? Or a wild child who knows better than anyone how to survive in the rugged north? Even as Faina embodies a natural order that cannot be tamed, the neighborly George and Esther show Jack and Mabel (and the rest of us) how important community is for survival. Verdict: A fluid, absorbing, beautifully executed debut novel; highly recommended. —Barbara Hoffert
Library Journal
A couple struggling to settle in the Alaskan wilderness is heartened by the arrival of the child of their dreams—or are they literally dreaming her? Jack and Mabel, the protagonists of Ivey's assured debut, are a couple in their early 50s who take advantage of cheap land to build a homestead in Alaska in the 1920s. But the work is backbreaking, the winters are brutally cold and their isolation only reminds them of their childlessness. There's a glimmer of sunshine, however, in the presence of a mysterious girl who lurks near their cabin. Though she's initially skittish, in time she becomes a fixture in the couple's lives. Ivey takes her time in clarifying whether or not the girl, Faina, is real or not, and there are good reasons to believe she's a figment of Jack and Mabel's imaginations: She's a conveniently helpful good-luck charm for them in their search for food, none of their neighbors seem to have seen the girl and she can't help but remind Mabel of fairy tales she heard in her youth about a snow child. The mystery of Faina's provenance, along with the way she brightens the couple's lives, gives the novel's early chapters a slightly magical-realist cast. Yet as Faina's identity grows clearer, the narrative also becomes a more earthbound portrait of the Alaskan wilderness and a study of the hard work involved in building a family. Ivey's style is spare and straightforward, in keeping with the novel's setting, and she offers enough granular detail about hunting and farming to avoid familiar pieties about the Last Frontier. The book's tone throughout has a lovely push and pull—Alaska's punishing landscape and rough-hewn residents pitted against Faina's charmed appearances—and the ending is both surprising and earned. A fine first novel that enlivens familiar themes of parenthood and battles against nature.
Discussion Questions
1. When Mabel first arrives in Alaska, it seems a bleak and lonely place to her. Does her sense of the land change over time? If so, how?
2. Why are Jack and Mabel emotionally estranged from each other in the beginning of the novel, and how are they able to overcome that?
3. How do Esther Benson and Mabel differ in temperament, and how does their friendship change Mabel?
4. The first time Garrett sees Faina in person is when he spies her killing a wild swan. What is the significance of this scene?
5. In what ways does Faina represent the Alaska wilderness?
6. Jack and Mabel?s only child is stillborn. How does this affect Mabel?s relationship with Faina?
7. When Jack is injured, Esther and Garret move to their farm to help them. How does this alter Jack and Mabel?s relationship?
8. Much of Jack and Mabel?s sorrow comes from not having a family of their own, and yet they leave their extended family behind to move to Alaska. By the end of the novel, has their sense of family changed? Who would they consider a part of their family?
9. Death comes in many forms in The Snow Child, including Mabel giving birth to a stillborn infant, Jack shooting a moose, Faina slaying a swan, the fox killing a wild bird, Jack and Mabel slaughtering their chickens, and Garrett shooting the fox. Why is this one of the themes of the book and what is the author trying to say about death?
10. What do you believe happened to Faina in the end? Who was she?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
1) Yes, because she gets to like it after awhile. When you get more into the book, she doesn't think the land is as much as a hassle as she had initially thought it would be. She begins to grow used to it.
ReplyDelete2) There's so much tension between them because Mabel can't have children. They tried once, but their child died. They both feel a sense of guilt as to how and why this happened, causing them to naturally pull apart from each other and become distant. To overcome this they make a child out of snow to suddenly have a real child appear.
3) Esther varies from Mabel greatly. Esther is more of an outside type, and strong, she can hold her own. She man handles deer which adds to her strong quality. Mabel can't even stomach the sight of a dead deer. Esther is more than familiar with the Alaskan setting.
1. Mabel's view of Alaska changes over time from when she first arrives because she first thought of it as a dark and lonely place, and she is intimidated by it. Later on she sees the land as a resource and begins to appreciate it for what it is.
ReplyDelete2. They are emotionally estranged from each other in the beginning of the novel because their baby died, which is also why they moved to Alaska, to get away from the memory of it. They get over this by building a child out of snow. Then, a real child comes along and they begin to grow fond of her, and they begin to take care of her.
3. Esther is far more outgoing than Mabel, partially because she has lived in Alaska for a longer time and is way more adapted. She also hunts and drinks alcohol, in which Mabel doesn't really do. Mabel also doesn't hunt, or leaves the house to go into the wilderness.
1. When she moved to Alaska, Mabel wanted to be lonely. Wouldn't you, if your child died and you were forced day after day to watch other peoples' children running around playing and reminding you of what you don't have? She was not hoping for bleak, however. In the book it describes her vision of Alaska as "blue skies and open fields" and described her hope to work tirelessly alongside Jack everyday on a little farm in the woods. So far, her vision of the land has not changed much, but we are only on chapter 4 and perhaps it will change later in the book.
ReplyDelete2. Jack and Mabel are both lonely, they both regret moving, they are poor, and they are too old to be doing the jobs they are doing. They are always too tired to talk to each other. However, after meeting the neighbors and having a snowball fight and making a snowman, they slowly start to talk to each other more.
3. The first scene with Esther in it talks about her carrying a headless, still-flopping turkey into her messy house and throwing it down on the table. She wears mens' overalls and there was a story of her once shooting a 9 foot grizzly bear that was trying to break into her barn. Mabel is the daughter of a literary scholar and acts like such. She keeps the house clean. She dresses as was thought "proper". As of chapter 4, Mabel has not changed much as a result of her friendship with Esther.
This is my third time rewriting this. I completed this but am submitting it now because I could not comment at home.
1. When Mabel first arrives in Alaska, it seems a bleak and lonely place to her. Does her sense of the land change over time? If so, how?
ReplyDeleteHer sense of the land changes only so much that she can say that it's a dangerous, cold sort of beauty instead of the drab bleakness she had seen before.
2. Why are Jack and Mabel emotionally estranged from each other in the beginning of the novel, and how are they able to overcome that?
They are emotionally estranged from each other because of the death of their newborn infant. The gap between them has not yet been fixed.
3. How do Esther Benson and Mabel differ in temperament, and how does their friendship change Mabel?
Mabel's cold and city-like while Esther is happier and more likely to get her hands dirty. The friendship loosens up Mabel a small bit but she's still very distant and cleanly.