Analyse af novellen 'Ice Break'

How do you deal with the loss of two of your love ones? In the short story “Ice Break” by Astrid Blogett we see what effect the loss of someone has on a young girl. In my essay I am going to analyze and interpret the short story, because I want to find out why the family has crashed into the lake. Have they been in a car accident? I also want to look at the family relationships, what is the main problem in the family? My main focuses are going to be on the structure of the short story and its themes. Why is the story built up with the flashbacks?

In the short story “Ice Break” we are introduced to an ordinary family. The family consists of Dawn the main character of the story and her family. Dawn has two sisters, an older sister named Marla and a younger sister named Janie. The three sisters live with their mother and father. Dawn is going fishing with her father because it is a family tradition they have with her uncle Rick. Dawn does not have a great relationship with her father. She does not like being alone with him, which she thinks to herself: “I didn’t want to be alone with Dad. He was always grouchier when it was just him and me”. But it does not seem like either of the girls have a good relationship with their father or mother. It doesn’t even seem like the parents have a good relationship with each other. In the short story Dawn’s older sister Marla gives her some hints about her parents’ likely divorce, which of course has a great effect on Dawn and Janie. Dawn wants her sisters to join her and her father’s fishing trip. She is only able to persuade Janie because she promises her a 5 dollar bill. Dawn, Janie and their father crash into the frozen lake and Janie and her father drown, but fortunately Dawn survives. All this proves that the family does not have good relationships with each other. The atmosphere is throughout the whole short story a very oppressive atmosphere. The children have a hard time just talking to their parents. The mother is described as always busy with her work, and the father is described as very grumpy.