Faina (Part II) As Promised

Quick update:

• Spring arrived at the homestead 
• Faina disappeared 
• Jack broke his back when a horse trampled him while working the fields
• Jack could not grow any crops so they would no longer survive the upcoming winter
• Mabel decided they would leave the homestead once Jack was better
• Esther and her son Garrett move in with Mabel and Jack to help nurse Jack back to health, plant crops, and tend the farm
• Ester and Garret save the day so Mabel and Jack decide to stay 
• Garrett became like a son and they were happy again
• Esther and Garret left and they were depressed again
• Jack gave up hope that Faina will ever return 
• The first snow fall of winter happened and Faina appeared 
• Mabel discovered Faina's childhood (apparently she actually did grow up with the man Jack buried and is not truly made from snow... or is she... Ivey is not letting readers know for sure) and ran out into a snow storm at night in hopes of finding her
• Mabel got lost and almost died of hypothermia but Jack saved her
• Mabel began to smother Faina with good intentions, such as demanding she lives with them, goes to school, and takes daily baths 
• Faina ran away 

Now that you know what is going on, it is clear to see that the book's rising action has taken off at a full sprint!  All of those events occurred within the 100 pages I just read, yet the beginning of the book seemed to move at the pace of a labored walk.  In this passage, I saw many themes of the novel developing and coming to life. Human connections, children, youth/age (it sounds the same as children but it's different I swear), control of your own fate, independence, love, and survival are all central topics to the novel and are woven together throughout the story.  In this post, however, I will be discussing the importance of human connections in the novel because it is the most prominent one so far.

In the novel The Snow Child, Ivey makes it nearly impossible to not pick up on the fact that human connections are immensely important to one's happiness.  Mabel and Jack lack genuine, steady human connections so they often find themselves deeply depressed and, in Mabel's case, suicidal.   They search to find these connections in everything they do but never seem to accomplish their goal.  They originally moved to the Alaskan homestead in hopes of reconnecting with each other, as they had grown apart after their miscarriage.  They believed that the solitude of the land would enable them to form a bond yet it only seemed to drive them further and further apart.  Mabel and Jack also searched for these connections of love through their "three children".  

At first, all of their love went into their unborn, biological baby and they were happier than they had even been.  However when the child was delivered as a still born, Jack and Mabel were completely torn apart when they should have found support in each other.   Mabel recalled the day when she boxed up all of her dead baby's clothes and was overcome with grief, yet Jack just stood in the doorway watching her.  "He didn't put his hand on her shoulder.  Didn't hold her.  Didn't say a word.  Even these many years later, she was unable to forgive him for that." (Ivey, 189)  Mabel felt abandoned by the two people she loved in the world: Jack and her baby.  

Next, their love went into Garret, the Bensons' boy.  During the time in which Garret was living with them, Jack and Mabel grew to love Garret like a son.  Jack bonded with him over farming and Mabel bonded with him over literature.  Both found comfort in caring for the boy and once again they were happy.  Mabel felt freed from the monotony of her life when Garret was around.  "It was as if Mabel had been living in a hole...and he had merely reached down a hand to help her step up into the sunlight."  (Ivey, 208)  

Yet above all else, Mabel and Jack long the most for a meaningful connection with Faina, their snow child.  Throughout the novel, readers have seen the impacts that Faina has had on their lives, some being positive and some being negative.  Whenever she was around, Mabel and Jack felt more alive than ever before.  Faina also strengthened the connection between Mabel and Jack.  Dancing in the kitchen, tickling each other while plucking chickens, sneaking innocent kisses, and offering sweet compliments such as "you've never been more beautiful" (Ivey, 271) were just a few of the was that readers saw Mabel and Jack fall back in love.  However, whenever Faina leaves (which I discovered is every summer) it is as if she takes their love with her.  "The joy was gone with the child." (Ivey, 162) Mabel and Jack become irritated and bitter towards one another, often arguing over trivial issues.  Their happiness relied on the connection they shared with the girl and without her they had nothing.  In addition, Ivey does a good job at developing a connection between her characters and her reader, making me truly feel the pain and lonesome that Mabel and Jack experience on the homestead.  At points in the novel, Mabel loves the child too much - telling her that she must live with them, go to school, and become more civilized - which only causes Faina to push away from them.  "It's all for you, don't you understand? But the child was gone." (Ivey, 236)  Mabel does not understand that, as cliché as it is, if you love something you must let it go or else it will wilt and die.  (This is a large component to the theme of human connections, and also independence, in the novel.)  As a reader, I long to shake Mabel and tell her this but I cannot, obviously.  It saddens me that Mabel and Jack's desires to love and connect with Faina may eventually drive her away for good, but I am hopeful that they will figure that out in the next passage before its too late!