Ice Break Astrid Blodgett

The following sample essay on Ice Break by Astrid Blodgett is a short story of loss and rotten family-relations (and ice), written as two storylines, past and present, that don’t meet up until the very end. Dawn, the youngest of three siblings, is the only survivor after their car has crashed through the ice of Lake Wabamum. In the truck with Dawn is her Dad and youngest sibling, Janie. The story begins in present tense, with the point of no return.

“We’re a long way out on the lake when the ice breaks”. Though it starts off like this, it could be argued that this is no in medias res. There is no tension, nor excitement. Just that statement – the ice breaks – and a beautiful, picturesque description of their surroundings. It’s rather unusual for present tense to be this “mellow”. Present tense is effective in building excitement and leading up to a climax. Blodgett used it to create the the opposite; she’s using present tense to emphasize how underwhelmed and observant Dawn remains during her dad’s struggle for their lives.

The past tense is used in the story to tell the tale of the morning before Dawn, Janie and their dad drove onto the lake. Until the last paragraph, the entire story takes place before noon in one day, which is not unusual for a short story. In the past tense, the relationships within the family are presented. And they are tense. This is hinted, by the repeated mention of the divorce of their neighbors, the Pichowskys.

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Marla, the oldest sibling says to Dawn, on page three, line 56: “I know something you don’t know”, and line 62: “ Remember Mr. and Mra. Pichowsky down the street?” and then she leaves. Line 69, Dawn is thinking: “Mr. and Mrs. Pichowsky got a divorce last year and moved.” Dawn herself concludes, line 73: “ Marla must mean that Mom and Dad were going to be like Mr. and Mrs. Pichowsky”. But it’s not just the relationship between the Mom and the Dad that’s rotten. Though they’re somehow tr…