“Nothing is the same, I don’t know the way any more. I slide my tongue around the ice cream, trying to concentrate on it, they put seaweed in it now, but I’m starting to shake, why is the road different, he shouldn’t have allowed them to do it. I want to turn around and go back to the city and never find out what happened to him. I’ll start crying, that would be horrible, none of them would know what to do and neither would I. I bite down into the cone and I can’t feel anything for a minute but the knife-hard pain up the side of my face. Anaesthesia, that’s one technique: if it hurts invent a different pain. I’m all right,” (Atwood, 8)
In this passage, the narrator struggles to keep up with the world around her as her memories flood her mind and she is overwrought with the feelings she has for her father who is missing. Throughout this description, the author takes us into the flow of thought that the narrator experiences as she is confronted with a flood of sensory images, such as the different taste in the ice cream, the different way the road looks, the pain of the cold ice cream on her mouth. As this flood of information overwhelms her, she is confronted with the sadness she feels due to the things that she cannot control: her missing father, the changes in a place she spent a lot of time in as a child. Finally, at the end of the passage, she abruptly comes full circle emotionally stating matter-of-factly “I’m all right,” (Atwood).
What is clearly apparent is the author’s attempt at bringing the reader inside the frame of mind with the use of choppy, short images of thought brought together with continuous use of sentences beginning with “I.” Atwood writes “I slide my tongue around the ice cream…I’m starting to shake…I want to turn around and go back…I’ll start crying, that would be horrible…I bite down into the cone…I can’t feel anything…I’m all right,” (Atwood). This style of prose, I think, is used in order to convey to the reader the repetitive flashes of information that the narrator is overwhelmed with and the emotion that the information brings out of her. Furthermore, I feel that this passage is a sort of snapshot of the way in which the narrator is feeling about what has been happening in her life. Things are changing, and they’re not changing for the better in her view. These thoughts start to pervade her mind and they build up until she feels she’s going to cry, but then “anaesthesia” of the cold ice cream brings her back to equilibrium.
1. How do you think the narrator’s suppression of her emotions will affect Joe, David, and Anna as their journey together is progressing?
2. Will the narrator’s relationship with Joe be strengthened or weakened by this journey?
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