The Sense of Absence in Beattie's "Snow" Anonymous 12th Grade

Snow is cold, yet brings people together seeking warmth; beautiful, but muddies after only days. Loved by some and despised by others, snow is the mascot of winter. Each flake that falls is unique, yet many choose to see it as a lump of white. Much like love, snow is perceived however a person desires to see it. In Ann Beattie’s Snow, a couple’s wintertime romance is put to the test as snow melts and an absence remains.

Snow is a short story that is written in the second-person point of view. The story opens with the narrator describing the chipmunk her lover accidentally brought in the house. She remember that the critter, “stopped at the front door as though it had knew the house well”, while he thought, “that the chipmunk ran to hide in the dark, not simply to a door that led to its escape”. This is the first sign of complications in the couple’s relationship. The chipmunk symbolizes different things for each character. For the narrator, it symbolizes the ease of the relationship and her ability to feel at home. For the lover, it symbolized a feeling of being lost and his inability to find the light in the relationship.

The narrator goes on to describe the “house’s secrets”. Although she only sights visible secrets such as...