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Snow
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Flames, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Grief and Human Connection
Nature vs. Human Effort
Sexism
Love and Respect
Summary
Analysis
Levi stands in Thurston’s house, retching at the scent of the corpse at his feet. Though the body has been stripped of much of its skin and flesh, Levi knows it must be Thurston, because this is the address he got from Thurston’s publisher. He retches again before he sees the golden pelt Thurston’s mutilated hand is clutching. He pries the pelt out of the corpse’s grip. It feels warm in his hand, and instead of feeling sick, he now feels confident and purposeful. He goes to find the half-finished coffin in Thurston’s workshop and drives away with it. After speaking with the Avoca police, he never plans to return to the area, and it feels good to put Thurston firmly in the past.
The scent and decay of Thurston’s body hints at the passage of time—days or perhaps weeks have passed since he died, which means Levi has been attempting to build a coffin and locate Charlotte for a considerable amount of time. Even though the scent of Thurston’s body is making him sick, he’s focused enough to collect the coffin and take the pelt, so even though he’s had plenty of time to lose interest in this project, he proves he’s still as committed to completing it as he was at first.
Themes
Levi strokes the pelt as he drives. He understands why Thurston wrote about it with such praise: touching it seems to clear his mind. He focuses on the coffin: he knows he needs to finish himself, but he has no woodworking skills nor any friends who could help him, and he’s running out of the money he inherited from Levi and Charlotte’s mother. He reminds himself of the purpose of the coffin, which is to reassure Charlotte that she doesn’t have to die twice, and in this way, to show her that he loves her. He resolves to cut down a snowgum when he reaches the north of the island and to saw it into planks for the coffin.
Levi becomes immediately obsessed with the pelt, which emphasizes the pelt’s magical nature and suggests it holds the power to influence Levi’s actions. In fact, Levi’s plan to cut down and carve a snowgum suggests that the pelt has already begun to influence his thoughts, encouraging him to overestimate his own power and ability just as Thurston did when he trapped the Esk God to claim the pelt in the first place.
Themes
As Levi drives, the sun sets and reflects off the water. He reaches for a pair of sunglasses. They belong to Levi and Charlotte’s father, who would wear them while driving no matter the weather. Levi wonders if his father is home—his house is only five minutes away—but when his father’s face appears in his mind, he takes the sunglasses off and races past the turnoff that would take him there. After 20 minutes, he arrives home and heads down a gully to the ocean. Here, he remembers swimming with Charlotte, Levi and Charlotte’s mother sitting on the sand, and their father never daring to come close to the water. Though he keeps telling himself that Charlotte will come back, he begins to realize she could be sick or dead, or somewhere very far away.
Though Levi eventually resolves not to visit his father, the fact that he considered a visit at all shows that their relationship is not a completely lost cause. Meanwhile, his slow realization that Charlotte may be in more danger than he first thought—or that she might not even want to come home—suggests that Levi is becoming preoccupied with worry. Rather than the coffin project being a catharsis for him, he relies on it as a distraction from his darkest thoughts, but those thoughts persist and grow—especially because he refuses to confront them.
Themes
Levi remembers he left the pelt in the house. He goes back to retrieve it and finds Levi and Charlotte’s father sitting at the dining table. He asks his father why he’s come; his father asks where Charlotte is. Levi says he hasn’t heard from her. His father tells him to clear his head—he hasn’t been healthy since Levi and Charlotte’s mother died. Levi repeatedly insists his father leave, but his father keeps talking, urging him to be a strong brother for Charlotte.
Levi’s father gives no warning about his arrival and happens to show up just as Levi gets back to town, which highlights his ephemeral, impermanent nature: not only can people not remember his appearance, they’re also unable to predict his whereabouts. Levi and his father share a stubborn streak, but instead of bonding over this similarity, they allow it to frustrate them and drive them apart—a sign that communication, more than shared attributes, is the foundation for a strong relationship.
Themes
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Levi remembers he came back for the pelt. He picks it up and his confidence renews. He mentions that he hasn’t seen Levi and Charlotte’s father since Levi and Charlotte’s mother’s cremation. His father tries to explain why he’s been absent, but Levi begins to shout at him before walking out of the house with the pelt in his hand. His father doesn’t follow him. When Levi reaches the car and looks at the coffin inside, he realizes that snowgum isn’t the right material for Charlotte: she needs something “more personal,” and Levi will build it himself.
Levi has begun to depend on the pelt to improve his mood, which suggests that his outward appearance of confidence and focus is just a façade. Instead of expressing his vulnerable emotions, he uses the confident anger that the pelt provides him to push his father away. Because the pelt represents the danger of human greed and self-obsession, this moment demonstrates that that kind of obsessive behavior can stand in the way of genuine human relationships.
Themes
