1. What passage did you find the most beautiful in this novel and why? Dig into setting here, and give us detail about why you have chosen your passage.
Amongst all the beautifully woven passages in the novel, the very first scene that came to my mind when I read this question was the ice skating scene in the beginning of the book. This passage located in page 21 and 22 describes the discovery the 11 year old Patrick had made on a short trip of curiosity past midnight. When he actually arrives at the frozen river, he finds a group of men skating along the shore and playing a game of laughter and excitement. The entire scene is written with very short sentences like “the ice shone with light… something joyous. A gift. There were about ten men skating, part of a game (21)” to increase the pace of the reading. The reading of the passage evokes a different feeling from the previous pages of the book. Patrick had discovered something out of expectations—something immensely beautiful. In order to highlight the excitement stirring up in Patrick, the passage read: “their lanterns replaced with new rushes which let them go further past boundaries, speed! Romance! One man waltzing with his fire… (22)2” and the passage goes on to describe how Patrick would never be the same after this brand new experience; Patrick “having lived all his life on that farm where day was work and night was rest, nothing would be the same (22).” In addition, this new revolutionary discovery impacted Patrick to the point where “his mind raced ahead of his body (22).”
The reason I’ve actually picked this passage is not only because of its wonderfully written descriptions of the men fervently skating across shining frozen lake, but also because it is such a pivotal moment for Patrick. It is at this moment in his life that he realizes there is much more out there, outside of his tiny little life. That even in a place he knew so well, “his shore, his river (21) [emphasis from the original text],” he had no idea about the breathtaking ritual going on at night; he knew so little about even what was his. It is precisely at this point when Patrick searches for an identity beyond his understanding of himself—his past, origin, purpose. And suddenly, “his mind raced ahead of his body.” Unfortunately, his search for an identity at one point becomes so obsessive that upon a loss of something precious, he goes through much difficulty trying to recover. Yet, it is this discovery when he was 11 that enlightened him in his way of thinking and transformed him into a pursuer of his own true identity beyond the limited understandings of his own self. Thus, this passage proves itself to be awe strikingly beautiful to me.
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