Silent Snow, Secret Snow - An Essay

          Silent snow, secret snow is a short story written by Conrad Aiken and published at 1934. It tells about a twelve-year-old boy as the main character, Paul Haselman, who had peculiarity in his mind. He found a delightful way in creating his own world which was different with the reality. In that world, he was isolated himself there and enjoying the snowy world. In case, his parents noticed that his behavior was changed and tried to have a better communication towards Paul. But Paul had already enjoyed his other world and did not want to have the consultation with the doctor. In the end of the story, it tells that Paul was getting closer to his imaginary world.

The basic theme of the story is psychology, which focuses on child psychological disorder. As in the story, Paul has his own world which offers him protection instead of his own possession. He feels threatened by something in the real world, and then he creates his own world to escape from it. His world is well-described by Aiken as “Nor was it only a sense of possession-it was also a sense of protection”, means that Paul likes to hide himself in his ‘secluded world’. In this case, his other world is the world where snow is fallen everyday. It suffers himself in socializing, such as once in school, while the Geography teacher talked about equator line, he thought about Arctic and Atlantic regions. It shows that the writer tried to emphasize the illness by bringing the reader to imagine the same situation with the main character. As we know, Arctic and Atlantic are places which snow is always fallen. That is why those two places are white in globe.

There are two points when the Paul’s mental illness became more strengthen. The first one is notified by the reaction of Paul when all students in his class were laughing. “In the general laughter, he did not share, or only a very little. He was thinking about the Arctic and Antarctic regions, which of course, on the globe, were white.” He seems enjoy his own world, and ignored his surroundings. The other point that determined the added of the illness is when his mother noticed that his attitude towards her was different and she asked Paul to have consultation with a doctor. But he did not tell the truth. He just said that he was fine, because he should keep his other world “safe”. But the presence of the illness become stronger, as described in the text, “the presence of the snow was a little more insistent, the sound of it clearer; and, conversely, the sound of the postman’s footsteps more indistinct.”

Furthermore, the comfortable feelings in his imaginary world which is the effect of his psychological disorder represents that his imaginary world is better than his real world. The contrast between his real world and his imaginary world is apparent clearly. He thinks that his imaginary world is terrifying, wonderful, comfortable, beautiful, warm, relaxing, and all good words. As described in the story, “This was, after all, only what he had expected. It was even what pleased him, what rewarded him: the thing was his own, belonged to no one else. No one else knew about it, not even his mother and father.” This quotation shows how wonderful his imaginary world is to be enjoyed by himself, and he would not share it to other people, even his mother and father. But it might also means that he realized that the world which he possessed was unreal world. So, he was afraid if other people discovered his illness because he still enjoyed to be engaged to the snowy world.

Another quotation from the story which describes more clearly about Paul’s other world, “Nor could there be the slightest doubt-not the slightest-that the new world was the profounder and more wonderful of the two. It was irresistible. It was miraculous. Its beauty was simply beyond anything-beyond speech as beyond thought- utterly incommunicable.”

The other example of the contrasts between the two world is seen from the quotation:

“He loved it-he stood still and loved it. Its beauty was paralyzing-beyond all words, all experience, all dream. No fairy-story he had ever read could be compared with it-none had ever given him this extraordinary combination of ethereal loveliness with something else, unnameable, which was just faintly and deliciously terrifying.”

On the other hand, he thinks that his real world is the opposite of his imaginary world. It contains with uncomfortable feelings, unsafe, dull, and terrible. As described in the story, “Dirty sparrows huddled in bushes, as dull in color as dead fruit left in the leafless trees.”

It is also emphasized in other fragment of the story, like the quotation below:

“In the gutter, beside a drain, was a scrap of torn and dirty newspaper, caught in a little delta of filth: the word HEARTBURN appeared in large capitals, and below it was a letter from Mrs. Angela M. Barnet, 2001 Cyprus Hill, Beckenham, London, to the effect that after being a sufferer for years she had been cured by Carter’s pills.”

            In line with the affection of the psychology, as the basic theme, it is also indirectly affects the communication between Paul and his parents. It breaks down their communication, as described in the text, “This had been, indeed, the only distressing feature of the new experience: the fact that it so increasingly had brought him into a kind of mute misunderstanding, or even conflict, with his father and mother.” His imaginary world has affected his attitude towards his parents and the enjoying of that world causes the gap between him and his parents. Because of that, Paul cannot enjoy his real world. He feels safe in his new world, “ah how heavenly, too, the first beginnings-to hear or feel-for could he actually hear it?-the silent snow.”

            The story is a description about the author’s condition when he saw his father murdered his mother and shot himself. It affected Aiken’s psychological condition at that time. By this short story, Aiken convinced the readers that the imaginary and more delightful world can be happen in reality. That is why the theme of this short story is psychology.