In the first two paragraphs of “In the Icebound Hothouse” a lot is established. It introduces characters, setting, and the mood. The narrator is writing about the possibility of witnessing a possible murder, suicide, or accident. He has become mute after witnessing what happened, so because he is a poet they, at the detention house, ask him to write. In the first paragraph the narrator is in a detention house. The story is being told from his point of view. By hearing his story the reader is able to see what he sees, and the way his mind works. Another character that was introduced was the victim, a dead naked girl. He described her as his key to the hothouse, which he had never been able to get into. The nurseryman is also mentioned. He is described as the sullen caretaker of the hothouse.
The setting has been established as winter. The hothouse is encased in ice, including the doors and windows. It appears to be on some kind of school or college campus, because he mentions the biology lab. The mood of the story is dark and mysterious. He makes a lot of emphasis about the ice that is surrounding the hothouse. There is a dead body in the hothouse and no one seems to know what has happened to her. What the witness experienced was so upsetting to him, that he lost his ability to speak.
Overall, this introduction to the story has a great deal of focus around the setting and mood. From the first few sentences, the reader knows something bad has happened, and they’re about to get his side of the story.
i think that the icebound hothouse was an ironic title. Seeing as the plants inside have to stay alive with warmth of the greenhouse for life, with the coldness outside.
ReplyDeleteWhen the women crashes through the roof (the key) she brings death to the plants and therfore death to the poets hopes of becoming a successful poet down the toliet.