Characterization in Pam Houston’s “A Blizzard Under Blue...

Characterization in Pam Houston’s â€Å"A Blizzard Under Blue Sky† Houston’s â€Å"A Blizzard Under Blue Sky† explores and exhibits the idea of psycho-physical experience of being in the natural world to heal one’s psychological and emotional ailments through its invigorating contact. The narrative, by drawing on the theme of depression, relates how the narrator, seeing â€Å"everything in [her] life†¦uncertain† (Houston 185), goes winter-camping alone in the high country; undergoes a chilling near-death experience; and gleefully returns reinvigorated with the memory of â€Å"joy†, and â€Å"hopefulness† (188). Though highly personalized in the narrative, the narrator’s experience of depression is a common phenomenon and, Houston, in this sense, seems to†¦show more content†¦This all seems quite characteristic of a depressed mind to loathe what is around and be enchanted by the mystic power of solitude away from the petty human world. While the protagonist decides on winter-camping despi te the knowledge of the unforgiving freezing temperature there, the warning of her housemate and â€Å"disaster tales of winter-camping fatalities† (187), one is sceptic if she has made up her mind out of love for nature. Yet, the detailing of the protagonist’s expedition leaves one wishing for a similar adventure. The narrator’s company of her two best friends, her dogs: Jackson and Hailey, seems to carry a special significance for her. Their personification and the treatment as developing characters must have some symbolic representation of the protagonist’s personality that has been split now. The male figure Jackson is an â€Å"oversized sheepdog-and-something-else† that is tireless, adventurous and leader-like while the female figure Hailey is not â€Å"so graceful†, is â€Å"in constant indecision† as she runs and â€Å"stays behind the [protagonist]† as they ski (185). While Jackson encourages the narrator to â€Å"ski harder, go faster, climb higher†, she has to mediate between him and reluctant, groaning Hailey to find an agreement. In a symbolic level, perhaps, Houston wants the readers to see the protagonist as an embodiment of three d istinct dispositions: conscience, optimism and depression. While the protagonist herself represents her conscience, this