Janet Frame Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Judith Dell Panny

Critical Essay by Judith Dell Panny

SOURCE: "Snowman, Snowman," in 'I have what I gave': The Fiction of Janet Frame, Daphne Brasell Associates Press, 1992, pp. 50-6.

In the following excerpt, Panny explicates the short story "Snowman, Snowman" as an allegory.

Whom we might meet as we pass into the "for ever" of death is one of the questions posed in The Edge of the Alphabet; the story "Snowman, Snowman" considers the nature of the destination, the "place" where one is to live "for ever and ever." . . . ["Snowman, Snowman" is] a skilfully composed allegory focused on fundamental human concerns. Other stories by Frame can be read as parables or fables, but the near-novella length of this one sets it apart. In "Snowman, Snowman" there is no emphasis on character to mask or detract from the allegorical intention: the protagonists are a snowman and a snowflake.

Published in 1963, "Snowman, Snowman" was the title...
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