Winter

Throughout the narrative, but most especially at its beginning, winter represents the suffering that has infused the past lives of the three central characters. For each of those characters, their physical journey through winter represents their psycho-emotional journeys through their suffering and towards health, peace, and transformation.

Absent Fathers

The absences of male father figures in the lives of the central female characters tends to emphasize the particular value of female power in female lives. In contrast to the emotionally restrained (and self-punishing) Richard, whose thought processes tend to be defined by the dominating presence of his father in his psyche, Lucia and Evelyn, whose thought processes tend to be defined by the powerful, inspiring presences of the female figures in their lives, tend to deal more effectively and pragmatically with their emotion. In short, present fathers tend to represent oppression and emotional un-wellness: absent fathers...