66 pages • 2 hours read
Hannah GraceIcebreaker
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Ice Skates
In both the hockey world and the figure skating world, ice skates represent objects of power and agency, for Nathan and Anastasia’s proficiency on the ice is the sole means through which they both pursue professional success. Thus, it is only logical that the differences between Nathan and Anastasia as characters are mirrored in the differences between hockey and figure skating. Nathan is big and aggressive, while Anastasia is petite and graceful. Nathan tackles problems with brute force, focusing on rights and wrongs, while Anastasia recognizes nuance and precision. The difference between the two sports is also represented by the different kinds of ice skates. When Nathan starts figure skating, he has to get used to the “toe picks,” which figure skaters use to jump and spin (225). At first, he keeps falling. He also needs to break in his new skates. The skates therefore become a symbol for the challenges that Nathan faces in this new approach to a once-familiar environment. His difficulty adjusting to the new skates parallels his challenges in getting to know the real Anastasia during their period of celibacy and learning to match her need for good communication.
Room Codes
A recurring motif in the novel is also a convenient narrative device: bedroom doors that unlock with a personal code. Both Ryan and Nathan live in houses with multiple roommates. These houses have bathrooms for everyone attending parties, but there are also private bathrooms inside the locked bedrooms, allowing residents and special guests to skip the line to the shared bathroom. For Anastasia, knowing Ryan’s and Nathan’s room code becomes shorthand for having slept with them. For Nathan, knowing the room codes of his roommates is evidence of his fatherly responsibility for their well-being. Knowing someone else’s code is a kind of intimacy, which is why Nathan becomes jealous after Anastasia accidentally enters Ryan’s code into his door lock and why Anastasia becomes jealous when Nathan assists Summer at the party. Hannah Grace uses the room code system to speed up intimacy between Nathan and Anastasia, after he offers to let her use his bathroom.
Day Planner
Anastasia has used a day planner since she was nine years old, as a therapy exercise with Dr. Andrews. At first it was a sticker book, but as she got older, it changes to a day planner, and at the end of the novel, an iPad. Whatever its form, the day planner symbolizes Anastasia’s need to assert control over her life. Whenever she feels uncertain, she relies on its strict scheduling to guide her, calling it her “most prized possession” (4). Anastasia’s response to anxiety, which stem from fears of abandonment, present as control issues. As she admits, she is “a woman who needs to be in control” (4). Her need for control helps her anxiety but also causes new issues, such as her eating disorder. The planner has become a crutch. When Nathan threatens to destroy the planner, he wants to destroy its control over her. Her feelings for Nathan make her feel out of control, and the day planner threatens to micromanage him into a smaller, more risk-averse part of her life.
