16 pages • 32 minutes read
David BermanSnow
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1999A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Contrasts: Innocence and Violence
“Snow” features pairs of contrasting images and perspectives. The poem opens with two brothers walking together; one is younger, and one is older (Line 1). In the second stanza, there is a troop of angels and their opposing force, a farmer. The next scene introduces water and ice (Lines 6-7). Throughout these scenes, the dialogue between the two brothers establishes both an innocent perspective and a violent perspective. In the final scene, the poet expresses that snow insulates the outdoors so that it resembles a room indoors (Line 11).
The difference between the two brothers and the difference between the angels and the farmer are significant. Both pairs feature opposing images of innocence and violence. The younger brother, like the angels, is a victim of his opposite’s cruelty. The speaker of the poem acts so illogically that he doesn’t understand his own behavior: “For some reason, I told him […]” (Line 3), “I didn’t know where I was going with this” (Line 8). Yet his actions threaten the innocent worldview of the younger brother, who, despite the speaker’s dark story, doesn’t grasp the severity of the speaker’s worldview.
Similarly, the vicious farmer, who is representative of humanity, slaughters the angels, who are symbols of innocence. The farmer harms the angels for no logical reason: “They were on his property” (Line 10). Just as the speaker’s senseless story threatens the younger brother’s innocence, the farmer’s senseless violence destroys the angels’ innocence.
Religion: Abrahamic Imagery
The vivid picture conjured by the dual imagery in “Snow” points to the loss of innocence, which is a religious theme expressed by the poem’s Abrahamic imagery. The combination of the name Seth, a poem about brothers, and the inclusion of angels also places this poem in the arena of religion. In the book of Genesis, Cain and Abel are the two sons of Adam and Eve. When Abel offers a sacrifice to God that God favors over Cain’s, Cain murders his brother in a fit of jealousy. Thus, Cain introduces murder into the world. As punishment, God exiles Cain and marks him for his crime.
Adam and Eve then have another son and name him Abel. In the Jewish tradition, Eve sees Seth as a replacement for her murdered son, Abel (Hirsch, Emil G., et al. “Seth.” Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 11, 1906, p. 207.). Seth also becomes the father of the line that will eventually lead to Noah. This line, in contrast to Cain’s line, is full of godly men who uphold God’s law.
In “Snow,” the older brother does not murder the younger brother, but he does tell him a story about the murder of angels, and he does seem to be attempting to corrupt his innocence. The fact that his story is about murdered angels strengthens the connection to the biblical tale of Cain and Abel, as the speaker is preoccupied with religious imagery.
Considering Berman was raised Jewish and had a deep understanding of Jewish tradition, his incorporation of the biblical tale fits.
The Hierarchy of Brotherhood
Similar to the theme of the religious brothers, “Snow” has something to say about brothers in general. The poem opens with an image that suggests a warm relationship between brothers. The first line doesn’t even mention the cold landscape as it presents the first image of the brothers together: “Walking through a field with my little brother Seth” (Line 1). The image is peaceful, direct, and warm. The speaker leads the reader to believe this will be a poem about the interaction between two brothers, and the connotation is positive.
However, as soon as the landscape turns cold, so too does the interaction between the brothers. The speaker invents a dark, disturbing story to tell his brother in what seems like an attempt to scare him, but the little brother does not catch the disturbing nature of the story.
Near the end of the poem, the speaker interrupts the story with another brotherly image: two neighbors working together in the cold, in silence. The familiar coldness marks both interactions, but there is a difference. The two neighbors work together as equals, whereas the brothers’ relationship is hierarchical; the older brother narrates the story and the younger brother asks questions about it.
The contrast between these two relationships and the surreal movement of time in the poem don’t necessarily say anything about brotherhood as a concept; however, considering the poem obsesses over contrasts, it is reasonable to look at these two relationships as two sides of a coin. On one side, there is an immature relationship with dark undertones; on the other side, there is a mature relationship of mutuality and respect.
