An Analysis of Trethewey's "Photograph: Ice Storm, 1971" (H) Class Post. 1/28/2010

Natasha Trethewey’s “Photograph: Ice Storm, 1971” reminded me somewhat of how I feel while I am looking at a photograph. Not only am I literally looking at the picture and reminded of what was going on, that photograph also takes me back to that particular time in my life. I will further explore what I believe are Trethewey’s conscious thoughts while looking at the photograph, and the various themes throughout the poem.

One of the things that I immediately notice the first time that I read the poem was Trethewey’s interesting rhyme scheme. In each tercet the middle line has the same rhyme scheme which seems to suggest to me a meaning of things changing around someone but there always is always a consistency factor.

I also immediately notice the way the poem seems to contradict everything that someone typically thinks about what talking about a photograph and a home. Normally photographs are thought of as something that captures the good times and great memories. Also, when someone normally looks back at a photograph it almost makes you smile and remember good times. However, it seems that as Trethewey looks back at this particular photograph of her lost mother she seems to be reminded of the days of emotional highs and lows. She seems to think about watching her mother suffer, and how the photograph seems to capture and remind her of more bad than good. Also, it captures everything except for the fact that her stepfather used to physically abuse her mother. This also ties in with Trethewey’s theme of home in this poem and “Theories of Time and Space.” Most people think that home is the one place that you should be able to go and feel safe and happy. However, Trethewey refers to her front yard as “a beautiful, strange place.”

The theme of preservation, the way that things appear and the way that they actually are, also seems to be a big theme to me. Trethewey constantly mentions things that seem preserved and how they look from the outside. For example, she mentions the “food rotting in the refrigerator” which suggests to me that if you just looked at the refrigerator by itself you would not see anything wrong, however the food inside of it is rotting. This could be a metaphor for the way her home was. She also talks about the landscape that “glistens beneath a glaze of ice” and “each leaf in its glassy case.” All these different pictures that she paints remind us of things that look great on the outside but might not be that way at all. However, she brings this preservation theme to a close when she notes that someone was making a list of their names and the date and what was going on but they don’t note” what’s inside-mother, stepfather’s fist.” All that seems to be captured in the photograph is this ice storm but not what was going home at home.

This poem raises a lot of questions for me such as: What is home? Where is home? Do we subconsciously accept whatever looks good on the outside instead of looking deeper?