Snow Globes

For a story that isn't about Christmas, elves, or Tim Allen's inexplicable weight gain, this book has a lot of snow globe references. It's a metaphor that Libba Bray utilizes in order to describe people who are so immobilized by grief, indecision, or insecurity that they are trapped, frozen in solitude instead of out living their lives.

Our biggest culprit is Dr. X. He created the United Snow Globe Wholesalers ("Freezing Life Behind Glass") after the death of his wife caused him to go insane with grief.

"Every year for Christmas, she gifted Dr. X with a new snow globe for his collection. He loved snow globes, said they were like little worlds unto themselves. Anyway, it was the week just before Christmas, the first snow of the season. She'd gone downtown to the shop to make her final payment and collect his gift. But…" Dr. T shakes his head sadly.

Dr. O continues. "A bomb exploded. They never found out who did it or why. A random attack. Meaningless. Mrs. X was killed in the explosion. When they found her body, she was still clutching her husband's Christmas snow globe in one hand." (34.166-167)

First of all, if you need to buy a snow globe on payment plan maybe you need to rethink your priorities. But more importantly, Dr. X seizes on his wife's love of little microcosmic worlds and starts to offer a pain-free existence to people by turning them into snow globes. His theory is that if he can freeze life, he can take away the uncertainty and the suffering that goes along with it. One of his billboards even declares the following:

PROTECTING YOUR SAFETY. REMOVING THE UNPREDICTABLE. ENSURING YOUR HAPPINESS. UNITED SNOW GLOBE WHOLESALERS: WE'RE WORKING SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO! (36.34)

By trying to prevent pain and suffering by cutting themselves off from the world, though, people also become incapable of experiencing the good parts of life. This isn't the first place we encounter this theme, either. Look at the CESSNAB nuts—they also think they can improve life by secluding themselves and eliminating any possibility for any negative experiences. But as the revolution shows, it's just not a feasible life plan. Dulcie sums this up quite nicely:

"I hate these things. They're depressing." She turns it over. UNITED SNOW GLOBE WHOLESALERS is stamped on the bottom.

"What are you talking about?"

Her head snaps up. It's like she's back all of a sudden, but her eyes are still pained. "It's just that… you can't freeze life behind glass, you know? And… and take this one, for instance." She swipes it from the shelf, turns it over in her hands. Smiling lobsters break-dance in front of a ship's wheel under a glitter-confetti rain. An empty bottle resting in the fake sand makes it seem like they got drunk and decided to cut loose. "'Party Time,'" Dulcie says. "What a stupid thing to write on a snow globe."

"Maybe they like it there," I say.

"Poor lobsters. You should not be trapped in a glitter-water hell." (36.89)

Knowing how Dulcie feels about snow globes makes her fate doubly disturbing, but by the time Cam gets around to saving her the realization that she was probably a snow globe all along (remember the globe in his father's office?) helps to soften the blow.

The most important thing about snow globes, though, is that they help illustrate how much Cameron changes from the beginning of the book to the end. During their final confrontation, Dr. X offers to make Cameron into a snow globe, therefore permanently ensuring his existence in a numb, frozen state. Cam from the beginning of the book would've taken him up on that offer in a heartbeat, but not the new-and-improved Cam:

"I could freeze you, too. Then you'd feel nothing."

"I don't want to feel nothing."

"That's wonderful," he murmurs, and the screen goes to static. (50.33)

Cameron has finally learned that life is about embracing the good along with the bad and experiencing things, not seeking out oblivion in order to float through life untouched, surrounded by fake snow and a protective bubble.