Where It All Goes Down
Antarctica
Though we pass through a number of cities in the first pages of the book (including London, Paris, and Buenos Aires), our final destination is Antarctica, also known as The Ice. Uncle Victor drags Sym there as part of his quest to find Symmes's Hole—her namesake—an imaginary place that, like the continent itself, serves as an apt symbol for Sym's loneliness.
Think about it: What place could better represent a lonely, depressed person's life? It's hostile, unpopulated, and remote. "God sketched Antarctica, then erased most of it again, in the hope a better idea would strike Him," Sym tells us. "At the center is a blank whiteness where the planet isn't finished. It's the address for Nowhere" (6.38). Well then.
If you're thinking it sounds like Sym hates Antarctica, though, think again—she loves this icy desert so much that going here almost feels like vacation. At least, it feels that way in the beginning when she's at base camp with a group of fellow travelers part of an outfit called Pengwings. As time goes on, the trip becomes decidedly less relaxing. Sym's progress across increasingly thin ice is both literal—she travels over a glacier and even an ice shelf—and spiritual. By the end, she comes to terms with many difficult things in her life, including her father's death and Victor's betrayal.
From early in the book, we understand there is a profound connection between the setting and Sym's inner life. (Check out the "Symbols" section for more info.) Long before she sets foot in Antarctica, Sym associates the frozen, but chaotic, continent with her own life. In many ways, the physical environment mirrors her interior landscape. "The bookshelves over my bed are full of books about the North and South Poles" (1.7), she says before continuing:
A glacial cliff face teetering over my bed. I remember the night after Dad had been rushed into the hospital, one of the shelves sheared off and crashed down on me. I woke up thinking the house was collapsing—books gouging at my head, bouncing off the bed frame, slapping flat on the floor. I looked at the hole in the wall and the brackets on the pillow and I didn't know what to do. About the shelf. About anything. (1.8)
From here it only seems natural that Sym travels to The Ice itself to cope with her father's death. When she first arrives there, she's emotionally frozen, but over time she starts to thaw. After Victor's death, Sym's final trek through a blizzard represents the difficult task she faces in coming to terms with her emotions as she copes with betrayal and death (of her uncle, her father, and even Titus). During this journey, Sym chooses life. "I don't want to be in a dead place that doesn't even want my dead body!" she says. "I don't want to be food for the leopard seals and the crabs! I want to be somewhere that wants me!" (21.96) It's no coincidence that, soon after this, she returns home to England.
Not all settings pack such a symbolic punch, but in The White Darkness, Antarctica speaks volumes about our leading lady and the journey she's on.