The Ice Storm by Rick Moody, Essay Example

The Novel

Rick Moody’s The Ice Storm defies analysis of specific elements, and mainly because all elements work together to create a powerfully disturbing whole.  To begin with, Moody’s tone and narrative point of view is, in a word, harsh.  In this story centered on two suburban families in 1973, the author is as cold in presenting his characters as he is in presenting the unique era and environment.  Moody relies on the emptiness and commercialism of the American culture in this year as a foundation; it allows him to create two families who are, in their various ways, moving through a world that has no meaning.  Sympathy is then absent from the author because there is a consistent and strong criticism of these people, who are simultaneously hypocritically moral and devoted to the escapism of sex and alcohol.  In describing Benjamin Hood, for example, Moody is merciless: “His miniscule eyes were the color of antifreeze…He resembled a longtime funeral director” (Moody 6).  The lives of the Hoods and Williamses are tragic in their way, with little understanding between the family members and a dependence on the artificial.  Nonetheless, Moody is unconcerned with their tragedy, except in terms of how it permits him to condemn a culture with no values or integrity.

The story as taking place over one weekend reinforces the cold presentation of the characters.  There is some depth to them, as when Ben Hood’s sad life of effort and frustrated sexuality is offered as defining him. At the same time, what dominates is the weakness of the adults, who turn to outdated platitudes when the sexuality they themselves experiment with comes too close to home.  When Hood catches his daughter with the neighbor boy Mike, for example, his outrage is purely suburban and stereotypically parental: “’I will be speaking with your mother and father about this situation very soon’” (Moody 47).  Ultimately Moody’s novel is more a study of a specific era and middle class culture than it is a plot-driven work of fiction.  New Canaan, Connecticut, and 1973 are in fact the primary forces in the novel, and the story and characters exist to serve them.

The Film

The film of The Ice Storm is mostly related through the perceptions of 16 year-old Paul Hood.  He acts as both witness and player in this suburban world, and he records the complex and sad interactions and behaviors of his own family and the neighbors, the Carvers.  The movie never goes into overt satire, in terms of the suburban setting, the era, and the changes in the culture challenging and tempting the characters.  Instead, the point of view more casually presents these as the realities of the day, allowing the audience to draw is own conclusions and perhaps marvel at the scenario itself.  The government is shattered by Watergate, and ordinary Americans believe that consciousness raising and following trends in thinking will somehow bring them the happiness they are desperately missing.  With a consistently quiet and understated approach, the film then emphasizes the emptiness of these lives and this world.  This is enhanced by Paul’s strange, removed quality.

There is as well a haunting aspect to the ways in which the adults and children fumble through their desires and senses of what is right.  It is a time when all wish to think of themselves as “enlightened,” for example, so there is a daring “key party” given in which the adults will have sex with whoever owns the keys they take from a bowl.  It is as bland and tense an affair as may be imagined, and because the taboo of the casual sex cannot begin to satisfy the emptiness within these adults.  This is then contrasted with the sexual experimentation of the children, and the implication is that this world will shape them to have the same confusions as their parents.  No one here, in plain terms, has any true grasp of the identities of those in their lives, and all stumble through uncertain longing and nearly frantic behaviors. When Janey Carver discusses the inappropriate sexual activity of the teens she has discovered, for example, her speech is textbook as she presents platitudes on the meaning of love, respect, and sex.  Consequently, the harsh reality of the true ice storm, which takes the life of Paul, throws a sad, confused world into sharper relief.

Comparison

 Two significant differences exist between the novel and film of The Ice Storm, and the first is by far the most impactful.  It is based on approach and tone, with director Ang Lee taking a very different path than Moody.  As noted, Moody’s narration is cold and unforgiving. There is a sense of ridicule in his many references to the trends and realities of the era, and this translates to his presentation of his characters.  The troubled Wendy, for example, is discussed like a participant in a study: “As she watched television, she gave herself back to her childhood, to some part of herself that had never passed beyond that demographic” (Moody 130).  There is consistent insight, but virtually no sympathy.  Conversely, Lee’s film offers at least the chance of feeling for the characters, and because, ironically, the director maintains distance from them.  The audience is then encouraged to “reach out” and better understand how and why they so constantly get one another wrong, and fail to know even their own natures.  The audience certainly sees how the children reflect their parents’ poor choices and misguided ideas, but this in the film also generates a connection to these lost characters.

The other important difference lies in what film often creates in adaptations; an expansion of the reality of the novel.  In plain terms, it is one thing to describe in fiction the awkwardness of adults trying to be liberated and engage in casual sex with their neighbors.  When Lee’s camera takes in the faces during the key party, and when the artificial nature of the home setting is the background, great dimension is added and the sense of hopelessness becomes stronger.  Desperation and frustration can be felt in these moments, along with the hollow ambitions of the adults.  The same effect occurs in the film’s interactions between the husbands, wives, and children.  In the novel, they are removed from one another, but the film literally provides the tension inherent in such relationships.  In a further irony, then, the movie of The Ice Storm, in fleshing out the characters and adding layers to each scene, reinforces the ultimate emptiness of them more powerfully than does the novel.

Works Cited

Moody, Rick.  The Ice Storm: A Novel.  Boston: Back Bay Books, 2002.  Print.

The Ice Storm. Dir. Ang Lee.  Perf. Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Joan Allen, Henry Czerney, and Elijah Wood. Fox Searchlight Pictures, 1998. Film.