Music and Snow

We thought Neighboorhood #1 (Tunnels) by Arcade Fire best represented the novel Snow.
And if the snow buries my,
my neighbourhood.And if my parents are crying
then I'll dig a tunnel
from my window to yours,
yeah a tunnel from my window to yours.
You climb out the chimney
and meet me in the middle,
the middle of the town.
And since there's no one else around,
we let our hair grow long
and forget all we used to know,
then our skin gets thicker
from living out in the snow.
You change all the lead
sleepin' in my head,
as the day grows dim
I hear you sing a golden hymn.
Then we tried to name our babies,
but we forgot all the names that,
the names we used to know.
But sometimes,
we remember our bedrooms,
and our parent's bedrooms,
and the bedrooms of our friends.
Then we think of our parents,
well what the hell ever happened to them?
!You change all the lead
sleepin' in my head to gold,
as the day grows dim,
I hear you sing a golden hymn,
the song I've been trying to sing.
Purify the colours,
purify my mind.
Purify the colours,
purify my mind,
and spread the ashes of the colours
Oh Valient heart of mine!

Art and Snow

In the novel Snow, you don't really see any paintings or any of that kind of art. Most of it is the art of performance. In the book, they have a group of people who travel and a big part of the book is about the two performances that the group did. I think that the point of the performances is to show how big of a role the arts plays in many people's lives and a way of expressing one's emotions and feelings, or just their view on certain things.

Other themes

There are a couple of different themes throughout the novel Snow. One of them is happiness. Ka is trying to find happiness throughout the novel, mostly trying to get happiness with Ipek. "Life's not about principles, it's about happiness." (338).

His passion for happiness with Ipek shows another theme, that you leave the past in the past and go on with the future. He had a great relationship with her in the past and didnt want to let that go, which effected his relationship with her in the future.

Trying to get Ipek to fall for him is another theme. He was trying to get her to fall in love in a short amount of time, which shows that you need to have patience with everything.

One last theme that is probably one of the biggest is love. His love for Ipek and his poetry is strong and got him through some of the rough times in his life and made him feel better.

jessica- the song is:

Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)- The Arcade Fire

Philosophy

Philosophy plays a large role in Snow because many characters look at it differently. Some take ethics from a religious stand point and others make their own morals.

Necip is probably the most philosophical character in the novel. He kind of takes a step back from his own life and looks at the way things work beyond him. He explores religion and his own life in a manner that seems more mature and impressive than others in the novel. 

Religion

Religion is a big part of this novel, weather it's Ka questioning himself or someone else like Nicep questioning Ka. Nicep is a religious school student who often questioned Ka about his beliefs and atheism. With all these questions Ka started to question what he thought he believed in and he often asked himself if maybe he was starting to believe in God. He questioned his beliefs because when he looked at the snow falling he could not help but start thinking of God.

When you first start reading this novel you know that religion will be a main theme in this novel. Ka travels to Kars to look into the suicide girls. The girls in Kars started commiting suicide because the director of the institute would no longer allow covered girls to attend. At the begining of the novel there is already conflict between the girls and their religion. The girls who felt like they had no choice commited suicide and others decided they were not going to take them off. Which most of them ultimatly ended up taking their headscarfs off in plays.

Plot Summary

The novel begins as poet Ka returns to Kars, Turkey. He meets up with an old flame Ipek and they begin a short lived romance. Ka meets Muhtar, Ipeks ex-husband, Blue, a radical muslim, and Kadife, Ipek's sister. After a bit of drama concerning the actions of young Islamic women removing their headscarves, Ka attends a theatrical production at the National Theater. Violence breaks out and his friend Necip is killed. Ka meets with Sunaiy Zaim, a leader of the Nationalist group and actor at the National Theater. He later negotiated an agreement with Sunaiy Zaim to release Blue after he is arrested. The deal consists of Kadife acting in a play and removing her head scarf. Kadife agrees to do so on television. Later, Ka and Ipek agree to leave Turkey together. However, before they are about to leave, they learn that Blue was killed. Ipek decides to go to the theater to try to stop Kadife from performing in the play and Ka leaves alone as the snowfall begins to slow. This novel has a lot of relationships through which characters are connected by terms you wouldn't normally think of.