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Symbols & Motifs
The Baseball
The baseball autographed by Joe Mauer symbolizes Jack’s heart—his most authentic self. The boy obtains his “most prized possession” as part of a wonderful experience with his father at a Twins game (39). The father-son bond, Jack’s passion for the sport, and his admiration for his favorite athlete all contribute to the baseball’s personal significance and association with love. In one of the novel’s greatest moments of generosity and compassion, Jack gives this treasure to Hazel in an attempt to console her after her parents’ divorce. Anne Ursu cements the object’s symbolic meaning through a simile comparing the baseball to Jack’s “still-beating heart” (39). Despite her relative disinterest in sports, Hazel intuitively understands that the ball is a “magical object” imbued with the power of Jack’s love, and she reinforces its importance by bringing it on her rescue mission.
The baseball plays a vital role in the novel’s resolution as the object Hazel uses to restore Jack to himself in the white witch’s palace. By returning the object to its original owner, the novel’s protagonist fulfills the prediction Uncle Martin asserts that the way to save Jack is “to show [him] what’s good” and “show [him] love” (106). Hazel’s love for Jack shines through her selfless efforts to rescue him, and the baseball restores Jack’s memories, reminding him of the love he’s both received and shown and the good he’s capable of doing. Tragically, the baseball falls into the white witch’s lake, underscoring the novel’s thematic interest in The Evolution of Childhood Friendship, suggesting that Jack will be forever changed by his experiences with the witch. The baseball adds a layer of symbolic meaning to the novel’s key moments and demonstrates the transformative power of love.
The Cold
The cold represents desensitization in Ursu’s novel, numbing characters’ emotions just as low temperatures induce physical numbness. The symbol exemplifies the obstacles Hazel must battle to rescue Jack and complete her coming-of-age arc. At first, Hazel struggles to control her strong feelings—such as when she throws a pencil case at Tyler’s face—and prefers to disassociate from difficult emotions by immersing herself in fantasy. Hazel’s heartbreaking encounter with the little match girl teaches her that “[y]ou have to give yourself over to the cold, at least a little bit” (259). As Hazel matures, she learns that it’s sometimes necessary to compartmentalize or numb her feelings to navigate life’s challenges—finding a balance between accepting difficult emotions and managing them.
Ursu’s novel indicates that the characters will lose themselves if they surrender completely to the cold. The white witch embodies the icy cold and emotional numbness, which resonates with her unique identity as “the only person in the woods who want[s] nothing” (282). Ursu positions her as dangerous because of her ability to numb the children’s pain, suggesting that the temptation to keep from feeling difficult emotions will hold them back from healing and growth, and prevent them from truly living. Jack chooses to accompany the witch because she allows him to forget about his mother’s depression. For Hazel to rescue him, he must forfeit the cold’s protective numbness, leaving him vulnerable to suffering again. The witch taunts Hazel by asking, “Do you see, now, there are things worse than the ice. Do you see what happens when it melts? Do you see what you did?” (301). While the witch offers Jack eternity, he wouldn’t truly be alive if he stayed with her. The novel argues that developing a degree of emotional distance is necessary to navigate life’s most difficult challenges, but Ursu cautions her readers that people cannot truly live if they cut themselves off from feeling pain. The author uses the cold’s symbolism to establish the stakes of the novel’s plot, character arcs, and coming-of-age narrative.
Snow
Snow serves as a motif for The Intersection of Reality and Fantasy in Shaping Personal Identity. Jack and Hazel are lifelong residents of Minnesota, a state known for its snowy winters, and their home comprises an important part of their identity. Ursu quickly establishes a connection between magic and snow when Hazel admires the beauty of a single snowflake in Chapter 1: “Inside it was another universe, and maybe if she figured out the right way to ask, someone would let her in” (2). Although snow is a common feature of her life, Hazel’s imaginative nature allows her to sense the snowflake’s otherworldly properties just as it later leads her to believe Tyler’s story about the white witch.
In a more literal sense, snow remains key to the intersection between reality and fantasy, facilitating the witch’s ability to travel between the fantasy world of the enchanted woods and the children’s Minneapolis neighborhood. As the narrator asserts, the witch arrives “because of the snow. She [can] travel from one snowy world to another—to her it [is] all the same place” (71). Thus, the unnaturally heavy snowfall of 18 inches in one night signals the encroachment of dangerous magical forces into the children’s ordinary neighborhood. Further developing the motif’s meaning, Jack and Hazel enter the enchanted woods by going into a snowy forest, and the moment the children leave the woods “Hazel’s foot land[s] in the snow” to signal their return to the real world (307). The motif of snow develops the theme of reality and fantasy, contributes to the setting and foreshadowing, and brings the narrative full circle.
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