Icy Sparks

Icy Sparks

Author: Gwyn Hyman Rubio

Prezi By: Alannah Morton, Lauren Kinnear, Margret Hill

Fictional Analysis

Major Characters:

Themes

Icy Sparks - The main character and the voice of the novel. Starts off as a ten year old girl, struggling to maintain and hide her "tics, croaks, jerks and eye bulges". Story ends by the time she is 15 years old. Self conscious and unique child with Blonde hair and yellow eyes which resemble a frog to others.

Matanni (Tillie) - Icy's loving, kind and caring grandmother.

Love is a main theme as Icy constantly questions her future loneliness and the possibility of her ever being loved. She feels she will never truly be loved unconditionally due to the illness she faces daily. Love introduces itself to Icy once she falls for Peavy Lawson and from then onward she struggles to believe love will exist in her world and future one day.

Patanni(Virgil) - Icy's loving, opinionated yet kind and caring grandfather.

Miss Emily Tanner - 25 year old severely obese woman who is Icy's best friend, teacher and mentor. Intelligent, bilingual, friendly and positive.

Mr. Charles Wooten - Icy's helpful principle while attending Ginseng Elementary, and caring friend outside of school.

Plot

Acceptance is another theme which drives this storyline. Icy's only dream it seems is to be accepted by others as her true, croaking self. She constantly is presented with battles against acceptance through her time spent in school and in public. she struggles to feel the welcoming environment which acceptance possess and believes that she may never get this feeling.

Maizy Hurley - Icy's aide during her stay at Bluegrass State Hospital, but evolves into a dear friend.

Minor Characters:

Peavy Lawson - was once Icy's classmate and later became her first love.

Mrs. Stilton - Icy's abusing, dishonest, plain-old-mean grade four teacher at Ginseng Elementary.

Significance to Life

Belonging is the final theme in Icy Sparks as the lack of love and acceptance she feels she receives only drives her want for belonging. She only seems to feel truly accepted by her parents, Miss Emily and Maizy, but still questions their caring actions. she feels she doesn't belong in public or around others due to her unpredictable spurts.

Getting a Feel for the Novel

Dr. Conroy - Icy's knowledgeable, caring and accepting therapist while attending Bluegrass State Hospital.

A young girl named Icy Sparks lives with her Grandparents in Kentucky in the 1950s/1960s. She does not get along with her peers and she begins to experience sudden tics and croaks which makes her an outcast. She does not see herself as mentally ill, but her teacher resorts to putting Icy into an isolated classroom which does not solve anything. Therefore, her Grandparents admit her to a mental institution in hopes of finding out answers regarding her unexpected tics and croaks. She ends up getting sent home with no answers to her problems, the atmosphere at home is very tense and she isolates herself from everyone. Her grandfather ends up passing away and Icy and her Grandmother turn to religion for consolation. She is inspired at a tent-meeting revival where she perceives that people touched by the holy spirit act as if they have Tourette’s syndrome. Icy discovers that she is blessed with a gift for music, she then attends university where her disorder is diagnosed. After graduating from university she becomes a therapist working with children with Tourette’s syndrome and selective mutes.

Wilma - Icy's hideous, negative and disrespectful aide at Bluegrass State Hospital.

Mamie Tillman - Icy's secretive, troubled and religious neighbour, who evolves into a accepting friend.

The significance of this story to my own life is in the future when I become a nurse I will encounter plenty of different situations with patients among an abundance of disorders. As a reader this story was very touching as it made me aware of Tourette’s syndrome and how I must always treat any of my patients with respect. It does not matter their age, race, sex or disorder, everyone should be treated with respect. Just because someone may have a disorder does not mean you should treat them any differently, they are still a human being and deserve to have a happy life as well as being confident in their own skin.

Setting

Conflict

Icy Sparks consists of three parts which all contain unique settings. Part one begins in Polar Holler, Kentucky in 1956. Part two focuses on her stay in Bluegrass State Hospital. Part three takes place back at home in Polar Holler but she attends a religious event which is a monumental moment in the storyline and Icy's life.

Icy Sparks is a captivating novel which takes readers on an emotional roller coaster as they join Icy Sparks in her battle against what seems to be the world. She fights to seek and understand love, acceptance and belonging as a ten year old girl suffering from Tourette Syndrome.

Character and Self: The main conflict guiding this novel is Icy's ongoing conflict with herself. Throughout this whole novel, Icy struggles with a disorder that she is unaware of. This affects her drastically as she has very few people that will accept her for who she is. People treat her as if she is not human which results in isolation. This conflict is resolved after Icy’s grandfather passes away, her and her grandmother resort to religion. One day she attends a tent-meeting revival where she is able to overcome her ticks and croaks, Icy becomes accepted by others by singing. This specific scene regains her lost confidence. She is now happy and optimistic about her life.

We believe the setting plays an important role on the story because the way things were accomplished medically and the lifestyle back then differs drastically compared to now-a-days.

Character and Character: Throughout the novel Icy experiences battles against acceptance. Other struggle to accept her during her times of croaking as they view this as more then just a flaw but something that is inhumane. She constantly encounters others throughout the novel who present new difficulties and boundaries to her feeling of acceptance and belonging. she feels she can never really be her true self around anyone. The pokeweed inside of her shines above all else in her eyes.