Snowman, The (ATOM Study Guide)

In 1978, 34-year-old Scottish climber Jimmy Graham went to Antarctica with Operation Deep Freeze to train scientists in survival skills on the ice. It was his dream job, full of adventure and challenge. He left his young family in Australia in December of that year, intending to stay at the Pole for six months. Three months later he was shipped home, agitated and paranoid, claiming that he had stumbled onto an illegal nuclear site and that the CIA had given him a chemical lobotomy. His descent into madness was stark and terrifying for those who loved him. Unable to cope with his erratic and dangerous behaviour, Frances, his wife, fled with their two children, Juliet and Sean. Thirty years later, Juliet tries to uncover the real story and reconnect with what is left of the man she called her father. The Snowman is her compelling account of this journey. She tracks Jimmy down to a country town some five hours drive away from where she lives in Sydney with her husband and two daughters. He is leading a marginal, alcoholic life and has not worked since his return from Antarctica. Just what happened to Jimmy to push him so irrevocably over the edge? Pieces of this puzzle lie scattered across the globe. Juliet demonstrates the tenacity and fortitude of an Arctic explorer herself, taking us on her sometimes harrowing personal adventure to New Zealand, America, Antarctica, Scotland and Ireland, in search of some kind of truth that might heal the icy rift in Jimmy and their family.

Curriculum Links

The Snowman is an intriguing personal documentary touching on a variety of themes, including: identity; family; relationships; memory; personal history; and madness. It is a valuable text for use in the classroom because of the complex and challenging ways in which it explores these issues. It would be well suited to use in middle and senior secondary English, Cultural Studies and Psychology, and has particular relevance for the VCE English Year 11 Identity strand.