In the Midst of Winter

As the title of the novel, In the Midst of Winter, suggests, the extreme weather plays a pivotal role in the physical and emotional dramas in the lives of Lucia, Richard, and Evelyn. For Lucia, snow is a fairly new encounter as it exists in distance for her. Her recognition that “[s]now is always pristine from a distance” (2) is a deep contrast from the close obstruction that the snow serves during the New York City snowstorm that has trapped her and Richard in their homes. Emotionally, the onslaught of snow suggests that feelings that remain secret are no longer “pristine” when they are forced to deal with their reality just as nature reveals its brutality.

While the snow has created an occasion for everyone’s secrets to reveal themselves, the snow also has the capability of rendering everything “invisible” (241). This has a pragmatic use for Lucia, Richard, and Evelyn as they attempt to make their way upstate with Kathryn Brown’s body without being detected. However, the invisibility is only an erasure of the surroundings that keeps the growing intimacy of the three travelers intact. The snow possesses a magical realist quality in the way it mirrors the emotional and psychological development of Lucia, Richard, and Evelyn as they share their unique stories and origins.

The jaguar first appears as a hallucinatory vision that Evelyn receives after drinking ayahuasca administered to her by Felicita. According to Felicita, the jaguar represents “feminine power” (94) and her meaning has ancient origins. Felicita further explains that the power of the jaguar lies dormant in men and that it foretells that “the power is going to reawaken” and that “there will be peace, and evil deeds will cease” (94). This powerful vision follows Evelyn throughout her migration to the U.S. and then once again in administering the last rites to Kathryn Brown. When Evelyn sees the jaguar during her migration, the animal is a motherless cub. While this is a less powerful version of the jaguar, it signifies her then position in the desert. She possesses power but is motherless. She must complete her journey to grow into her power. This comes to be the case when she sees the mother jaguar at the Omega Institute where Kathryn is laid to rest. The jaguar leads Lucia, Richard, and Evelyn to the Sanctuary, which signifies not only the sacred site for Kathryn’s body but also gestures to the political asylum that Evelyn seeks as an undocumented person. As a magical realist symbol, the jaguar reoccurs throughout the novel to provide guidance towards justice and true power for those marginalized.