All of the readings were of deep interest to me however I found The Ice Man and Straw Husband the most fascinating to me and also the most fascinating to compare overall. I came to the conclusion that both novella's were about unhealthy realtionships or relationship expectations in different ways.
Let's start with talking about The Ice Man the main character of the novel is a women who meets an Ice Man, and falls in love with him. After they get married they go through a typical honeymoon period and some time passes by. She then decides she wants to go on a trip to the South Pole with him because she has grown bored by the mundaneous of her life. He grows emotionally cold and distant at the suggestion but ultimately agrees to go. He grows more and more distant with her as the time of the trip approaches and truely becomes cold like a man of ice. When they finally get to the South Pole it becomes both of them being cold and distant to each other with their relationship being never fully able to end because of the expectation of a child on the way.
The second novella Straw Husband features the exact opposite relationship problem instead of a husband who becomes emotionally distant and closed off it is instead a husband who gives far too much in the relationship and is incredibly overly dedicated to the point where he "falls apart". Its an interesting reflection of how caring about serving others too much can be a bad thing.
Both show different examples of how otherwise caring and healthy relationships can end up eventually being toxic and unhealthy for one or both individuals involved and sometimes the signs are in fact not obvious. It's an interesting set of parallels that are interesting to explore.
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