The bold and stirring short story, "Snow", was written with deceptive intensity and a sincere tenacity that grabs you immediately. It tells the story of ten year old Yolanda, a little immigrant New York girl, new to the city and to America in general.
             Author Julia Alvarez, captures with pin point precision the emotional turmoil
             surrounding the feelings of impending doom in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis. It
             also unquestionably captures the authors' love and concern for humanity and her
             longing for a world at peace. Alvarez's use of conflicting settings, the cold wintery New
             York and the obvious warmth of her earlier childhood are pivotal to the underlying
             subconscious imagery of the snow falling in New York and the visualization of humanity.
             Yolanda's need for tutoring in English is one of our primary indicators that she is
             not completely American. Yolanda's statement, "All my life I had heard about the white
             crystals that fell out of American skies in the winter."(pg321), Clarifies this further her
             newness as an American. It is in her learning of English that allows for the imagery of
             "Snow" is set against the backdrop of a nuclear showdown, during the height of
             the Cold War. With the conflict of the Cuban Missile Crisis between the United
             States, Cuba and the Soviet Union, the evil communists, we are given more than just a
             story about the morbid curiosity of life and death. There is a very real sense of fear that
             emanates from Alvarezs' story.
             "Snow", is an unnerving short story that penetrates the reader's subconscious with disturbing and intensive imagery that challenges the reader to view humanity's uniqueness and its fragility. "Snow" subdues the reader quickly and convincingly. Alvarez's efficiently frugal yet powerful vocabulary speaks to the reader with the blinding force of an emoti...