Genre
Fiction
Setting and Context
Kentucky in the 1950s and 1960s
Narrator and Point of View
The point of view is that of misunderstood protagonist Icy Sparks
Tone and Mood
The tone is alienating and lonely. The mood is one of frustration and injustice as Icy struggles to get anyone to listen to her.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Icy Sparks is the protagonist. In a way her Tourette's Syndrome is her antagonist. However, her peers are also antagonists because they alienate her due to her being different.
Major Conflict
There is conflict whilst Icy is at the mental institution because she is not suffering from a mental illness but cannot get anyone to listen to her.
Climax
Icy attends college and ultimately becomes a therapist helping kids with Tourette's.
Foreshadowing
Icy's ticks foreshadow the way in which everyone reacts to her and particularly her alienation from everyone considered "normal".
Understatement
Icy tells us that her Tourette's makes her feel different but this is an understatement in that the entire community makes her feel different and the disease effectively marks her out as a complete outsider.
Allusions
The author alludes to the mid-century practice of labeling anything that seemed different or outside of the norm as some kind of mental disorder and forcibly hospitalizing the person.
Imagery
The author describes Icy's ticks and twitches in such detail that we are almost able to see each muscle movement and imagine not just how they look but also how they must feel.
Paradox
Icy becomes a therapist and turns her suffering into a positive for both herself an for kids who are just like she was.
Parallelism
There is a parallel between Icy's feelings of loneliness and being an outsider, and the feelings experienced by her overweight friend whose obesity also makes her "different"
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The church encompasses the entire congregation who help Icy find herself amidst her loneliness.
Personification
N/A
