Alaska—General

Alaska is so important to the novel that it is almost more of a character than a setting. The Alaskan residents see Alaska as a testing-ground for strength of character, and those who survive their first Alaskan winter with their sanity intact fall in love with the place and are destined never to leave. The characters describe Alaska as if it is a person who makes the choice who belongs and who does not. Large Marge introduces Cora and Leni to Alaska as a woman: “Alaska herself can be Sleeping Beauty one minute and a bitch with a sawed-off shotgun the next” (29). The Alaskan landscape is frequently described with personification, reinforcing the impression that it contributes to the plot of the novel in an active and premeditated way. This effect reaches its height as Leni and Cora dispose of Ernt’s body; throughout the scene, “the electric-bright...