Breadcrumbs

“Something stirred inside her, some urge to plunge into the new white world and see what it had to offer. It was like she’d walked out of a dusty old wardrobe and found Narnia.”

Ursu includes allusions to famous middle-grade fantasy novels throughout the story. In this passage, the references to “a dusty old wardrobe” and Narnia allude to C. S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. This allusion captures the protagonist’s feeling of joy and possibility as she admires the beautiful snowy day while also hinting at the dangers to come. Just as, in Lewis’s novel, the Pevensie siblings contend against the cruel White Witch, Hazel faces a similar witch and other hazards on her own journey.

“‘Kids,’ said Hazel. ‘She wants kids. She wants to collect them. She puts them in snow globes. She traps them with promises, and if she can get them to agree to stay there forever, they’re hers.’”

The story that Hazel improvises in this passage demonstrates her rich imagination as well as her knowledge of fairy tales like Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Snow Queen,” which inspired Breadcrumbs. Her improvised story foreshadows the white witch’s presence in the novel and the fact that children like Jack go with her of their own volition. Although the witch doesn’t literally confine children in snow globes, the snow globes serve as a metaphor for being frozen in time, forever cut off from the real world.

“Then one day Hazel did not have a dad anymore, because hers had left. And a couple days after that Jack had showed up on her doorstep and handed her his most prized possession, a baseball signed by Joe Mauer. Hazel had stared at it as if he’d just handed her his still-beating heart.”

The simile comparing the autographed Joe Mauer baseball to Jack’s “still-beating heart” establishes the object’s symbolic and narrative significance. The baseball represents Jack’s loving heart and plays a prominent role in the novel’s climax. This scene also helps to establish the close bond between the two children, which is foundational to the plot.

“So we are going to leave Hazel for a moment and step into the glimmering, shifting world. Because there is something there you need to see. Or rather, someone. We’ll call him Mal, though that is not his real name.”

Ursu uses the second-person pronouns “you” and “we” to support the shift from Hazel’s point of view to narrative exposition about fantastical figures like the demonic Mal. The fourth-wall break creates a sense that the narrator is inviting the reader to share in secret knowledge. The “glimmering, shifting world” acts as a metaphor for everything beyond the ordinary world that people perceive with their senses. Ursu’s use of this device to guide the reader between these two worlds mirrors the thematic notion of the intersection of reality and fantasy.

“The sky was touched with purple now, and the snow shone brightly against the dark background. The air smelled of cold. Everything was quiet, the only sound the crunching of Jack’s boots and the soft drag of the sled. The noise he made assaulted his ears.”

Ursu uses visual, auditory, and olfactory imagery to immerse the reader in the scene. The narrator pays particular attention to auditory imagery by describing how the sounds of “the crunching of Jack’s boots and the soft drag of the sled” disrupt the silence. The white witch likes the quietude of snow, and Ursu uses precise diction—the verb “assaulted”—to foreshadow Jack’s loss of self—he’s already adopting the witch’s preference for stillness and silence although he hasn’t met her yet.

“‘Would you like some Turkish delight?’ she asked. ‘Huh?’ ‘Just a little joke,’ she said.”

The witch amuses herself by repeating the White Witch’s offer to Edmund Pevensie in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. By making explicit the similarities between her antagonist and C. S. Lewis’s White Witch, Ursu adds a metafictional touch to the scene.

“She went to her window to find that ice had covered the world. The street in front of her glimmered menacingly. Huge icicles hung down from the rows of houses like spikes. The trees looked as if they had been mummified.”

The author uses visual imagery to create an ominous mood. Precise diction with words like “menacingly,” “spikes,” and “mummified” adds to the atmosphere of tension and danger and hints that the changes in Jack’s behavior are the result of broader supernatural forces.

“Jack was her best friend. He wasn’t going to leave her because he was going through a lot. And he was not going to grow out of her overnight like she was an old puffy purple jacket. It didn’t make any sense at all.”

The simile likening Hazel to “an old puffy purple jacket” evokes Chapter 6’s title, “Castoffs,” and its examination of change. The protagonist rejects the comparison between herself and the outgrown coat that she’s embarrassed to wear just as she rejects her mother’s conventional wisdom that people change as they get older and that it’s natural for her and Jack’s friendship to dissolve or hit rough patches. The protagonist ultimately matures enough to accept that their relationship will not always be the same, highlighting The Evolution of Childhood Friendships as a central theme in the novel.

“She could be seriously ill, she could be doubled over with an exploded appendix, and her mother would say that sometimes we have to do hard things in life and that she had to face Jack eventually anyway, so she might as well do it with an exploded appendix.”

Hazel’s claim that her mother would make her go to school even if she were “doubled over with an exploded appendix” is an example of hyperbole. This figure of speech expresses both the emotional pain that Hazel feels as she anticipates seeing Jack again and her belief that her mother is indifferent to her pain.

“He dismissed her, and Hazel poured concrete into the hollow parts. Now she would be part girl, part hardening gray sludge. And no one would notice the difference.”

The metaphorical language of the protagonist pouring “concrete into [her] hollow parts” captures the loss of agency and identity Hazel feels after she meets with the school’s counselor. The image of grey and hard concrete helps to convey the protagonist’s view of the real world as something dull and immutable.

“It might be true. And if it was true, Hazel was the only one who could save him. Because, like Tyler said, she knew how she was. And because she was Jack’s best friend. And that meant she would not give up on him, could not give up on him, without doing everything possible to save him. It might be true.”

The repetition of the sentence “It might be true” and the anaphora of the consecutive fragments beginning with “And” depict Hazel’s stream of consciousness as she allows herself to consider the possibility that Jack has been taken by a witch. The repetition creates an optimistic tone that illustrates Hazel’s burgeoning hope that magic is real. At this point in the novel, the protagonist prefers the thought that Jack has been abducted by a supernatural foe to the thought that he simply decided that he doesn’t want to be her friend anymore. She feels excited by the prospect of taking action like one of the heroes in her beloved books.

“She’d helped her parents pick the paint four years ago, and her dad spilled a whole bucket of it on his shirt. You could trace his path through the house by the little drips that still lingered everywhere like breadcrumbs. It was one of the few records of his ever living there.”

The simile comparing the trail of “little drips” of paint to breadcrumbs evokes both the novel’s title and the fairy tale of “Hansel and Gretel,” in which the lost children leave a trail of breadcrumbs to try to find their way home again. Ursu’s novel ponders the question of whether it is possible to regain what has been lost. The simile of breadcrumbs in this scene emphasizes the absence of Hazel’s father, underscoring the novel’s thematic engagement with The Impact of Divorce and Depression on Children.

“Hazel had read enough books to know that a line like this one is the line down which your life breaks in two […] But sometimes you have a friend to rescue. And so you take a deep breath and then step over the line and into the darkness ahead.”

Ursu uses narrative techniques to mark a key moment in the story’s plot. The transition from third- to second-person perspective mirrors Hazel’s movement from the real world to the enchanted woods. The protagonist’s awareness that she’s crossing “the line down which [her] life breaks in two” emphasizes the scene’s importance and further develops the theme of the intersection between reality and fiction.

“She squeezed her eyes shut. For a moment, she imagined she was home in her own bed, the hum of her mom talking on the phone in the background. For once Hazel was fantasizing about the real world.”

The “hum” of Hazel’s mother’s voice is an example of onomatopoeia. This sound effect helps to capture the sensory details that Hazel imagines as she longs for home and safety. Hazel “fantasizing about the real world” represents a complete reversal of her usual behavior and illustrates how her experiences are already changing her outlook on reality.

“And this couple found us and they brought us to their cottage and took care of us. They were like real parents, you know? The kind you think you should have?”

Ben’s dialogue offers foreshadowing. When Hazel meets Nina and Lucas, she experiences a cozy sense of familiarity reminiscent of Ben’s description of the couple as “real parents, […] [t]he kind you think you should have.” The danger the seemingly kind and welcoming couple pose to Ben and Alice offers an example of how Ursu subverts traditional fairy-tale conventions in the woods.

“A large, full fairy-tale moon hung in the sky now […] The thatched roof nestled over the small square house like a mushroom cap. Bright yellow curtains hung in the windows. A strip of bright flowers lay in front of the house, blooming against the cold.”

Ursu uses visual imagery, such as the “large, full fairy-tale moon” and “[b]right yellow curtains,” to create a cozy, inviting mood that belies the danger Hazel is in at Nina and Lucas’s cottage. The mention of the “bright flowers” in the garden foreshadows the revelation that the flowers are actually girls that the couple has transformed into plants.

“She sipped the tea—it was thick with honey. Hazel remembered the candy her father would bring home from his trips. It was hard candy on the outside but the inside was a warm burst of actual honey, like you’d stuck your spoon into the jar when no one was looking.”

The sensory imagery of the tea “thick with honey” appeals to the reader’s sense of taste. Hazel associates the flavor with both love and separation because it reminds her of the candy her father gave her before the divorce. This association underscores Hazel’s longing for parental love and explains her hope that Nina and Lucas are her biological parents.

“She told her that she would just work twice as hard for Hazel. She told her that they were going to take care of each other. It was just the two of them now, but they had each other. It was going to be okay.”

Ursu begins consecutive sentences with the phrases “She told her” and “It was.” This anaphora creates the sense that Hazel’s mother repeated the words in the hope of convincing herself and her daughter that things will be all right. Previously, Hazel saw her mother as someone who’s disappointed in her and sets demanding expectations, so remembering her mother’s love marks an important shift in the protagonist’s perspective. Hazel begins to develop more empathy for her mother and appreciate her love and care as she matures on her journey.

“The wind roused itself, pushing against her softly, a whispered threat. The ground beneath her had begun to tilt, and Hazel found herself heading up an incline. Her legs whimpered at her, for that was all they could muster now.”

By writing that Hazel’s legs “whimpered,” Ursu uses personification to capture the protagonist’s exhaustion as she nears the witch’s palace. She also personifies the wind that issues a “whispered threat” to Hazel to show the setting’s harsh and inhospitable nature.

“You are nothing. There was a starving girl. You gave her things and then left her like a beggar on the street, and for what? There was a couple in the cottage. You could have given them something, but you left. And for what? There was a dancing girl in the marketplace. You could have helped her, but you left. And for what? […] There was a threshold and a magical woods, and you thought they might make you a hero. There was a boy, and he was your best friend. Your father left you. You left your mother.”

Ursu uses the technique of personification to depict the cold, which symbolizes emotional numbness in the narrative. The author’s use of parallel sentence structure and the repetition of the question “And for what?” lend a poetic quality to the cold’s menacing whispers. The cold mocks Hazel for her attempts to do good as well as her inaction, suggesting that none of her choices matter and urging her to surrender.

“People feared snowstorms once. Hazel read about this all the time. Pioneers opened their front doors and saw they’d been entombed in snow overnight. They walked across malevolent swirling whiteness and did not know if they would survive. Nature can destroy us in a blink. We live on only at its pleasure. That was what looking at the witch was like.”

The passage’s historical allusions to the pioneer days create an extended simile between the witch and snowstorms. This figure of speech conveys the dread that Hazel feels as she sees the white witch for the first time.

“‘And he did sign it and he told you to get some sleep, and you didn’t let anyone else touch the ball and you looked up on the Internet how to preserve it best, and you didn’t even let me touch it. And then…and then’…Hazel shook her head. She was crying now, and the tears burned her scar and bit at her face. ‘My dad left…and I didn’t know what to do. And you came over, and…’”

In an instance of anaphora, Hazel starts multiple consecutive sentences with the word “And.” The choppiness created by the resulting fragments and by the ellipses communicates Hazel’s desperation as she fights to make her friend remember his life and return to her. In addition, the baseball that is central to her story symbolizes Jack’s loving heart and helps to restore his memories.

“Hazel could feel the water beneath their feet rocking, roused like an awakening beast.”

Ursu escalates the novel’s suspense following the climax with a simile that likens the thawing lake to an “awakening beast.” The comparison emphasizes the danger still threatening Hazel and Jack even though the boy is beginning to return to himself. Both literally and metaphorically, they aren’t out of the woods yet.