"...affluent Americans increasingly clustered in suburban areas, where jobs for women were limited and domestic help was in short supply. Husbands were away from home longer because they had to commute to work, leaving the wives to bear the complete responsibility for the family...The American dream of affluence in a natural, bucolic setting away from urban squalor often made it impossible for women to be anything other than housewives and mothers." i.

The Ice Storm focuses on two families, the Hoods and the Carvers. Ben Hood, (Kevin Kline), is the aptly-named, self-absorbed patriarch of his family moving through life believing all that matters is what he sees in front of him; his wife, Elena (Joan Allen) is his quietly despairing mate and mother of Paul (Tobey Maguire) and Wendy (Christina Ricci). Jim Carver (Jamey Sheridan) is an enterprising man, who is seldom home long enough to attend to the needs of his wife Jane (Sigourney Weaver) and their two sons Mike (Elijah

This film, based on a novel by Rick Moody, is the story of affluence gone haywire. The prevailing male view, that women, by right, be the caregivers, child-rearers, and pleasure drones for them and their heirs was no longer adequate in 1973. Families, living in the suburbs, were fundamentally fatherless, as the men went off in trains and planes to earn money, only to come home and ask "How's it goin'?" on their way to the liquor cabinet. This was the year Jong's Fear of Flying and Plath's The Bell Jar were published. The mentality that had produced Father Knows Best was obsolete. The kids knew it, the wives knew it, but didn't know how to express it. America was at a crossroads. Vietnam had shown the country that the "US of A" was not quite as great a power as many had believed. Nixon showed that maybe the fish does rot from the head down. Many lessons were learned in 1973, and some, like Mike Carver and the soldiers in Vietnam, lost their lives learning them. During the Depression and World War II, "women's work" became much more than tasks performed at home. The "go where you want to go, do what you want to do" mantra of the '60s showed women who felt there was more to life than domesticity that their urge to be "of the world" was a viable goal. They wanted, rightly, to be included in the power structure. The obstacle to this end was the existing male-dominated power elite. Men, who through upbringing and experience believed that their position of control was pre-ordained, were too busy convincing themselves and each other of their rectitude to listen to what women wanted. Wendy Carver is a product of all this, a girl blossoming into womanhood, and a person with strong opinions to express. She, in many ways, defines the burgeoning power women felt in their grasp in 1973. They yearned to be part of the great decision-making processes affecting their world. Their perspective, they knew, was vital to making the necessary changes to the "boys' club" mentality that had bred the wars, embargos and political chicanery that plagued America in the early 70s. The world was changing, and it was time to talk about it.

The storm, now at full force, mimics the events transpiring in the Halfords' house. Emotions which flow freely when mixed with alcohol will become frozen moments in time as the keys are removed from the bowl. One by one, drop by drop, lives will be forever changed; some little, some greatly. This reality is lost on the giggling, besotted attendees for the most part. However, inevitably, Ben reacts when Jane chooses someone else's keys from the bowl. While her husband looks on in quiet despair, her lover drunkenly leaps from the couch, only to fall in a heap onto the floor. He is then taken to the bathroom to ponder his actions. The last keys in the bowl are Jim's, and the las

Some common words found in the essay are:
Mike Sandy', Jane Carver, Cadillac Jim, Canaan Connecticut, Sandy Mike, Adam Hann-Byrd, President Nixon, Wendy Carver, War II, Ben Hood's, ice storm, keys bowl, ben hood, married women, carvers' house, jane carver, jim carver, short supply, storm force,
Approximate Word count = 1907
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)