It is not unusual for teenagers to have mixed feelings about their parents as they get older. In the story “Ashes” by Susan Beth Pfeffer, a girl named Ashleigh, nicknamed Ashes, has a father who is unreliable and gives Ashes only empty promises, and is the opposite of her mother, who is down to earth, and thinks in the long term. Ashes loves her father very much and is always happy to see him, but when he asks her to take money from her mother, she has to make a terrible decision. Through symbolism, the author of this story shows show Ashes feels about her father in different parts of the story by comparing her feelings toward him to the sky.
In the beginning and middle of the story, the author expresses how Ashes is always cheerful and excited to see her father with a sunny sky. One example of this is, the story is introduced in the perspective of Ashes with the line, “That winter, it felt like every time I saw my father, the sun cast off just a little more warmth than it had the day before. I don’t remember a gray day when I saw him.” The sunny day represents how good weather means a good day. In other words, Ashes is ecstatic to see her father, and she feels like he makes everything better. Another example of this is, in one instance when Ashes and her father are reunited on one of the days that Ashes sees him, the scenario starts with, “‘Ashes!’ he cried, as though it had been years since we’d last seen each other, and not a simple week of overcast skies and bone-chilling weather.” This shows how much Ashes loves her father and how happy she is to see him because when they are apart, the sky is dreary and gloomy. Also, in the middle of the story, when Ashes is describing her mother, she says, “She’s the most practical person I know, always putting aside for a rainy day. With Mom, there are a lot of rainy days and she takes a firm sort of pleasure in being ready for them.” This shows also how when Ashes is with her mother the sky is miserable and disgusting. And, the sunny sky represents the hope and happiness that Ashes associates with her father, while the dreary weather is what she associates with the time that she is away from him. But, only when she sees her father is the sky blue and magnificent again. But, as the story develops, Ashes’ feeling begin to waver.
Near the end of the story, the author expresses how Ashes resents her father, and is no longer as happy to be with him. One instance is, when Ashes was sitting in the car with her father driving, she looks up at the sky out the window and thinks, “For a moment, a cloud drifted past the moon and the sky turned greenish gray.” This shows that now that Ashes knows about the money her father wants her to take, and the difficult decision she has to make, I can infer that she is beginning to resent her father for putting her in this position. I can tell because the sky is no longer sunny and bright, instead it is reflecting Ashes’ emotions, and it is turning dismal and dark. Finally, one more example of this is when Ashes is inside her mother’s apartment at the end of the story, dividing whether or not to take the money for her dad, she notices, “I looked out the window and saw only ash gray sky.” This shows how Ashes is no longer feeling dull, as she had when her emotions towards her father were only wavering in the car, she is now miserable. The sky is no longer only “greenish gray,” but it is now completely gray, which shows how unhappy she is. And, she is contemplating a difficult choice that she must make.
In the end, I predict that Ashes did not take the money because the sky is completely gray, which symbolizes how she is now completely enraged about her father. In conclusion, the author shows how Ashes is feeling about her father at different parts of the story through symbolism, the symbol being the sky. In the beginning, the blue, sunny sky represented Ashes’ hope and happiness that she associated with her father. And, the cloudy sky represented Ashes’ feeling when she was away from him. But, at the end, the dark sky was a symbol for how Ashes resented her father, which is what led me to believe that maybe she did not take the money.
