Snow is precedent throughout this story, " knee-deep in snow", "newly fallen

snow", "all that whiteness" "the day of the big snow". I believe that the white
blanketing snow of which she speaks so fondly represents the blanket of love
and a sense of innocence she felt that winter. The narrator sees her lover as a
crazy king of snow and romanticizes many aspects of her time there. The
fireplace is enchanting because it spurs all these stories that also have romantic
elements to it. She sees the walls as having grapes with the vine popping
through, the way some plants can tenaciously push through anything, which I
saw as her seeing life and the romance flourishing. The imagery is beautiful in
this perspective and it made me believe that these things were exactly as they
are. Until we get the lovers perspective, I felt as convinced as the narrator that
love was literally in the air.
This is where a shift in tone occurs; we lose that white innocence for something
darker, drearier. The narrator carries an emphasis on night and black. The
lover has a more realistic, even pessimistic view of their time together. These are
contrasted by the description of the light in the following paragraph: "a small
curve of light was shaved from the moon night after night", "the sky was black",
"the chipmunk ran to hide in the dark", "one night". The final part of the text is
converged with a feeling of sadness. We see that in contrast to her, he only
views the snow as a mark of Mother Nature's handiwork, and seeing no deeper,
spiritual or romantic meaning. It's also worth mentioning that although we have
intimate details of how she views things, people, the walls, snow, we are not privy
on his thoughts of those same things. I would think this is done purposely. I think
these details are left out of his perspective because he doesn't think much of
them.
When we are in love, even in times when it might not be healthy for us, we tend
to view things through rose-colored glasses rather than for seeing them how they
truly are. We let things that should be signs or red flags pass over our heads and
find ways to tuck them away in our pocket, as if not to disturb our beautiful
feelings and perfect scenario. The narrator poses the question: Who expects
small things to survive when even the largest get lost? We see that she chooses
to share certain moments and details yet omit others. She has isolated the
instances that are pleasant and tenacious in her mind because she wants to
remember the bigger picture, which is represented by the image of snow. The
reason she chooses to do this is because in truth, her love was unrequited. After
a breakup, the mind has a tendency to want to remember only the happy times,
the good times. We romanticize our past relationships, even when they were
bad. It is kinder on the heart to recollect pleasant times shared with someone
than to recall the bad times.