Discussion starters:

• Is Sally Carrol Happer more victim or victimizer?

• What does ice represent in this story?

• In "Psychic Geography," Kuehl says the story "employs the quest-for-identity structure" but leads to "confirmation rather than transformation" (173).  Is Sally Carrol really no different at the end of the story?

• How are North-South relations played out in Sally Carrol's engagement? 

Critical Sources:

• Kuehl, John. F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Study of the Short Fiction. Boston: Twayne, 1991.

• ---.  “Psychic Geography in ‘The Ice Palace’” The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald: New Approaches in Criticism.  Ed. Jackson R. Bryer.  Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 1982. 169-79.