65 pages • 2 hours read
Suzanne RedfearnIn an Instant
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Healing Family Trauma and Conflict
Redfearn establishes a strong foundation for the theme of Healing Family Trauma and Conflict early in the story by showcasing how all the characters experience conflict before, during, and shortly after the accident. Ann and Jack fight constantly at the novel’s beginning. One major catalyst to the couple’s conflict is Oz’s demanding personality. Finn is keenly aware of the strain her brother’s needs place on her family, despite their love for him:
the one thing about a boy like Oz is no matter how much you love him, you also hate what he does to your life, the way he sucks energy from it and uses up all the air, so relentless and demanding it’s like sometimes you can’t breathe. None of us admitted it when he was alive, but we all felt it (299).
Chloe is 18 and seeking independence from her parents. As a result, she is rebellious, is resentful of her parents’ authority, and openly defies what her parents want, often to her detriment. After the accident, Chloe’s conflict with her parents increases, exacerbated by her deep depression over Vance’s abandonment. Karen and Ann clash when Karen feels Ann betrayed her by prioritizing Mo’s welfare over Natalie’s. Jack feels strong animosity toward Bob, who spends time with Ann even after having had an affair with her. Vance and Jack fight when Jack forces Vance to stay at the cabin and search for Oz’s body.
While some of the conflict presented in the story is external, a significant amount of conflict is internal. This internal conflict arises because of the accident and how it reveals aspects of each character that, under normal circumstances, would likely have stayed dormant or hidden. Ann feels guilt and shame knowing she would have let Kyle fall to save herself. Vance feels conflicted about abandoning Chloe in the blizzard, but he ultimately keeps going, hoping to get her help too. Jack blames himself for being useless after the accident, even though it was his injuries that forced him into unconsciousness. After Finn’s death, Finn must battle the internal conflict she feels over her gratitude that she gets to observe her family so openly versus the bitterness she feels about being unable to help them or participate in her former hobbies or passions.
After establishing this foundation of conflict, Redfearn demonstrates the healing process for many of the characters. Chloe attends the symphony with Ann, healing their relationship. Jack finally understands Ann’s struggle after the accident and stops blaming her for Oz’s death. Vance learns what true strength and courage are by watching Jack devote himself to finding Oz. Finn finds peace with her family, allowing her to move on to the afterlife. Perhaps most importantly, Ann and Jack revive their previous passion and become a stronger, more united couple. By instilling so much conflict in the plot during the setup and buildup, Redfearn makes the novel’s falling action and resolution much more satisfying. The Millers appear to have insurmountable conflict at the novel’s beginning, but by the end, the novel’s tone turns to peace, understanding, and acceptance.
While the Miller family exemplifies the peace that comes from healing, the Golds demonstrate the harm of characters failing to resolve their conflict. In the immediate aftermath of the accident, Finn and Mo notice that the Golds hold themselves apart from the others, prioritizing their own well-being over anyone else’s. This distancing adds to the novel’s conflict and, in the end, prevents the Golds from healing from their trauma. Bob never admits he did anything wrong by tricking Oz into leaving the camper. He continues his lies and refuses to confess to his part in Oz’s death. In so doing, Bob robs himself of the opportunity to make things right with the Miller family. He also allows the conflict between the two families to tear his family apart. Karen likewise refuses to heal her disagreement with Ann. Without Ann’s support and encouragement, Karen’s marriage begins to fail, and the novel closes with Karen moving to San Diego instead of staying with Bob to save her marriage. Thus, though the Millers appear to have more conflict at the novel’s beginning, they overcome this conflict to become a stronger, more united family despite their losses. The Golds, in contrast, fail to resolve their conflict and end the novel broken and bitter.
Betrayal and Forgiveness
As with the theme of healing family trauma and conflict, Redfearn demonstrates the power of forgiveness in part by presenting at the start a series of profound betrayals. The most significant example of betrayal is when Bob sends his best friends’ son into the wilderness to die, operating on the unfounded premise that Oz is too dangerous to keep around in an already volatile situation. Bob deepens this betrayal of the Millers when he lies about Oz’s disappearance and insists that the boy voluntarily gave Bob his gloves. Another significant betrayal occurs with Karen’s selfishness. Karen views Ann’s protection of Mo, by giving Finn’s warmer boots to Mo instead of Natalie, as a betrayal to her own family. Karen feels her daughter’s comfort is more important than Mo’s because of Ann’s closeness to the Gold family. However, Karen’s callousness in this moment is the real betrayal. Karen fails to take into account Mo’s vulnerability; Mo has no parents present to advocate for her. Karen also resents Ann for repeatedly promising Mrs. Kaminski that she will look after Mo, choosing to hate her friend for keeping that promise. While Finn can only observe most of these events, Finn also somewhat betrays her family. As Oz wanders in the woods, he begins crying for his dad. Unable to bear her brother’s cries, Finn flees the scene: “I tell him I love him and that Bingo is safe, and then I leave, deeply ashamed for being too much of a coward to stay” (112). Even Mo betrays Finn by feeling relief that Finn died instead of her. That most characters betray someone, albeit to varying extents, heightens the novel’s emphasis on betrayal.
Having developed these examples of betrayal, Redfearn then demonstrates how each character finds or gives forgiveness. Ann, for instance, eventually forgives herself for betraying Kyle by letting go of his hand. Chloe forgives Vance for abandoning her, happy to see him recover from his drug addiction. Jack forgives Ann for leaving Oz behind, realizing Ann faced an impossible choice and ultimately saved the others without any intention of harming Oz. He also forgives Ann’s emotional reliance on Bob, allowing his relationship with his wife to heal and blossom. When Ann learns of Bob’s part in Oz’s death, she breaks off her relationship with him despite not blaming him completely, preventing her need to forgive him. The many examples of betrayal, in turn, yield many examples of forgiveness. Redfearn thereby shows readers the benefit of forgiveness and the peace it can bring, even after truly traumatizing events.
Again, this time with regard to ability to forgive, the Gold family contrasts powerfully with the Millers. Bob can’t forgive himself for sending Oz into the wilderness because he refuses to acknowledge his poor judgment and cruelty. The events therefore leave him bitter and resentful, especially toward Karen, and his life dramatically changes for the worse. Redfearn insinuates that Bob will plead guilty to negligent homicide after his arrest and posting bond. By doing so, Bob avoids prison time but will likely lose his dental practice because he’ll be a convicted felon. Further, Bob’s marriage suffers greatly after the accident because Bob won’t take ownership of his choice, leading him to despise Karen, who is herself brought down by her inability to forgive Ann. Thus, the Gold family stews in their weaknesses, their emotional wounds from the event left to fester. This contrast between the Golds and the Millers furthers the idea that forgiveness is essential to mental health and recovery from trauma, while refusing to forgive often has detrimental consequences.
The Struggle Between Ethics and Survival
Redfearn explores how life-and-death situations can test individuals’ morality with the theme of The Struggle Between Ethics and Survival. Redfearn places her characters in a situation that forces them to question their own odds of survival with an eye to the strengths and weaknesses and loyalties of the other characters around them. While some characters behave more admirably than others, all discover new weaknesses—after the events of the accident, the characters are painfully aware of the worst of themselves. They are all capable of cowardice, some even of selfishness and cruelty, and they have experienced true helplessness. It is this self-discovery, perhaps even more so than the losses the families endure, that traumatizes the characters.
Central to the characters’ trauma after the accident is how they behave when their own survival is at stake. Ann lets go of Kyle when his fall threatens to drag her down with him. Vance convinces Chloe to leave shelter with him, only to leave her behind when she can no longer keep up. Perhaps most notably, Bob tricks Oz into looking for Ann to get the boy away from his family. After the characters’ rescue, it’s events such as these that haunt them most profoundly. Yet Redfearn does not condemn the characters by oversimplifying these decisions; rather, the author emphasizes the complex blend of instinct, logic, and loyalties that determines how people make impossible decisions.
It’s difficult to judge these choices fairly because Redfearn presents the characters’ choices in the context of survival and stress. After the accident, Redfearn uses her characters to create a dialogue that questions which decisions are right and which are wrong. Ultimately, some characters develop enough to admit that many decisions are based on a survival situation and shouldn’t receive harsh judgment. Ann articulates this idea well when she arrives at the cabin and confronts Jack’s blame for leaving Oz. She says, “‘[Bob] screwed up […] Just like I screwed up and you screwed up.’ She thumbs her hand at Vance. ‘And he screwed up. And Chloe screwed up. We all screwed up, and you don’t get to blame me or ditch me because of it’” (262). Likewise, Mo knows that Bob made a serious mistake by sending Oz away. However, she admits that “what Bob did was terrible, but he wouldn’t have done any of it except for the situation [they] were in” (234). These powerful statements exemplify what some characters have learned while overcoming their trauma. The characters had difficult choices, and few made the best choices. However, most of them overcome those poor choices by forgiving themselves and those who betrayed them.
In short, what matters is not so much the characters’ actions, as all the characters “screwed up,” but the characters’ reactions and reflections after the fact. Ann instantly feels regret. Vance does as well, telling himself to continue in the hope that finding assistance may help save Chloe. Even Bob rationalizes his decision in the moment, believing he’s doing what’s best for his family despite knowing what his actions will likely harm Oz. As time progresses, though, the importance of the characters’ reactions amplifies, playing into the theme of Betrayal and Forgiveness. While most of the other characters recognize their failures as rescue arrives, Bob doubles down on his poor choice even though his own survival is no longer in question. He lies to Burns about what direction Oz took when he left and, by lying, prevents the rescuers from any chance of finding Oz. These examples demonstrate Redfearn’s use of complicated ethical choices the characters must face and how each decision has vast consequences.
Redfearn uses ethics and survival to argue that decisions made under duress are often difficult to judge and understand. Redfearn also reaches her audience by presenting these dilemmas in a way that allows the audience to place themselves in the novel and assess what they might do in that situation. Through her characters, Redfearn makes the case that there’s no way to know what someone will do in a difficult situation until that moment arises. More important is the reaction afterward. Finn’s perspective emphasizes that fact. It is critical, while we are still alive, to acknowledge mistakes and work to forgive both ourselves and others for them.
