Breadcrumbs

Jack Campbell is Hazel’s best friend. The narrator describes the fifth grader as a “brown-haired, freckled boy” (4). At the start of the novel, Jack is mischievous, throwing snowballs at Hazel when her back is turned and making funny faces at her through the school’s windows. Under this playful exterior, Jack is deeply empathetic. He gives Hazel “his most prized possession, a baseball signed by Joe Mauer” (39), in an effort to console her after her parents’ divorce. The baseball becomes a symbol of Jack’s heart and plays a key role in the climax. Another one of Jack’s traits is his creativity. He invents imaginative games like superhero baseball and uses his drawings to express feelings that he has difficulty discussing. For example, he communicates his sense of being overlooked by his parents and his desire to escape from his difficult circumstances by sketching a “simple palace […] with four thin turrets coming up from each corner” where an invisible boy hides (45). The sketch’s foreshadowing is fulfilled when Jack seeks to hide from his mother’s depression by going to the witch’s palace, which resembles his drawing. Jack is a highly creative, empathetic, and playful boy who contends with challenging emotions due to his mother’s mental illness.

As the novel’s dynamic deuteragonist, Jack characterization undergirds to the story’s plot, genre, and thematic meaning. In Ursu’s retelling of “The Snow Queen,” Jack serves as the novel’s Kay figure. However, Jack has a more contemporary and realistic background, whereas Kay’s life seems one of uninterrupted bliss before the mirror shards strike him. In both texts, the protagonist’s resolve to rescue her friend from a supernatural force provides her primary motivation throughout the story. Underscoring the impact of depression on children, Jack’s mother’s mental illness makes him want to escape reality, leaving him vulnerable to the witch. After he’s struck by a shard of the magic mirror, Jack becomes numb and vacant. His desensitization escalates until he loses himself completely. These changes are essential to the theme of The Evolution of Childhood Friendships because Hazel must make the mature decision to save Jack even if their relationship is never as close as it once was. By the end of the novel, Jack slowly begins to return to himself, validating Hazel’s decision to rescue him and his choice to give real life another chance.

The white witch is the novel’s antagonist. She is “tall and lithe like a sketch,” has “[h]air like spun crystal” and “cream-colored skin,” and wears “a white fur cape and a white shimmering gown” (94). Her eyes are “as bright as the sun reflecting off snow” yet as cold as frost (94). The complete lack of warmth in the witch’s eyes reflects the idea that Jack goes to her seeking a replacement maternal figure but discovers that she can offer only emptiness and oblivion. The witch is a dreaded force within the perilous fantasy world of the woods. Many characters, including the guardswoman, urge Hazel to abandon her quest, asserting: “You can’t defeat her […] All you can do is pretend she’s not there” (213). The witch embodies the cold, which represents desensitization, so she feels almost no emotion. Occasionally, she demonstrates mild amusement, such as when she jokingly offers Jack Turkish delight—an allusion to the White Witch in C. S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Another distinct trait of the white witch is her total lack of desire in a world where people’s wishes tempt them into danger.

Ursu draws on fairy tales and fantasy novels as inspiration for her antagonist, and the white witch plays a key role in the story’s plot and themes. The author implies that Hans Christian Andersen’s Snow Queen and C. S. Lewis’s White Witch are both manifestations of this same archetypal figure. For example, Ben assures Hazel that “Narnia is like her” (198). Like Andersen’s titular Snow Queen, the witch abducts the protagonist’s best friend. Her ability to traverse between the real world and the magical woods emphasizes the intersection of reality and fantasy in Breadcrumbs, accelerating the novel’s plot, and necessitating the quest that leads to Hazel’s coming-of-age journey. Although the white witch is highly dangerous, she isn’t a conventional villain, because she doesn’t operate out of greed or malice. Children choose to go with her freely, and she claims that she froze Jack’s heart “for his own good” to spare him from pain (279). The white witch’s static characterization underscores her eternal nature and separation from emotion and desires, further setting her in contrast to the novel’s human characters.

Ms. Anderson is Hazel’s mother. She is “white with blue eyes and light brown hair” (17). Hazel has some complex emotions around her adoption because she infers that one of the reasons her peers bully her is because most of her classmates’ families “came in matching sets” (17).

Hazel’s parents adopted her when she was a baby, so Ms. Anderson has known Hazel longer than any other character who appears in the novel. While Hazel looks at the world through the lens of fantasy, her mother is pragmatic and seeks to cultivate this trait in her 11-year-old, saying, “[Y]ou’ve got to try to be practical for me, okay? You’re a big girl” (8), foreshadowing Hazel’s coming-of-age arc. At the beginning of the story, Hazel mistakes her mother’s realism for indifference. Although Ms. Anderson tries to be strong for her daughter, she struggles with her recent divorce, with her limited finances, and with helping Hazel navigate school and the challenges of growing up. The woman’s energy is stretched thin between her job, taking night classes, and raising her daughter by herself. Ursu depicts Ms. Anderson as a deeply loving parent, evidenced through the sacrifices she makes to keep her promise that “she [will] just work twice as hard for Hazel” after the divorce (241). Ms. Anderson faces major life changes and challenges with a pragmatic attitude, a strong work ethic, and an unshakeable love for her daughter.

As the protagonist’s mother, Ms. Anderson plays an important role in Hazel’s changing perspectives on reality and friendship. Although the woman’s characterization is consistent, Hazel’s understanding of her undergoes a dynamic shift. In particular, Hazel’s experiences with Nina and Lucas, who pose as the perfect parents to lure children to their cottage, instill a newfound appreciation for her mother’s love in her: “She [feels] the memory of her mother’s hand again. It’s all going to be okay” (248). This shift in how Hazel views her mother is part of her broader evolution as she grows from seeing reality as a series of drudgeries to realizing that she doesn’t want to hide in a fantasy. By setting up playdates with Adelaide and advising her daughter that “it’s not wrong to make other friends” (48), Ms. Anderson helps Hazel understand the inevitable evolution of childhood friendships. Eventually, the protagonist internalizes this lesson and lets go of the guilt that inhibits her ability to cultivate friendships with people besides Jack. Ms. Anderson adds a positive note to the novel’s resolution when she gives Hazel “a pair of pink ballet shoes” (311). The gift suggests favorable changes to come in Hazel’s life and demonstrates her mother’s resilience and hope for her family despite the divorce and its financial ramifications.