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               In my opinion, the segment that best portrays Rebecca Solnit's concept of intertwined lives, and how we are defined by of others around us, is best described in the first Ice chapter. In this section, the story of Frankenstein and the abomination he created is retold, but instead of just retelling a story, Solnit performs surgery and dissects the author's life to show readers how different consequences are embedded in creating this horror/psychological classic. Just like how the monster's self was a consequence of Frankenstein's rejection and irresponsibility, the author, Mary Shelley, and her defined 'self'' is a consequence of others in her live--her father, her mother, her husband, her dead children.  

Mary was often called as "cold" because she was reserve, and she even said so herself. But, Solnit shows us a different way of "telling" the story: Mary was the mother of dead children, Mary was the wife of a pleasure-loving husband, Mary was the cast-off of her father, Mary was the death of her mother. Who she was, was influenced  by the people around her, and the people around those people. And, out of all that came the inspiration for the novel Frankenstein and the monster. A monster, the embodiment of Mary's loneliness,her father's irresponsibility, her dead children, and husband's neglect. There are other ways of telling.