The escape is obvious; the “smash-up” should have meant certain death or irrevocable damage for both Mattie and Frome. But the most significant part to consider is the systemic absorption that Frome tries to avoid but inevitably returns to. Which, to go back to the beginning of the story, twenty years after the accident, Ethan becomes the one he refused to participate in; it becomes a spectacle, an object of projection, reading material that others can consume. Although he and Mattie literally sled away from a broken model, they overlook the true reality of their world: globalization has engulfed every aspect of public and private life: even the city itself has become subject to the materialistic elements of capitalism. normativeness. No matter where Frome goes, capitalist profit has taken over; there is no real way to escape the system. Perhaps Mrs. Hale weighs the escape attempt better when she says that "Ethan's face would break your heart... When I see him, I think he's the one who hurts the most" (Wharton 92). Ethan's physical scars are the tangible signs of the escape gone wrong, not simply in the sense that he is injured beyond repair, but also in the way his body will continue without his consent: his skin will repair itself and return – perhaps not in the same way. as it existed before, but certainly in a way that suggests permanence. Ethan