SNOWGLOBE

Ancient humans universally believed that the earth was a flat disc that was covered by a globe. The glove was the universe. The stars, planets and heavenly objects were attached to the top of the globe. These early humans believed that god or gods created this special place for them.

That human perception changed in the Middle Ages when scholars found out that the universe did not revolve around the Earth, but that the Earth revolved around a sun. It set off a fundamental change in humanity. The science of observation, experimentation and manipulation of nature would soon challenge then overtake primitive notions of man's relationship with nature and their religious beliefs.
The pure scientists believed that truth could only be measured by factual observation and repeated analysis. Those who thought to explain the unknown in the world held to the religious overtones of gods, spirits, fate and faith.

One could argue that the science versus faith theme was a major component underlying much of the LOST plot lines. One could find the hard evidence of this dynamic with the conversation Jack had with Desmond:

JACK: So, before you ran off, I guess you just forgot to mention that you still have a sailboat. Why'd you come back?

DESMOND [laughing]: Do you think I did it on purpose? I was sailing for two and half weeks, bearing due West and making 9 knots. I should have been in Fiji in less than a week. But the first piece of land I saw wasn't Fiji, was it? No. No, it was here -- this, this island. And you know why? Because this is it. This is all there is left. This ocean and this place here. We are stuck in a bloody snowglobe. There's no outside world. There's no escape. So, just go away, huh. Let me drink.


Desmond described the Island as a "snowglobe" after experiencing navigational difficulties trying to escape it. Desmond had tried to flee the Island in his boat, but he steered due west rather than the necessary bearing. As a result, he arrived back at the Island.



We are shown evidence of early man's perception of their world: a snowglobe universe. Even with the high tech science brought to bear on the Island by men throughout the centuries (including the Dharma stations), the setting of the Island still harbors the first representation of man's concept of his universe: the snowglobe.

Was this a coincidental, off-the-cuff remark in dialog?  There were other references to snowglobes in the series:

1. A page in Hurley's Spanish comic book showed a dome covering a magical city.
2. A snowglobe was on the counter of the shop where Michael pawned his watch in Meet Kevin Johnson.
3. There was a large bluish globe on the top shelf of the bookcase in Aaron's bedroom.

If there is one constant in Hollywood is the point that nothing is totally new. The LOST writers were fans of Alan Moore's graphic novel Watchmen, which  contained a few references to snowglobes. One character dropped a snowglobe as a child in a scene similar to Sun's in "Further Instructions". The character imagined the inside of the snowglobe as a "whole world; a world inside the ball." The person references that they are inside a ball in some different sort of time. The comic also featured an tropical utopia Antarctic base shielded by massive glass hemisphere from the snow outside.

One theory is that the Island is indeed a snowglobe, on Earth but in a slightly different dimension or time. Whether it is a nexus, portal or bridge to the after life or parallel universe is open to discussion.
In this view, the characters have been transported to what would seem to them to be a magical place (like Oz) where their perceptions of their universe do not match their current surroundings.


Another theory reflects that the possibility that the snowglobe statement is a clue to the big premise of the series. In the 1980s, the TV drama St. Elsewhere  featured a Boston hospital and its staff that were revealed, in the final episode, to exist only inside a snowglobe, imagined by an autistic boy. Some viewers connected that premise when they saw the Hurley-centric episode, "Dave,"  which focus was on mental illness and hallucinations, that strongly suggested that the Island was all in Hurley's imagination.


When one tries to figure out the premise of LOST, one must consider even the smallest clues having possibly the greatest impact on our collective understanding. The simple concept of the snowglobe, from historical reference to child's toy of imagination, is emblematic of LOST.