1. What was Dave Conroy doing out in the wilderness? (motivation)
Dave Conroy’s motivation for being out in the wilderness was to trap animals for his occupation.
2. At what point does the reader know the protagonist is in serious trouble and not likely to make it to MacMoran’s cabin? (plot).
The reader knows the protagonist is in serious trouble and will not get to MacMorans’s cabin when he lands in the water and cannot light a match because his fingers are frozen.
3. What three critical mistakes did Conroy make? What are some of the things he could have done to prevent himself from freezing? (plot)
A mistake Conroy made was that he a saw a great big tree to camp under for the night but decided not to and instead keep going. Additionally, when he got soaked from falling into the lake, he didn’t dry off immediately. Instead decided he would do so once he got to the cabin. Another crucial mistake he made was that when realizing that the cabin had been burnt; without stopping to warm-up he decided to keep going. Dave Conroy could have went with someone or dried off first before continuing to the cabin. These actions could have prevented him from freezing.
4. Determine the plot elements in this story: exposition, complicating incident, 3 crises, climax, and the denouement.
The exposition is Dave Conroy alone out in the wilderness freezing. Dave refusing to camp under the tree is the complicating incident of the story.The first rising action is when he falls into the lake and doesn’t dry off. Secondly, is when he realizes the cabin has been burnt down. Lastly, is Dave trying to make a fire but cannot. This causes him to decided to walk the additional 18 miles to the next cabin. The climax of the story is Dave imaging thing because of the cold. When he starts to lose focus of reality and starts to go is the denouement.
5. Describe the setting-how does the setting affect the plot and the theme of the story? What is the theme – write a them statement for this story.
The setting of the story is in Northern BC/Alberta, Canada. Its around February and it is wintertime. There is snow covering the mountain and you can infer that it is near a railroad and lake. The setting affects the story because if it changed than the plot and characters would change as well. The plot would different because the environment/setting affects the character directly.
The theme of the story is that the risks you take on your journey can affect you in the future.
6. Find one example of symbolic setting (concrete place that represents something abstract) and explain its meaning.
A symbolic setting is the cabin, it is only a building. Although for Dave it is haven and hope. He doesn’t stop because he wants to make it to the cabin, but when he gets there it has burnt down.
7. Quote four images from the story that make effective comparisons (figurative language: simile, metaphor, and personification)
- Personification: “a biting wind was driving the mist back.”
- Metaphor: “The cold was an old man’s fingers feeling craftily through his clothes”
- Simile : “Snow like a blanket covered his body.”
A Mountain Journey Vocabulary
- eternal p.92 = lasting or existing forever; without end or beginning
- immobility p.93 = the state of not moving; motionlessness
- opaque p.93 = not able to be seen through; not transparent.
- reverberation p.93 = prolongation of a sound; resonance
- momentum p.93 = the quantity of motion of a moving body.
- cadaverous p.94 = resembling a corpse in being very pale, thin, or bony
- congregated p.95 = gather into a crowd or mass
- inundation p.95 = an overwhelming abundance of people or things or flooding
- beggared p.95 = a person of a specified type, especially one to be envied or pitied
- filched. P.96 = pilfer or steal (something, especially a thing of small value) in a casual way