- What was Dave Conroy doing out in the wilderness? (motivation)
Dave was in the wilderness because he’s a trapper and he was skiing in order to reach the cabin.
- 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 when Dave wasn’t going to make it to the cabin when Dave’s hands and feet were completely frozen.
What three critical mistakes did Conroy make? What are some of the things he could have done to prevent himself from freezing? (plot)
-He tried to make a fire with his wet skis.
-He was carrying the bag over his back even though he could’ve left it so it wouldn’t have been harder for him to climb the moose.
-He climbed the mountain when his hands and feet were frozen.
What he could’ve done was to dry his clothes so he wouldn’t have frozen death. What he also could’ve done was to leave the bag so it wouldn’t make his trip harder.
- Determine the elements of plot in this story: exposition, complicating incident, 3 crises, climax, and the denouement.
Dave Conroy is the exposition of the story. The complicating incident is to not stop at the tree to set up camp. Falling into the ice, not drying himself off and he can’t set the matches. The climax is when he lies down to rest and he hallucinates that he died.
- Describe the setting – how does the setting affect the plot and the theme of the story? What is the theme – write a theme statement for this story.
The setting is in a cold and rocky area in Northern Alberta. It’s wintertime and its mid February. The setting affects the plot mostly because Dave had fallen off the trail and if wasn’t wintertime than he wouldn’t fall of the trail and freeze.
- Find one example of symbolic setting (concrete place that represents something abstract) and explain its meaning.
At the end he started to see a white cabin which presumed to be his afterlife.
- Quote four images from the story that make effective comparisons (figurative language: simile, metaphor, and personification
“When he came out of the timber, the moon threw his shadow on the snow, a shadow faltering and stooped as if at any minute it might leave him, send him on alone to go shadow less through the moonlight.”
“The world was growing small, dying slowly in the darkness of the sunlight. “- personification