A Mountain Journey – Questions

A Mountain Journey – Questions

Brent A.                                                                                                          10/4/21

 

  1. Dave is out on a trip to prove to himself he can withstand nature and the cruel cold. He shows good examples of his resilience when he is chilled to the point where he has icicle stubs on his mustache or refusing to set up camp after falling into the river.
  2. The moment Dave found out he was in a deep pickle was finding out the cabin he was going to was burnt to ashes. He even tries to turn his lighter on, but his hands were frozen to the point where it seemed impossible to move.
  3. The mistakes Dave made were all about refusing to back down from the cold even
    just for a moment. Like not stopping at the first tree to set up for camp and give himself a breather, not even bothering to change his clothes after falling into the ice-cold river. That could have prevented him from his hands freezing up. He chose to start trapping in the winter in March, which looks like the cold weather hit its ultimate prime time. Going trapping just a bit later could have at least eradicate his fear of getting frozen. I’d say his biggest mistake was not setting up camp earlier.
  4. The title of this book is “A Mountain Journey,” written by Howard O’ Hagan. The story is about a man that goes by the name of Dave Conroy, who strides alone in a cold forest, clinging to his life while desperately trying to find shelter. The initiating incident was when he decided to not set up camp under a tree. Him moving on from not so bad camp idea was the reason he fell deeper and deeper into this rabbit hole, and the chances of him not freezing up grew narrower and narrower. The first rising action of the story is when he fell into the ice-cold river, causing his hands to freeze up. The second rising action was finding out the cabin he was going to stay in for shelter was burnt to just a few atoms. Meaning his time to warm up and shelter himself from the cold was postponed. The third rising action was making the final decision, to abandon his furs and was to stride 80 miles ahead for a cabin he hoped he wouldn’t find disintegrated to ashes. The climax was when Dave stumbles into the snow, and his hallucinations become stronger and stronger, and in the falling action, it reveals Dave was losing grip of his consciousness
  5. The setting is in an insanely cold forest in a mountain, not only would this be difficult for Dave in itself, seeing how difficult it was for him to deal with the weather. It’d make it even harder for him to find other people.
  6. The cabin represented anticipation and disappointment. It was false hope, Dave refused to camp out because he was convinced the cabin would be there to grant him, even more, warmth and comfort, only having it 5 miles away would be nothing to him. Yet the unexpected happens, having Dave find out the loss of a cabin due to a heated fire.
  7. Metaphor – “The cold nibbled on at his nose.”

Personification – “The fire gutted the cabin.”
Simile – “Curved and smooth and thin, like of a pen upon the snow.”

Metaphor – “The cold was an old man’s fingers feeling craftily through his clothes.”