1.Dave Conroy was skiing in the wilderness to bring fifty pounds of fur to the market. He wanted to keep travelling for as he can last as that he could get to the cabins and not have to sleep under a tree.
2.The reader most likely knew that the protagonist is in serious trouble and not likely to make it to MacMoran’s cabin when he decides to lie down in the snow and rest. He still has a remaining six hundred feet to climb but the reader knows it is very unlikely that he will make it since Conroy has already layed down. Lying down was the symbol of giving up.
3.The first mistake Conroy made, was not choosing to rest under the big tree to get protection from the falling snow. The second mistake was not changing his clothes after getting all wet(Better chance of hypothermia). The last mistake was deciding not to rest where the cabins had been burnt down, instead, he chooses to travel to MacMoran’s cabin. Conroy should have dried himself off and put up camp right after he got soaked so he could keep himself warm. He should have stayed patient instead of trying to get to the cabins in one day. Conroy should not have let his motivation get to him so that he would know to take care of himself from freezing instead of delivering the fur as quickly as possible even though it would not have mattered if he was late.
4.The exposition was when Dave Conroy was introduced and the author told us that he was very cold and tired but still wanted to make it to the Hoodoo Cabins before the day was over. The complicating incident was when Conroy decided not to stop two miles ago even though his body was at it’s limit. The three crises were Dave Conroy fell into the water, when he decided to keep going after getting soaked, and when Conroy arrived at the Hoodoo cabins to discover that the cabins had been burnt down.
5.The climax was when Conroy decided to keep skiing to MacMoran’s cabin with his backpack left behind. Conroy was just six hundred feet from MacMoran’s when he decided to rest in the snow.The denouncement was Conroy hallucinating in the snow and dreaming about the warmth and the cottage with open doors.
The setting is the chilling, snowy and icy wilderness where there were no people and only trees to camp under. The chilling setting affects the protagonist by forcing him to go through struggles to survive. The setting is the antagonist and the cause of many problems in the story. It affects the theme by teaching us that pursuing and pursuing is not always the best idea. The theme statement for this story is to be patient and don’t let your pride take over(patience is a virtue).
6.The cottage with the open doors is a concrete place that represents the afterlife welcoming Conroy.
VOCAB
Eternal – Forever
Immobility – Motionless, Can’t move
Opaque – Can’t see through, blocking sight
Reverberation – Echo, Resound
Momentum – Motivation, Pride, Encouragement
Cadaverous – Corpse, Pale
Congregated – Gathered, Together
Inundation – Overflowing
Beggared – Exceeds ability
Filched – Casually reach