A+Mountain+Journey




 * Short Stories - Literary Devises Title:_A Mountain Journey_ **

third person limited
 * Point of View: **

Dave Conroy
 * Protagonist: **

adventurous and brave but impulsive. He is not very rational.
 * What type of character is the Protagonist? **

**Antagonist:** himself / the wilderness / fear and fatigue

February in the secluded wilderness before inventions like ATVs etc......; travelling dowhill on a snow covered mountain to Hoodoo Creek and the Snake Indian River; in Alberta
 * Describe the setting **

man vs himself, man vs nature
 * Type of Conflict: **

The main conflict is man vs himself because even though it was a harsh environment if he had calmed down and thought about what he was doing he probably would have survived. He made a series of bad decisionsthat eventually led to his death.
 * Describe the main conflict: **

When Dave lay down in the snow just to rest but ended up not getting up.
 * Describe the Climax of the Story: **

As he gets more tired, he keeps making wrong decisions. After each mistake he realizes what he should have done. He loses confidence in himself as he realizes his mistakes. He finally gives up.
 * How does the Protagonist change over the course of the story? **

The title (A Mountain Journey) relates to the theme (Choices) because Dave is facing an up hill battle to survive in the wilderness. Each choice he makes along his journey seems to pull him farther down and make it harder for him to survive. The downhill part of his journy is where he gets carless and makes all his mistakes.
 * Describe the relationship between the title and the theme. **

The main conflict (man vs himself) helps illustrate the theme (Choices) because he is having a struggle with himself to make the right decisions. Each time he made a decision, he had a chance to save himself.
 * How does the main conflict help to illustrate the theme? **

The climax (falling asleep in the snow) illustrates the theme (decision making) because it was a bad decision to do so. It was his final decision.
 * How does the climax help to illustrate the theme? **


 * <span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Give examples of each of the the following literary terms in the story (use quotes): **


 * <span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Simile: **
 * "That tree was like a strong and lonely woman"
 * "stiff branchless trees, like a parade of skeletons climbing up the mountaunside"
 * white and soft as a flour"


 * <span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Metaphor: **
 * the cold was an old mans fingers


 * <span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Personification: **
 * "his fire slept with him"
 * "those ski points always just beyond him, their tight cheeks pulled back into a cadaverous grin.


 * <span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Symbol: **
 * “Across the valley he saw a cottage he had never seen before – a white cottage, low roofed, with green trees beside it and an open door.” ( feel that this simbolizes heaven or the fact that he's dead)
 * <span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Foreshadowing (give both elements): **


 * “A man when he was alone would travel too far. He would travel till he could travel no more, for the mere sake of traveling…" This foreshadows that he will not finish his journey.
 * “He had been a fool. He should have made a fire when he fell through the ice, should have spent the night three miles up the river…” This shows that Dave is regretting his bad decisions and foreshadows further bad decisions that will lead to distaster.
 * The cabin that was going to be his refuge had burned down. This foreshadows misfortune.
 * <span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Irony: **
 * “…he remembered Duncan Macdonald… who had walked thirty miles to the railroad on frozen feet to have them amputated… Macdonald had opened a cobbler’s shop in jasper to make boots he could no longer wear himself.”
 * As a trapper, Dave is out there to kill nature and, in the end, nature kills him.
 * The animals Dave was trying to trap and kill will probably live off of his remains.
 * <span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Imagery: **
 * “Mist, like the shadow of universal darkness on the treeless summit, moved about him, searched every crevice of the mountain land, roamed in great billows, formed in the blindness and suffering of eternal homelessness.”
 * :...the curved beauty of his ski trail on the hill above, curved and smooth and thin, like the tracing of a pen upon the snow."

<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The class theme (power) is related to the story because, though Dave does have power over his decisions, he does not have power over the forces of nature. In the end, he had the power to force himself to carry on but he decided to give up, therefore losing all his power.
 * <span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Describe the relationships between the class theme and the story. **