A+Mountain+Journey



Short Stories - Literary Devises Title: A Mountain Journey

Point: 3rd Person ( Omniscient/Limited?)

Dave Conroy
 * Protagonist: **

What type of character is the Protagonist? Dave Conroy is a round and dynamic character.

Antagonist: Himself.

Describe the setting The story takes place in the snowy mountains along the Snake Indian River near Jasper, Alberta. The story probably took place around the late 1800's early 1900's because that's when railroads and horses were used a lot. And  the story was definitely before the 1970's because that's when Canada converted to the metric system and started using kilometers instead of miles. The overall mood of the story is loneliness and a longing to go home.

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Type of Conflict: Man Vs. Himself.

Describe the main conflict: Throughout the story he is making decisions to keep going on. He debates with himself whether to stay for another night or go another couple miles and make it to a cabin. He’s tired and cold but he still pushes himself to go on. His tired body and frozen fingers are his main challenge. Even though the environment is a challenge to overcome, he ultimately makes the decisions that lead to these challenges. Excellent!

Describe the Climax of the Story: The climax of the story is when Conroy wakes covered in snow and unable to move after he falls asleep on the ridge. He wakes up, he’s not panicking, and he expects MacMoran and Macdonald to come save him. It’s like an unconscious gesture of giving up. And after that point nothing else really happens other than his death, which is the conclusion.

How does the Protagonist change over the course of the story? He didn't really change that much. In the beginning, Conroy was persistent and stubborn to reach the cabin. He always kept going even though he was cold and tired. He only really changed at the climax of the story, instead of continuing to climb up the ridge he takes a rest. He changes his attitude and gives in to his cold and overworked body. At the very end near his death, instead of trying to get up, he wishes for people to come save him. He admits that he's in trouble which he had be denying and hopes for help.

Describe the relationship between the title and the theme. A mountain has peaks that represent high and low points. Conroy is making decisions and choices that he thinks is going to bring him home faster or save himself from death. That’s a high point. And as soon as he realizes all his decisions are not leading him home faster at all, everything goes downhill to the lowest point.

How does the main conflict help to illustrate the theme? <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">Conroy is making choices and decisions throughout the entire story. He battles himself in making the safer choice or the riskier one that would get him home faster and ultimately leads to his death.

How does the climax help to illustrate the theme? <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">Conroy decides, even though he isn’t lucid and might not realize it, to give up and rest and just wait for help. This is the biggest and final decision/choice he makes in the entire story.

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

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">Simile: "He swung to the right in a wide telemark that threw snow in his face, swept down an open meadowland where the black tips of willows showed between two walls of timber, dropped off cutbank to the frozen river, glanced a moment over his shoulder at the curved beauty of his ski trail on the hill above, curved and smooth and thin, like the tracing of a pen apon upon the snow. ﻿" "At every step too, he had broken trail and his skis had sunk a foot in the new snow, white and soft as flour. " "A beggard moon from behind a grey rack of clouds wandered in the sky above the earth's desolation and in its light he perceived on the slope above him, where the fire had leaped from the cabin, stiff, branchless trees, like a parade of skeletons climbing up the mountainside. "

Metaphor: "He tucked his ski poles under his arms, leaned upon them, sinking their discs into the creaking snow, and while he rested there panting, the cold was an old man's fingers feeling craftily through his clothes. "

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">Personification: <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">"His pack slipped forward upon the back of his his head and held him." "He saw dark water streaming in furrows by his wrists and before he staggered upright again heard water tinkling over pebbles, murmuring, protesting, running downhill between ice and pebbles to the Arctic Ocean. " " A beggard moon from behind a grey rack of clouds wandered in the sky above the earth's desolation and in its light he perceived on the slope above him, where the fire had leaped from the cabin, stiff, branchless trees, like a parade of skeletons climbing up the mountainside."

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">Symbol: "The world growing small, dying slowly in the darkness of the sunlight." - It's a symbol for death and also ironic. "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." - The open door is welcoming him to his death, like walking into the light.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">Foreshadowing (give both elements): <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">“A man when he was alone would travel too far. He would travel till he could travel no more, for the mere sake of travelling, when a day of two’s delay in the time of his arrival made no difference at all.” - The sentence implies that a man would travel until he died and Conroy did. <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">The description of the story says that Conroy is "driven by a gnawing fear of death..." which implies that something bad is going to happen to him

Irony: In the beginning of the story Conroy admits that he should have stopped 2 miles back. Then later he admits that he should have waited another 2 weeks so that the weather would be less severe and that a man travelling alone was a fool. He knew all these things yet he kept going. So in the end, after he went against everything he knew and died it was ironic.

Imagery: <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px;">"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." <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px;">"A beggard moon from behind a grey rack of clouds wandered in the sky above the earth's desolation and in its light he perceived on the slope above him, where the fire had leaped from the cabin, stiff, branchless trees, like a parade of skeletons climbing up the mountainside." <span style="color: #48f972; font-size: 13px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px;">(This is like my favourite sentence seeing as I've used it 3 times.)

Describe the relationships between the class theme and the story. Everything Dave Conroy does in this story is a choice. Conroy chose to start his journey in the first place. He chose to continue his journey even when he should have stopped, he chose to ignore his cold and wet hands and feet, and he chose to rest while climbing the ridge. He chose everything that happened to him because life is basically a bunch of choices.

Completion 5/5 Effort 5/5 Content 5/5 total 15/15

Character Sketch

The protagonist of Howard O'Hagan's A Mountain Journey gets himself into trouble at every turn (too informal). The combination of Dave Conroy’s persistence, over confidence, and inability to admit to failure is ultimately what led him to his death. Conroy was too persistent to stop when he was “…so tired that his mouth was dry with the taste of salt.” If he was not always so focused on making it further and actually listened to his overworked body he would have stopped long before he even fell through the ice. After falling through the ice, Conroy would not admit that his hands and feet were wet. “They were cold, but perhaps, he thought, not wet.". By the time he could no longer move his fingers or feel his feet he “…decided that his hands were not frozen, his feet, which he could no longer feel in his boots, were not frozen. They were only numb.” His over confidence led him to believe that even after the day’s events he could still make it to Terrace Creek because “He had never finished a day in the mountains yet without another ten miles up his sleeve.” Well that day he did not have another ten miles left in him (too informal) . If he had stopped to rest when he felt tired or started a fire when he still could, he would not have died that day in the mountains.

Well done Cecilia. Excellent job integrating your quotes into your writing. 5.5/6 Sunny Chen Cecilia Liu

5/6

She should have more information and explanations, but the overall it's pretty good.