A+Mountain+Journey

** __ Short Stories- Literary Devises __ ** [|howtoreadastory.pdf]

**__ Title :__** A Mountain Journey

__ **Point of View:** __ Third Person (Omniscient/Limited?)


 * __ Protagonist: __ ** **Dave Conroy **


 * __What type of character is the Protagonist: __** Round and dynamic.


 * __Antagonist: __Environment **

Alberta, Canada Late 1700’s Tense
 * __ Describe the setting: __**
 * This is not really a complete description. More details are required. **


 * __ Type of Conflict: __**** ﻿ ** Man vs. Environment


 * __ Describe the main conflict: __** Dave Conroy struggles against the harsh and freezing environment. (What about the internal conflict?)


 * __ ﻿﻿﻿Describe the Climax of the Story __** Once he sits down to rest, he is unable to get up again and he thinks about what he was supposed to accomplish.

We decided that this is the climax because rising action was at it’s highest point of rising action when he froze his fingers and had to start climbing. After, he decides to sit down and rest, and there is no further action and nothing new is introduced for the rest of the short story.

__**How does the Protagonist change over the course of the story? ** __

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">At the beginning, he was tired yet confident, and he did not think he needed the rest. By the end, he was disappointed and his morale was crushed once he discovered his burnt down cabin, Dave also had to persevere when his hands and feet were frozen; as he had no other choice.

__<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">**<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif;">Describe the relationship between the title and the theme. ** __

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Title: “A Mountain Journey” <span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin: 0in;">Theme: Taking Risks <span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin: 0in;">The title and theme are related as a journey can be greatly altered by the risks you take.


 * __ How does the main conflict help to illustrate the theme? __**

<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin: 0in;">Main conflict: Harsh Environments <span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin: 0in;">Theme: Taking Risks <span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin: 0in;">He’s up against natural forces which can easily kill him if he does not make the right decisions.


 * __ How does the climax help to illustrate the theme? __ **

<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin: 0in;">Climax: Dave taking a rest forced by exhaustion <span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin: 0in;">Theme: Taking risks <span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin: 0in;">Dave would not be exhausted if he hadn’t been so greedy and hasty in making his decisions. He risked making one whole trip to MacDonald MacMoran to deliver the fur.


 * __ Give examples of each of the following literary terms in the story (use quotes): __ **


 * __ Simile: __ ** “...black as ink...” -Referring to the moon’s shadows. (Page 97)


 * __ Metaphor: __ ** **<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; font-weight: normal;">“...the cold was an old man’s fingers feeling craftily through his clothes.” (Page 91) **


 * __ Personification: __ ** **<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; font-weight: normal;">“...pine trees that swayed as the wind sighed through them." (Page 95) **


 * __ Symbol: __ ** **<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; font-weight: normal;">“...a strong and lonely woman...” - It represented shelter, warmth, and protection. Dave was too greedy and confident, he decided to continued on his journey to find better shelter. (Page 92) **

<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin: 0in;">This is a piece of foreshadowing as it hints that he regrets his decision of making camp back in time. So it has a small hint that he may not find shelter as easily as he thought. It is ironic that his cabin was burnt down and he had no shelter in sight for him to rest.
 * __ Foreshadowing (Give both elements): __ ** **<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; font-weight: normal;">1. “He knew as he stood on the summit he should have made camp two miles back in the timber and crossed the divide in the morning.” (Page 91) 2. “But no log walls rose to greet him. No closed door waited for his touch to open. He stood in the middle of the clearing where the cabin had been, hemmed about by swaying pine trees.” (Page 95) **

<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin: 0in;">-He bypassed several different shelter opportunities and took huge risks to get to his warm cabin, and when he arrived, he found that it had been burnt down.
 * __<span style="color: red; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">I __ __ rony: __ ** **<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; font-weight: normal;">Situational Irony- “But no log walls rose to greet him. No closed door waited for his touch to open. He stood in the middle of the clearing where the cabin had been, hemmed about by swaying pine trees.” (Page 95) **


 * __ Imagery: __ ** **<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; font-weight: normal;">“He heard streaming river water. He heard a wide brown river running over mossy boulders between low banks of grass and willow. Across the valley he saw a cottage he had never seen before-a white cottage, low-roofed, with green trees.” (Page 98) -This is a great piece of imagery as this paragraph is well-described and gives you different different sense of hearing and sight. **

__** Describe the relationships between the class theme and the story. **__ Our class theme is "Choices." In the short story "A Mountain Journey," Dave Conroy had to make many choices. He had to choose when to make camp and rest, and when to keep going to deliver the fur to Macdonald MacMoran. Once he got to his burnt down cabin, he had to choose whether to go right to MacDonald or to find shelter for rest. He decides to keep going and ends up taking a rest at a crucial time; as he cannot get up after lying down. In the end, he was not decisive enough to make the right choices. Completion 5/5 Effort 4.5/5 Content 4/5 total 13.5/15