Ever since he was a little kid, Rex Scruggs has had only one ambition. Win the respect and approval and, heck, maybe even the love, of his difficult grandfather. It isn’t easy to be the grandson of Malcolm Scruggs whose house is filled with trophies and medals from his years as an international-level kayaker, and whose kayaking exploits on the rivers of the Columbian Andes decades earlier earned him a write-up in National Geographic magazine. Now seventeen, Rex, who has inherited from Gramps his fiercely competitive nature, is determined to travel to Columbia and kayak The Furiosos, the river that his grandfather never finished. He is determined to be the first to kayak it from top to bottom, and claim its first descent. Rex trains every …show more content…
Faced with the destruction of her village, Myriam, on the other hand, is more determined than ever to become a journalist and tell the world of her people’s plight. When a very changed Alberto slips him a message from Myriam, Rex begins to take heart. Freed from his prison by Alberto, Rex, the young guerilla and Myriam undertake a desperate run down the most dangerous part of The Furiosos hemmed in by land mines on either side and pursued by the guerillas. During the long hours of their flight, Rex learns that he is far more than merely an expert kayaker and that his quest for a first descent to impress his Gramps means nothing by comparison with the life-and-death struggle of Myriam’s people. Written by Pam Withers, First Descent is the gripping story of a young man who sets out to conquer a Columbian river and prove his worth to a difficult grandfather, and finds himself, instead, in the middle of a brutal tit-for-tat war between guerillas and paramilitary soldiers in which the real victims are the indígenas, Columbia’s native people. He also discovers the truth behind his grandfather’s failed attempt at running the river decades earlier, and the secret Gramps never revealed in all the years that
Drago, Harry Sinclair. Canal Days in America: The History and Romance of Old Towpaths and Waterways. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1972. page 48.
“Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” At some point in life one is faced with a decision which will define the future, but only time will tell whether or not the choice was right or wrong. The Boat by Alistair MacLeod demonstrates that an individual should make their own decisions in life, be open to new experiences and changes, and that there is no way to obtain something, without sacrificing something else.
The life and events Louis Zamperini experienced are so incredible that one cannot help but feel the adrenaline, anger, and sorrow he must have felt. As Louis battles starvation and the constant torture of his captors, readers want nothing more than to rush to his aid in times of pain, cry with him in times of anguish, and cheer him on when all hope seems lost. While in Kwajalein, an island used to torture prisoners of war, readers travel alongside Louis, cheering him on as “the guards sought to deprive [Louis] of something that had sustained [him] even as all else had been lost: dignity” (Hillenbrand 212). One of the guards’ favorite humiliation tactics was forcing each of the 200 or so prisoners “to walk down the line striking [Louis] with his fist” (Hillenbrand 158); if the punch was not hard enough, both Louis and his men would be clubbed continually on the head. As readers become emotionally invested, the story becomes less about a stranger and more about a lifelong friend. The emotional connection readers develop for Louis makes the visual that much harder to endure, for every blow and hardship Louis faces makes readers feel as if they are helplessly watching a friend in need. Such enthrallment in a novel makes for such an excellent read and an overall outstanding non-fiction action
One of the themes I considered significant concerning the journey of Cabeza de Vaca was the turmoil the crew encountered. As the soldiers began to sail for a royal expedition to the mainland of North America, disaster occurred; shipwreck, illness, lack of supplies, and captivity, which eventually destroyed the lives of several sailors. Sometimes, the best defense in an unexpected situation is how one responds. In the event of the hurricane which destroyed their boat the sailors proceeded to continue their journey by securing a new boat.
Connell accomplished this distraction by bringing the reader aboard a yacht that is accompanied by two men heading to Brazil. Of course, “Ship trap Island” creates a place of mystery and doesn’t leave a lot room for imagination. Connell illustrates the setting as both suspenseful and mysterious. The setting of the story takes the reader deep into the jungle of Ship Trap Island where a “chateau” is discovered. Only to discover that the “chateau”, belonging to General Zaroff’s, symbolizes more than the feeling of relief; it is General Zaroff’s personal hunting lodge. In fact, venturing through the unknown while in the middle of the night can be unnerving and suspenseful to anyone who has been in that position. As the reader follows Rainsford through the daunting task of finding help after falling off the yacht, the mysteries of Ship Trap Island has the reader on the edge of their seat wondering what is going to happen
The authors use imagery and detail to convey that people embark on quest to arrive a wanted place and one must persevere through hard times to achieve his goals.
“RG” by Austin Oscar Casares is a story about a man and a hammer he loaned out and has not gotten it back. The narrator and his neighbor, Bannert, discontinue their friendship for four years due to this hammer not being returned. It all changes when a horrible natural disaster happens, a hurricane. This leads to the central idea that, life is too short to be angry and to not hold grudges, because not everything is what it seems to be.
Set against the backdrop of post-WWII reservation life, the struggles of the Laguna Pueblo culture to maintain its identity while adjusting to the realities of modern day life are even more pronounced in Ceremony. Silko uses a wide range of characters in order to give a voice to as many representatives of her tribe as possible. The main character, Tayo, is the person with whom the reader is more than likely to relate. The story opens with him reliving various phases of his life in flashbacks, and through them, the reader shares his inability to discern reality from delusion, past from present and right from wrong. His days are clouded by his post-war sickness, guilt for being the one to survive while his cousin Rocky is slain, and his inability to cope neither with life on the reservation or in the outside world. He is one of several representations of the beginnings of the Laguna Pueblo youth interacting with modern American culture.
Such a series of tragic events has a great toll among the two main characters (Cox ) . For a vicious, careless indivi...
Louise Erdrich’s short story “American horse” is a literary piece written by an author whose works emphasize the American experience for a multitude of different people from a plethora of various ethnic backgrounds. While Erdrich utilizes a full arsenal of literary elements to better convey this particular story to the reader, perhaps the two most prominent are theme and point of view. At first glance this story seems to portray the struggle of a mother who has her son ripped from her arms by government authorities; however, if the reader simply steps back to analyze the larger picture, the theme becomes clear. It is important to understand the backgrounds of both the protagonist and antagonists when analyzing theme of this short story. Albetrine, who is the short story’s protagonist, is a Native American woman who characterizes her son Buddy as “the best thing that has ever happened to me”. The antagonist, are westerners who work on behalf of the United States Government. Given this dynamic, the stage is set for a clash between the two forces. The struggle between these two can be viewed as a microcosm for what has occurred throughout history between Native Americans and Caucasians. With all this in mind, the reader can see that the theme of this piece is the battle of Native Americans to maintain their culture and way of life as their homeland is invaded by Caucasians. In addition to the theme, Erdrich’s usage of the third person limited point of view helps the reader understand the short story from several different perspectives while allowing the story to maintain the ambiguity and mysteriousness that was felt by many Natives Americans as they endured similar struggles. These two literary elements help set an underlying atmos...
The story of a sea rescue is portrayed as “heroic” and “an outstanding contribution to search and rescue” (Margaret, Linley). While off duty, a local officer assisted a boy back to shore after having been caught in a rip tide. His actions were valiant, as were the boy’s father, who died while trying to save his son.
The Albatross for the crew is first viewed as a companion. The ice and bad weather causes an unforeseen stop on the voyage. The arrival of the Albatross gives company and entertainment to the crew. The bird
Treasure Island is one of the first texts to exposure modern culture to the cinematic world of piracy. This text, bursting with heroic themes and tantalizing twists and turns, stands as a striking example of romance in the pirate world. As the reader flips through the pages they come across a short section entitled “To the Hesitating Purchaser”, it is under this heading the author describes Treasure Island as “all the old romance, retold exactly in ancient way” . This text is an epic story of treasure, mystery, death and good victorious. The plot itself centers on the narrator Jim Hawkins, a boy who leaves his mother behind to find a buried treasure, the existence of which is found through mysteriou...
The story’s theme is related to the reader by the use of color imagery, cynicism, human brotherhood, and the terrible beauty and savagery of nature. The symbols used to impart this theme to the reader and range from the obvious to the subtle. The obvious symbols include the time from the sinking to arrival on shore as a voyage of self-discovery, the four survivors in the dinghy as a microcosm of society, the shark as nature’s random destroyer of life, the sky personified as mysterious and unfathomable and the sea as mundane and easily comprehended by humans. The more subtle symbols include the cigars as representative of the crew and survivors, the oiler as the required sacrifice to nature’s indifference, and the dying legionnaire as an example of how to face death for the correspondent.
Vaill, Peter B.. "Introduction: An Ordinary Day on the River." Learning as a Way of Being: Strategies for Survival in a World of Permanent White Water. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996. 1-20. Print.