Analysis Of Snow Fall: The Avalanche At Tunnel Creek

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In the digital article titled, “Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek”, John Branch writes about the avalanche at Tunnel Creek that affected a group of 16 skiers on February 19th 2012. Published by the New York Times, this web text is an engaging piece of writing to regular, online, New York Time readers because it displays a captivating analysis of the people affected by the avalanche and it uses computer-animated pictures to help the readers visualize the text. The readers will be enlightened about this avalanche in Washington as well as information about the history of the Cascades mountain range, background stories of the skiers, and the aftermath of the avalanche. Branch’s written work is effective in attracting his readers because …show more content…

One type of figurative language Branch uses is personification. When the avalanche was coming down Tunnel Creek, Branch associated the “fresh, soft snow” as becoming “the enemy” and stating that “It [the snow] swallows its victims. It does not spit them out”. The snow was threatening to bury the skiers, and it did succeed in burying some skiers and killing three of the skiers. The personification of the snow truly shows the readers how an enjoyable ski excursion instantly changed into a dangerous and deadly obstacle course. Along with that, similes are used frequently in the article. When Branch wrote about Elyse Saugstad, a professional skier, getting caught in the avalanche he explained how the snow was “dragging her [Elyse Saugstad] down like a riptide” and she was “tumbling through a cluttered canyon like a steel marble falling through pins in a pachinko machine”. The similes display a visual of how Elyse was pulled down the mountain by the avalanche. In addition to that, there is some use of metaphors in the article, such as when Branch describes the avalanche as “the size of more than a thousand cars barreling down the mountain and weighed millions of pounds”. It is an additional description of how powerful and frightening the avalanche was for the

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