In Cold Mountain the journey that Inman embarks on is one that he really finds himself through. He

My hand swung to my side, feeling the sharp stone puncture layers of skin and muscle. Wailing in agony as blood spurted out of the wound, I run towards nearby shelter. The shrill screams of dying men rip through the air, accompanied by the sounds of arrows whizzing through the air and the Indians whoop when they hit a target. Dizzy from pain and hunger, I lay in a more comfortable position, just hoping to survive this wretched attack. ”Why did I ever come here?” the thought pounded through my head. “Oh yeah, I remember why. Land. Money.” That irritating know-it-all voice answered. I hear feet pounding around me and realize that the Indians have gone inside the town. One enters the door and maliciously grins when he sees me. He runs toward me and my eyes widen with shock as the spear plunges down, and becomes closer and closer….

The main character and protagonist, Jon Krakauer, is a United States client and journalist who is on an expedition to climb to the summit of Mt. Everest. He takes the reader through his horrifying experiences on the mountain, including the death of his team, lack of oxygen, and horrible weather. The conflict in this novel is an internal and external conflict. It is an internal conflict of man vs. himself. Jon Krakauer, had to go through mental states of giving up and dying on the mountain

The narrator negated the advice given to him that, "no man should travel alone in the Yukon when the temperature is sixty degrees below zero." He failed to heed to the advice because he thought of how he had saved himself from the accident, and had built the fire alone. This was pride ruling him not knowing that, he was risking his life. His arrogance made him believe that he can make it all alone, and alive. The main character’s poor decisions led to his death. He was not compatible with the cold weather, and thus could not make it alone as his pride, and arrogance made him believe. His arrogance caused his death, because he imagined that he had the ability to travel alone in the harsh cold weather, and ignored the advice given to him. This instance of the narrator dying, because he thought

Throughout the novel, perseverance and resilience can be shown through the families struggles. When the family lived in Welch, it was a very rough and cold winter.

Little things in one’s childhood can affect them in the long run and affect the decisions you make. In the book, Into the Wild, the author Jon Krakauer, tries to make the valid point that Chris McCandless was a hero, a noble and inspirational character. In the book, Krakauer fails to persuade the reader into the belief of the role that Chris McCandless was a “hero.” Chris McCandless was the son of two wealthy parents, and had so much great things going for him with a chance to a good working job and great opportunities, but instead to pursue in those opportunities he decided to get rid of all his possessions, and give everything up, even his family, and went on the journey to Alaska.

To start, the stories suggest that morals influenced by your surroundings do not always have a full affect on you. In other words, people are always entitled to their own opinion. In The Interlopers, the families and people that each man was raised by influences

Inman first decides to embark on his journey to find the love of his life, Ada. He runs away from his duty as a soldier in order to do this. He does this because he feels that he is not able to live without her in his life. This shows the humanly instinctive need for love.

The Alaskan wilderness knows no mercy nor no forgiveness, out there one mistake could cost a person their life. Chris grew up in a strict household where he was given little to no freedom. As a young adult, Chris found this lack of individualism overwhelming so he disentangled himself from society in a rather abrupt manner. He unfortunately met a premature death, which continues to arouse suspicion amongst readers. However Chris McCandless did not have a death wish, he had already made it this far and still had plenty left he wanted to accomplish. In the book Into the Wild, author Jon Krakauer uses the three appeals through various devices to convince his reading audience that Chris McCandless was a determined individual whose justified choices

Inman says that theirs is a time and place without law. In such times secular anarchy, a sense of personal responsibility must come into play. In such lawless times, when there is no one to administer justice, morality and ethical responsibility take center stage. In Cold Mountain the Ten Commandments and the seven deadly sins play a great role in identifying the moral boundaries. When the book begins and we first are introduced to Ruby, we have a picture painted of a filthy immoral man Stobrod, her father. What particularly classifies Stobrod as immoral is the lack of interest that he has for raising Ruby. He is the embodiment of sloth. Ruby says that he wouold sleep in a hollow tree and that such would suit him fine. He would lie around all day and be drunk, never working but once, during which his sloth almost cost a man his life. Even when he returns to Ruby with a focused life, he is slothful in the conventional sense. He asks for room at the plantation, never once offering to pull his weight, oblivious to the fact that these girls have worked unceasingly to scratch out a living. His band of outliers sits in a cave and lives idly, leading them to a life of theft and other sinful behavior. Greed plays a major role in Inman’s journey. Junior is a man characterized by his immorality. He sits in a den of lusty sluts, drinks all day, and gambles on his fighting cocks. To solidify his crookedness into something tangible, his house is on a slant. But perhaps his worst

RESPOND - It is interesting how the author begins the book with this trip. It makes the readers curious to know where they are going and what is going to happen to them on the trip, but it also makes us want to know more about where they have come from. I have a feeling that the book will make connections between the future experiences that lie ahead for the men and their past lives. Can a person really feel excited about the new experience of going into the military during war time? Don’t they feel afraid that they might not return home alive? I suppose it is a strange combination of fear and excitement. I think that what Inman already misses so much is his chance to be together with Olivia.

The novel Cold Mountain is about two peoples’ independent journeys through different struggles and situations at the same time. One of these people is Inman, an injured soldier who is trying to find his way home after deserting from the fighting. He meets a lot of strange people along the way. Some of them help and some of them hinder. However, they all teach him something about himself, or something that he can relate to himself. There are some characters that are more significant in this respect than others and they have more of an actual influence on Inman’s journey.

Other members of his family think the man is delirious and warn the children witnessing it to forget what they have heard. I.M. describes his grandfather as "an odd old guy, my grandfather, and I am told I take after him" (556). Being the grandchild that was most like him, he clearly understood the old man's message and could never escape from its hold on him. Ellison's use of I.M.'s point of view sets the stage for the rest of the story. Seen from an outside witness or even from another member of the family, this scene could be quite different. Only I.M. seems to take the message to heart and use it wisely. From this point on, I.M.'s point of view is crucial to the development of the story's theme.

Inman said that “he believed the scene would never leave his mind-wall, blind man, tree, cart, road,-no matter how far on he lived (8).” Once a happy, handsome country boy, Inman has become hardened, cynical, burned out. He feels he has lost his soul and is thus unworthy of the worldly yet innocent Ada. Inman seeks solace in memories of home, where “morning on the high bald were crisp, with fog lying in the valleys so that the peaks rose from its disconnected like steep blue islands scattered across a pale sea (19).” Fundamentally changed by the harm that he’s seen men perpetuate on their brothers, Inman soon deserts, setting out on foot towards Cold Mountain and Ada, the woman that he loves.

The book’s main focus is on the gradual disillusionment of the narrator and his personal battles. In particular, the book develops the battle the narrator faces when he discovers the truth about the Brotherhood organization. He eventually realizes that they are using him for their own purposes and encouraged him to incite the blacks to a riotous level so they will kill one another. The narrator develops feelings of hopelessness when it becomes apparent that he is being betrayed by both white and black cultures. His overwhelming feeling of emptiness comes to a climax when he falls into a manhole during a riot. While hibernating in the underground black community, the narrator struggles to find meaning in his invisibility and to come up with his true identity. The seclusion allows the reader to realize the disillusionment of the narrator. Ellison does an incredible job of getting inside the narrator’s character and describing his emotional battle. At times it feels as if the text is purely his thoughts transcribed directly onto the page. The narrator traces back his history

In Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain, the theme of music is one of the novel’s most powerful themes. From symbolizing character growth to the healing of physical wounds, music plays an integral part in this novel. While many critics will point out that music has little effect on the human psyche, Charles Frazier shows his belief that music does indeed have a profound effect on the human mind throughout Cold Mountain. Throughout the novel, Inman, Ada, Ruby, Stobrod, and many other characters experience music that allows them to keep faith against the odds or even heal their wounds! There are three major types of music used in this novel; hymn music, folk music, and “natural music”. It is through these types of music that