Share your literary essay with the rest of the students that chose this short story. Take some time to read 2 or 3 other essays. Comment on them. Your comment should be about something you noticed them doing well from our lessons. For example, "You did a really good job explaining your evidence."
¨Up the slide¨ a short story by Jack London, it takes place in the mountains of Alaska. The author teaches us that never giving up can save your life. Clay the main character needs to find firewood so they can survive. Clay climbs a mountain to get wood, while he's climbing he slips and falls twice, but he didn't give up and at the end they both survived.
ReplyDeleteDuring the evening Swanson was making dinner while Clay was getting ready to get firewood. Clay said ¨I'll be back in half an hour.¨ Swanson laughed at him and said ¨All the firewood had already been cut down and gathered.¨ Clay remembered seeing a dead pine tree on the way to their camp. So he set out to go get the firewood so they could survive the cold weathers of Alaskan mountains.
It took him ten minutes to mush his dogs across a frozen river, once he reached his destination he stop his dogs and made them stay under the mountain, Then he stared down his challenge and started his climb. He describe the place he was climbing to as an ¨out-of-the-way place.¨ The side of the mountain was steep and very slippery. As he was climbing he slipped and feel, he lay where he stopped for a while until he felt ready to climb again in the thirty below temperatures. Clay reached the dead pine tree and chopped it down with his axe. With the last chop the tree fell plummeting down to the bottom othe the mountain startling the dogs.
Now Clay just need a way to get down and it was to slippery to climb down say in a way he had to climb up to get down, As he was doing so his mittens were too thick to feel if his grip was right so he took them off, very fast his fingers became numb. He figured if he fell he would be flying at the speed of the express train. Clay was exhausted because of the lack of dinner. Clay kept slipping as he tried to get down the finally he slipped and fell. He kept gaining speed faster and faster. He stuck out his hand and pushed down hard to try and slow him down. At the right moment he jerked and flipped his body over and stopped falling. Even with all the pain he was in he got back up and never gave up, Certainly it could be said that toughness is the theme because of the pain and how cold it was while that's a good point but he could of gave up at any given time and might not of survived. Clay said he was like ¨A tiny speck of toiling life poised like a fly on the face of moosehide mountain.¨
Swanson was at the bottom of Moosehide Mountain with a fire going waiting for Clay. He started a fire with the wood clay chopped down. Clay finally got down, and with the wood they got fifty cords and they sold each cord for forty dollars. Clay never gave up and survived.
Up the slide is a short story written by Jack London.The story take place on the mountains in the Yukon. What make this story more interesting is that Clay and his friend Swanson run out of firewood. Clay is determined to get the firewood and he has to travel up and down a mountain to get it. This story focuses on Clay’s journey to get firewood to save not only himself but his friend. The author uses Clays journey to show that you should never give up because it just might pay off.
ReplyDeleteWhen Clay begins his journey he expects to be gone no more than thirty minutes, but what he doesn't realize is that it would be harder than he thought.Once clay started climbing it's not so bad but when he looks down if he fell it would mean a twenty foot fall down the mountain. Clay decides to push on when his foot slipped and he fell down the mountain. This part shows the theme well because at any point it would have been easy to give up that's what i would have done, but he didn't give up he chose to try again.
Another example for this would be this sentence “each step became more difficult and perilous and he was faint from exertion and lack of dinner, three or four times he slipped slightly” this sentence shows how he was tired and hungry but he didn't give up “he fought his way upward.”
Another part of this story is when he had to go up the mountain . He was racing up the mountain faster and faster and had a little bit of hope when he tripped and rolled over and he came to a stop and he was all covered in snow. His legs hurt and he was limping, he could have just given up but he got back up even though everything hurt he knew he had to reach the fire wood.
The last part for this example is when he finally made it. He found the trees and estimated he could chop up 50 cords or more. He was able to go down the mountain by it’s gentler northern flank and in a couple of hours he was able to reach there village and they were able to sell there cords. This shows the theme because all of the hard work paid off all the effort getting up that mountain finally paid off and that's why you shouldn't give up.
There are some language that shows how easy he could have given up like this simile”he did not wish to be at the bottom shattered like a pine tree.” this shows that it could have been easily to give up. Because his life was in danger, it would have been easy to give up.
This metaphor also shows the theme “if he slipped he would be flying down with the speed of a express train into the ice bed of the yukon” this says that if he would fall he would be falling so fast into the bottom and it would probably kill him. These two phrases show that it would have been easy because your life's in danger but Clay didn't give up.
In conclusion I think that most of the story follows the theme never give up because it just might pay off. I think that most of my evidence follows the theme. Clay and his journey also how determined he was even though his life was in danger and the possibilities that could have happened to him.