Summer Reading Response Essay

Words: 931
Pages: 4

Part 1. At the beginning of the story, both characters are identified; those being the man and his dog. The man’s name is never given, but we know that his goal is to reach the boys at the Henderson Creek fork. After this, we, learn that the setting takes place in the Yukon trail with the temperature being at least 50 degrees below zero. There are also no clouds in the sky, but it is still dark because the sun is not visible. These are the events in chronological order.

After deciding to stray from the boys in hopes of finding good places to log in the spring, he continues walking with his dog to the fork. While walking, he studies the sky and the terrain around him. After analyzing he spits in the air, and it makes a loud crackle. This
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This was proving to be quite difficult because his nads could barely move. As a result, he dropped all of his matches. Next, he put all the matches and the snow surrounding them in his lap. Then he successfully lit a match in his mouth, but the fumes went in his lungs resulting in him dropping it in the snow. At this point, he was very desperate, so he pressed both hands together like a clamp against all 70 matches and struck them against his leg. This worked, but his hands were burning, and the pain was extreme, so he dropped them all. Though in this act one match lit a piece of birch bark. He then began to carefully grow the fire by placing small grasses and twigs. But, in one moment it all went to down the drain; he accidentally shivered, therefore, causing him to drop a piece of moss on the small flame. This effectively ended all hope of a fire.

But upon seeing the dog, he had a wild idea. He would kill the dog and lay inside its carcass for warmth. So he yelled at the dog, and it came to him. When the dog was in his reach, he quickly wrapped his arms around it. This plan was soon dropped because he was unable to find a way of killing the dog. This was when the feeling of imminent death came to