I believe the theme of Keith's essay is for a person to not to let his mind limit him from what he wants to accomplish in life. For example, Keith introduces a variety of things that could endanger her climb in the story: Keith is hiking solo in the winter, she doesn't check the snow conditions, the trail is broken, and her watch breaks. Despite this, Keith continues onward, knowing that she is decently prepared. She says, "The potential danger is immense; the actual danger is low" (6). She doesn't let the dangers her mind worries over stop her from continuing to climb; she knows that the actual danger of something happening to her isn't as bad as her mind makes it seem. Also, she states that "...[the hiker] couldn't have pointed to what really gets a person up a mountain, and down...your mind takes your body there first" (7). She is providing another example of her mind accepting that she wants to climb a mountain. Her mind does not limit her from accomplishing her goals.
An effective use of dialogue that I enjoyed was when Keith wrote "[e]ven with snowshoes, I have sunk in the snow to my knees, to my thighs, and once, when the snow was deep enough to bury the trees, to my chin" (2). I hadn't been able to imagine the White Mountains and the snow until this sentence; afterwards, I had a strong sense of what kind of place the White Mountains is and how dangerous her hike was. I also liked the sentence "[t]he snow looks petrified, frozen into waves in ripples" (5). Firstly, this gives a good sense of the texture of the snow. It's stiff and crisp, the way snow rarely is back in my hometown. Also, personifying the snow also added to my fear for Keith as a reader. If the snow is petrified, shouldn't she be? Her imagery really added to the story.
Keith's story is very encouraging and self-motivating. Instead of letting her obstacles defeat her, she takes them into consideration and finds ways to over come them. For instance, when she is describing her method of packing, she acknowledges that "every item brought and not brought is a decision. Each item brought is a string of decisions, and trials." Keith understands that although hiking alone can be dangerous, it also takes careful time and preparation.
ReplyDeleteI too enjoyed her use of description, and would agree that I was not quite able to put myself into the story until she described the immensity of the snow. Her description of the "wind, intermittent but howling, overhead" allowed me to feel as if I was placed into the story. Overall, her imagery and descriptions, along with her thoughts contributed to the relatibilty aspect of the story.
I can see why you perceived the theme to be that of breaking the limits of the mind: Keith saturates her story with her personality, fully employing her 1st person PoV by interpreting everything that happens through her knowledgable, albeit sometimes silly perspective.
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