LITERATURE ANALYSIS #2

Jorge Garcia

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BOOK- The River by Gary Paulsen

Fiction Analysis

1. After hearing of the boy who survived almost 2 months in the wilderness using only a hatchet the government wanted to learn of these techniques of his. After some thinking Brian agrees to help them and head back into the wilderness along with a psychologist named Derek who goes to observe. They are placed in a remote Canadian location and Brian decides to only use a knife and radio from the entire emergency supply kit the government has brought them. After several days of being in the wilderness a bad storm arrives and Derek is struck by lightning and sent into a deep coma. Brian is once again alone and has to get Derek to emergency care before he dies of dehydration, there is only one way out. Brian has to build a raft and be able to defy odds and make it down the river in hopes of finding help. After heading down the river the raft had crashed and luckily he found help. Derek recovered and thanked Brian for saving his life, and Brian went back to his home safe and sound.

2. The main theme of this novel is to always have hope. Even when the toughest situations hit you always have to keep hope in order to get through and overcome it.

3. Overall the author had a tone of mystery most of the time, this depended on what or who he was talking about. For example when he talked in the beginning of the book he described the city Brian was in and how he was living his life after surviving in the woods. He went into great depth describing how Brian was not use to the regular world anymore. Also after leaving to go to the woods his tone picked up a bit and became more suspenseful. The constant tips Brian gave just added on to the suspense of something happening in the future. Then something did. Finally his tone was at the most suspenseful/courageous when Brian decided to go down the river with the unconscious Derek. The description of the river, the raft slowly falling apart, and Brian beginning to lose hope, the tone made the finale of this book a real page turner.

4. A literally element I mostly saw from the author was foreshadowing, I could in a way tell that Derek was going to have an accident because he wasn’t an army guy or anyone athletic or the outdoors type. He was merely there to observe and bring the notes back, a person like that in the middle of nowhere with a young boy and one radio does not exactly say “smart plan”. Also I saw a lot of rising action, where every little event just seemed to go together and the climax became very clear. From Brian agreeing to go out to the woods again to the thunder storm coming along we are able to see this turn of events a little easier and can expect that the next obstacle will be a really good page turner.  

Characterization

1. Direct characterization was used a lot, mostly when describing his characters. Brian was described as this boy who has matured greatly after being in the woods that long and also as a traumatized kid after all that. As far as indirect characterization goes it takes a bit to find, we are shown that Brian is very attached to the woods no matter how hard he says he won’t go back and also we see Derek’s intentions as only working for him and he can be in luxury only to observe what the skills are but not actually do them. The author uses both to give a sense of who these characters really are, to give characters life basically.

2. Overall I see that the author’s syntax/diction seems to change once. The only true change I see is the change in author’s diction when Derek is put into a coma after being struck by lightning. Gary Paulsen seemed to start using stronger words now that Brian was alone again, and it helped in building more suspense.

3. The protagonist, being Brian, is more of a dynamic character and a round character. I say he’s dynamic because at first yes he sticks to his old ways but after Derek gets struck by lightning he changes his motives and starts to think of any possible way to save his life. Also he is round because he starts thinking outside his own little comfort zone and begins to realize he and Derek are on the verge of death that can only be defied by his ability to get Derek down that river.

4. After finishing this short novel I did feel like I met 14 year old Brian this time. The one thing that made me feel like I met him was towards the end once again where Brian had gotten back on land after sailing down the river. I could see that image of him, sitting there in his ripped cloths, holding Derek’s unconscious body and crying telling the people he found to go for help. Being able to perfectly see that image I can say that I feel like I’ve met this 14 year old Brian.