Chronicle of a Death Foretold Blogpost #2 (Pg 55-143)

Chronicle of a Death Foretold Blogpost #2

           The twins that killed Santiago Nasar openly confessed that they killed him and would do so again if they could go back in time. Pedro and Pablo's story was told to the speaker a few years later annd they told him their side of the story. They had butchering knives wrapped in a rag and made their first stop to the meat market to sharpen their knives. They told everyone present their intention but everyone thought that they were sprouting drunk talk and ignored them; since the twins also had a reputation of being well-behaved, they discarded their nonsense. One person thought otherwise and asked them why, which they replied that he knows. This person later told a policeman of their scheme. The twins rested at a shop owned by Clotilde Armenta and she told the speaker what happened at her store. The twins had told her their plan and she tried to tell her sleeping husband, who shook it off, and said that they weren't going to kill anybody, much less a rch person. The twins left the store and the story goes to the mayor, who heard about their plan. He dressed calmly, ate his breakfast, and headed out to look for them. He found them and only took their knives away. Soon, most of the townspeople have heard of their aim. The twins returned to the shop with two other weapons wrapped in newspapers, but they weren't as determined to murder someone as before. The twins had a disagreement whether or not to go on with their agenda; they still decided to go on with it and Clotilde Armenta served them a strong drink to get them as drunk as possible. The twins were waiting in the store because from there they could have a view of Nasar's bedroom window and when he would wake up. They fell asleep but later woke up. The story goes to the narrator's brother and what he faintly remembered; he was dead drunk and couldn't recall all of the details but as his family was removing him from the bathroom, they heard the news that Santiago Nasar was dead.
          Following his death, the mayor sent for an autopsy but the town doctor wasn't present. They decided to keep his decaying body in his living room, in view for everyone to see. Tons of people want to take a glance to see if the rumors really were true and this extra heat causes more decay. After the autopsy, they quickly buried him because it was unbearable to keep his broken body there. Without anyone noticing, the bride's family moved from the town; the husband, Bayardo San Roman, was who everyone pitied. There were times when the narrator heard news of Angela Vicario and after some period of time, he saw her again. She told him, and anyone who wnated to hear her story, the truth about this incident except for one thing: why she chose Santiago Nasar. The townspeople have never seen them together and she wouldn't admit anything. Her story currently was about how she was doing and how she missed Bayardo San Roman. She wrote letters to him, but with no reply, and it wasn't until 17 years later that Bayardo San Roman, now a fat man in need of glasses, came back to her.
          The last chapter talked about what happened during the trial and form the point of view from the last person Santiago Nasar was with before he was killed. Cristo Bedoya and his family had invited him to have breakfast and the two men were walking around town that morning. Santiago Nasar seperated from Bedoya and was headin to his home until a few moments later, Cristo Bedoya finally heard of the rumor and was rushing around to find him. He headed to Santiago Nasar's house to find out that he didn't arrive yet. It turns out that Santiago Nsar stopped by his fiancee's house, and this was Cristo Beyoda's only mistake. His fiancee had headr rumors that her future husband would have to be wed to Angela Vicario and she went mad with rage. She locked herself in her room, wepeing, while the just arrived Santiago Nasar was in confusion about her behavior. Her family woke up and told Nasar about what the twins were going to do to him and Nasar went pale. He headed outside and people nearby were yelling to him the direction to his house; the twins found him and their chase after him began. Nasar's mother, having the mis-information that her son was in his room, locked the front door. Santiago Nasar was actually pounding on the door outside, trying to get in. The twins caught up to him and they began to slice him. After Nasar had fallen on the ground, the twins ran away from the scene. Santiago Nasar, holding onto his intestines, brought himself up and began to walk to his house back entrance by crossing through his neighbor's kitchen. When he got to his home kitchen, he fell onto the floor and died.

"'But in any case, you've only got two paths to follow now: either you hide here, in this house which is yours, or you go out with my rifle'" (Marquez 135).

          I chose this quote because this was said by Santiago Nasar's father in law to him. He clearly presented two choices that Santiago Nasar had, both choices that presented any sort of protection for him. What I don't understand is his choice; he didn't pick the two presented to him, but choses to walk out in full view of the town. He had the choice to live longer, to protect himself, but he didn't pick any of those paths and chose one that led to his death.       

Chronicle of a Death Foretold BlogPost #1 (1-54)

Chronicle of a Death Foretold BlogPost #1

         

Santiago Nasar wakes up one day not knowing that the people in his town are going to kill him. The novella starts off with Santiago Nasar waking up from a bad dream, one that foreshadows that misfortune was coming. His mother, one of the few people who didn't know that they were going to kill him, send him off and that was the last time she saw him. He goes into the kitchen for some coffee from the cook, Victoria Guzman, and her daughter, Divina Flor. Victoria Guzman was one of the victims that was sexually harassed and by Santiago Nasar's father. She prevented Santiago Nasar from touching her daughter, but in the shadows, he does it anyways; Divina Flor was afraid and didn't do anything to stop him. So Santiago Nasar was seen walking out of his home and onto the wasted streets, being targeted and glared at by the townspeople. There was a wedding party held the day before and none of the festive decor was cleaned up. Everyone was at the docks waving to the bishop, who didn't care for the small town. Santiago Nasar was going to have breakfast at a friend's house until mother of the friend first heard of the news and bagan marching out in anger. As she was making her way to stop the murder, she was already told that he was killed. Then the time period goes back six months before the wedding of Bayardo San Roman and Angela Vicario. He was a fine, wealthy, conceited, industrialized man who was searching for a bridel he acted (and was) a big shot. He saw Angela Vicario from a distance and decided to choose her without much thought. Since he came from a big background and the Vicario family didn't, the family accepted his proposal, which was against Angela Vicario's wishes. She didn't want to marry someone so stuck up but still married him. So the extravagant wedding took place and it even became out of control that it became a public party. But no one ever suspected that Angela Vicario wasn't a virgin and she had to hide this fact from her new husband. Bayardo San Roman took his wife away to their new home, but he came back to return Angela Vicario and left. Pura Vicario began to abused her daughter and it wasn't until her face was bruised and busted up that the attack stopped. Angela Vicario's twin brothers came in and ask their sister who was the man who caused this (the stealing of her purity) and she mumbled out Santiago Nasar's name.

 

"Then she sighed: "He was the man in my life" (Marquez 5).

 

I chose this quote because I was confused about it. This quote is coming from what Santiago Nasar's mother is saying about her son when the interviwer is visiting her. I implied the meaning in different ways and am not sure at what she is suggesting. Is she saying that he was the man in her life because her husband died and Santiago Nasar is the only man in the household left? Her only son? Or something more? To me, this quote seemed off because the way she said this is a bit weird and out of place. I noticed that the way the narrator writes this is similar to a news report/article; it has that 'no feelings involved, just facts and information' feel to it. And I'm also curious about the names. Is Santiago Nasar's full name 'Santiago Nasar', or is that just his first name? The narrator only refers to people with two names involved and I'm wondering if it's part of the culture of decorum to address people like that.

Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West- Blopost #5

     So now there were three places where the survivors were: Alder Creek, the cabins, and the rescue party, or "Starved Camp". The recent blizzard had forced the people in Starved Camps to stay put and rendered them to be immobile. A person or two died over the next two nights and when the sun came out for a little bit, the group was weak. More than half of the group were too weak to make the journey down and some decided to stay there while the stronger ones travel ahead. Only three people rescued from the camps were in the rescue party now with the rescuers and thirteen people stayed behind. At the same time, the other rescue party that had Woodworth and two or three other men were starting their journey. Back to the cabins and Alder Creek, there were three rescuers that stayed behind to care for the survivors. Charles Cady and Charles Stone, two out of the three, wanted to flee the camps and head back to civilization. Even though the camps had enough food, they still decided to leave. They had wanted to rescue the survivors at first but now their intentions grew cloudy. They made a deal with Tamzene Donner that they would bring her three young daughters with them for money; they took the girls to the camps but a snowfall stalled them for the night The next morning they revealed a shocking truth; they didn't plan to bring the Donner girls with them and decided to flee and not rescue anyone. At all. They met the Starved Camp along the way but avoided it, not even making their presence known; they didn't even offer to carry a child with them. Woodworth and his men heard noises one night and decided to investigate; they found the rescue group that was coming down. The Woodworth group shared provisions and warmth and for the night the rescue group slept with a full belly. Two men from the Forlorn Hope, the group that first made it to safety, had wanted to go back to rescue their family. William Eddy and William Foster wanted to save their own child that was still stuck in the mountains, so they supplied themselves and headed into the mountains. They ran into the Woodworth's group just as they bumped into the Reed group, which brought news that their children may still be alive on the mountain top. The men talked about what to do next and everyone urged Woodworth to go back and mount another rescue party. He didn't budged and kept making excuses for not going; the men thought he was a coward. He finally agreed and  Reed and 6 other men decided to return back to the survivors while everyone else went back to form another party, maybe the last. Back at Starved Camp, the people had agreed to butched the corpses and eat them; it was a gruesome sight. Eleven people cramped in a hole would eat the flesh of their dead companions, some relatives to those people. By the time the Reed party came, they found around 4 cut-up corpses above the snow. Though the seven-man party had come back, it doesn't mean much when most of the people from Starved Camp couldn't walk. Eddy and Foster decided to go ahead to search for their children with two other men. The three others couldn't possibly aid all eleven people down a mountain. Charles Stone, who came back to redeem himself, and Howard Oakley argued that they should carry who they can and abandon the rest; John Stark didn't think that way. He was a hefty built man and he started a miraculous feat. He would carried two small children on his shoulders, drop them off, and then went back to do the same process for everyone else. He kept doing this and evenually the survivors from Starved Camp were rescued. Back at Alder Creek, healthy Tamzene Donner was caring for her husband George Donner, who was drifting in and out of death. The last rescuer who had stayed there was deciding to leave, since, according to him, the people in this area were almost dead. When Tamzene heard that her daughters were at the cabins, she decided to check on them and went there. The Eddy-Foster party had made it to the cabins and they wanted to know whether or not their sons were alive. Sadly, their sons died and were even cannibalised by the survivors. But they found four children alive at the cabins and vowed to save them. They didn't want to make the extra journey to Alder Creek but Donner was adamant; she marched back to where her husband was, leaving her daughters to watch her leaving figure. They made it back to civilization and there was one last rescue party that was preparing to leave. They left late March but when they reached the snow, they headed back; their reasons were unknown. But this left a horrible realization: that no help would be coming to anyone left on the mountains until spring. When William Fallon returned with one survivor from the camps in mid-April, everyone was wondering what had happen. Fallon traveled up there to see flesh, butched corpses, and organs lying around; Lewis Keseberg was the only survivor rescued in April. By April 1874, only 45 out of the 81 that first started in the Doner Party survived, and 36 died. That summer, researchers and people began the travel up the Donner pass to survey the destruction. Mummified human remains laid about skeletons were everywhere. They gathered the bones in a cabin and burned it down to laid the dead to rest. By 1891, the Truckee Lake had become Donner Lake  and other locations such as the notch between the mountain peaks was called Donner Pass, while the nearby summit was Donner Peak. After the remaining Donner party was rescued, everyone thought that they were people that betray and don't care for each other. This view ended when a society built a monument of the Donner's conquerage of the mountains. They were then known in a better light.

 

"For the Donner Party, the journey was finished" (Rarick 227).

 

     I chose this quote because this quote signified the ending of their journey to the west. They had looked forward to a better life in the west but were caught up in bad timing and choices. This led to their downfall that gradually affected everyone in this group. They survived through starvation, cannibalism, harsh weather, and misfortune. All of this ended with about half of the party dead and with life-remembering memories that scarred the survivors. This short quote just wrapped thier journey to a close.

Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West- Blogpost #4

Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West- Blogpost #4
          Reed made use of his time by joining the war between Mexico and America over Mexican territory. He became an officer in the small battle and once in a while he would ted to his land for his family when they arrive. During this time, the Donner party were suffering. Lice appeared and one year old Harriet McCutchan was the most affected. She would scratch until she bled so the adults tied her arms to her sides; they had to block out her screams from their ears. The whole party were starving from lack of food and people began to died every 2 or 3 days. The survivors didn’t have enough strength to bury them in the ground, which was under a few feet of snow, so they covered them with the snow. Out of the five dogs the Reeds had, only one lived so they killed it and ate it  for temporary food. Starvation was getting to the party now and they wished that hope came soon. By mid- January, the Forlorn Hope party had arrived at Johnson’s Ranch; the place was too small to mount a rescue team so they had people from Sutter’s Fort to assembly it. About three weeks after the Forlorn Hope arrived, the rescue team left to the peaks. In about two weeks, they arrived at the cabins to find that no one greeted them. They called out and were confronted with the emaciated emigrants. This was only the rescuers’ first stop because they had to travel to Alder Creek where the rest of the group was staying. The returned trip was tomorrow and about half of the party was unable to travel. Before when the Forlorn Hope was created, it consisted of young adults while the other adults stayed to watch over the children; now it’s the opposite because this group was mostly made up of children and teens. The rescue group left the sick and the weak at the cabins. The rescue group was also struggling as they descended because they began to run out of food. A few more people died while they were walking down and even their situation was becoming desperate. When the rescuers left, the remaining group left behind began talking about eating the dead, though they didn’t do it yet, as if saving this opinion as their last resort. While the rescue group was heading back down, Reed was assembling his own rescue team. Selim Woodworth volunteered for the job of making another rescue group after Reed and they began to plan. On February 23rd, Reed’s group mounted up the mountain. They met up with the returning group and shared food. Once hearin that there were more people at the cabins, Reed urged his men to save the rest and the survivors to continue down. At the camps, the remainers were going crazy. Their last source of food was lying out in the snow and it was unknown on who took a knife, but they took the knife and went out into the snow. Meanwhile, the survivors heading down made it to Johnson's Ranch on March 7th and were treated. Back to the camps, what the remainers didn't know was that Indians were watching them since their climb up the mountains. They thoguht that the emigrants were inhuman but their fear turnned into sympathy and they left 5-6 roots as food; they didn't appear in front of the party again. The Reed rescue party were desperate to arrive at the camps as soon as possible because their quickness could save a few more lives; even though they were exhausted, they didn't want to waste time. When they arrived at the camps, they also thought that everyone was dead since no one greeted them. They saw a guresome sight; butcher corpses, bones, and skulls laid around. Well, this was the sorry according to Reed and his men nine months after the rescue. So the rescue went around and gathered people who were strong enough that could travel down the mountain. The next morning they led down seventeen people, most who were children. Reed left three men with the remaining fourteen people at the camps. Even though Reed's group left with some of the survivors, they were low on food quickly. To make matters worse, a blizzard appeared and they had to camp. The storm disabled them from hunting and staying out for more than ten minutes so the only thing they could do outside was to gather wood for their fire.

"Margret Reed told her children that when she and Levinah Murphy removed Milt Elliott's body from the cabin, they were so weak they had to drag it by the hair" (Rarick 158).

           I chose this quote because it struck me as odd and a bit harsh. Milt Elliott was an employee of the Reeds family and he was so close to Margret that he would called her "Ma". Now after his death, the person he called Ma is dragging his corpse by his hair. That was the harsh part but when I read over the part "drag it by the hair", I had to read it over. Reed had just described Elliott not by "him", but by "it" instead. It made me think for a while about it this was a typo or just on purpose. Just this one word made Elliott seemed like a thing instead of a human, and maybe it was a sort of foreshadowing for the future because when the Donner party does eat their dead companions, they probably forced themselves to think that they were gnawing on the flesh of something and not someone

Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West- Blogpost #3

Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West- Blogpost #3

            Stanton, one of the men who went ahead for supplies weeks before, was returning back to the camp. After parting ways with Reed, he and two accompanying Indians appeared before the group. The materials he brought were low, but the group was relieved and thought that their hardships had pasted; they now have food and guides to lead them back into civilization. They thought wrong. Winter approached the party and their traveling pace slowed down by the soft snow that was piling up. Near the top of the mountain is a small passage that families traveled through to get to the other side. It was nighttime by the time the Donner party arrived there and it was snowing really hard; tired and exhausted, the team decided to past through in the morning and camped at their current place. During the night, the snow piled up so much that passing through was impossible and the party, discouraged, descended down the mountain to a lake below. All of their travels were meant to pass that point before winter came and they failed; now they have to stay there for the winter. While the team was climbing the mountains, Reed reached Sutter’s Fort and found McCutchan, the man that was too sick to travel back to the party before. They traveled back to the group but the snow and current conditions made it impossible; they reassured themselves that the group had enough cattle and food to provide them until the spring. Somehow, the families within the Donner Party separated into two; one stayed at the cabins while another at Alder Creek. At first, someone with enough strength would go out to hunt, giving them a bit more food, but not enough. The families soon became desperate and they sent out a team of people strong enough to travel ahead for rescue. The rescue failed and the group returned, sulking. One person who wrote a diary during the ordeal at the site was Patrick Breen, who wrote small notes about each day. He mentioned the snow falling for days, where they couldn’t even go out. This snowfall caused a decrease in the food stock and the cattle and mules were buried under the snow, making it impossible to find the frozen corpses. One day in December, Franklin Graves noted that they would have to try for a rescue attempt again. This group was called the “Forlorn Hope” and Graves created weaved snowshoes that they could use. Everyone knew that if this party didn’t go receive aid, then they would all die.  Then Rarick talked about cannibalism and how even before the Donner party, other people were doing it too. They had their own reasons; either for their religion of sacrificing or for the sake of their survival. In the Forlorn Hope’s situation, the second reason would be the case. Their food supply soon depleted and half of the members died as they made their way to help. Starving, the remaining group began ravishing their dead companions’ decaying flesh. They had the difficult decision on who to eat first, and this stalled any killings before someone recently died and that person became their sacrifice. The problem soon popped up; they ran out of food. This kept going until they made it back to civilization on January 17 with only seven members; they started out with seventeen, two returned to the camps, and eight died. Back at the camps, the emancipated families were starving. A few people died and they had to lock themselves in their dark makeshift holes where they live. The Forlorn Hope group was mostly made out of young adults, so about half the camp was filled with young children and teens. The Margaret Reed had an idea; she and her children would set out for help like the Forlorn group. She took her two oldest children with her and left her other children with the Breens. The attempt failed and when they returned to the camps, their home was not suitable for living since the roof was gone. They roomed with the Breens and they had a little meat left, which they gave small nibbles to the children.

“Now the emigrants had proven it was possible to break free” (Rarick 143).

            I chose this quote because it signified that there was hope for the remaining Donner party after all. The party started out as a group that was behind on the trail and in a series of unfortunate events, they are in this hopeless, jail-like situation with no food and trapped in cramp holes in the snow. In many failed attempts to get in touch with help, this group went into extremes and took up cannibalism between those who they spent their travels with recently. They started with inexperience emigrants that wanted a better life for themselves and their families in the west, but their journey took a wrong turn. They were trapped in an isolated part of the mountains were no one was around and taking a risk, part of the Donner party finally arrived at their goal.

Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West Blogpost #2

Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West Blogpost #2

            The group had no objections James Reed’s opinion to follow the new route and they began to separate from the main trail. The only one skeptical was Tamzene Donner, who noted that they never met Hastings and all of a sudden they decided to go along on his trail that could decide their fate. They still went on their journey to California, heading towards Fort Bridger to meet with Hastings and follow his group on the trail. Newspaperman Edwin Bryant traveled with the Donner Party and decided to gallop ahead from the main group. His concern was that the wagons’ pace was too slow. He met Hastings and Joseph Walker, an experience mountain man, there at the fort; Walker spoke disapprovingly about the new trail. Nevertheless, Bryant and a few other men decided to take the risk and went along on the new trail. Bryant’s new worry was that his condition and the Donner’s condition were different since single men can avoid hazards while wagons and families cannot. He left a letter with the fort operator with messages and left. The Donner party came nine days later at the fort to find that their promising man had deserted them. Upset, they looked for other routes and found one that would lead them back to the main route with everyone else. There’s some dramatic irony in here because historians founded out that the fort was losing business because the main trail was far off. To keep business coming, they didn’t deliver Bryant’s warning and told the Donner party that Hastings’s trail was perfect to travel on. The Donner party decided to follow the Hastings path again; they had two chances to decide whether or not to follow the main route or Hastings trail, and twice they chose Hastings’s path. Six days after leaving the fort, they found a note from Hastings telling them to find him so he can lead them to a safer path since the one ahead goes through a canyon. Three people, James Reed, Charles Stanton, and William Pike, left to go ahead to scout for Hastings. They found him and leaving Stanton and Pike with Hastings’s current group to recover, Reed and Hastings went back; Hastings broke his word again and instead of leading the Donner party himself, he pointed out a path to Reed with the point of his finger and returned to his previous party. Reed joined back with his party and they began to follow Hastings’s poorly pointed out map. They couldn’t go back and retrace their steps since it would be too time-consuming so they decided to follow Hastings’s new, and barely existed, path. They travel through the canyon, crossed a river many times, and hacked their way through a jungle-like forest. Moving ahead took days and their crossing took two weeks off their precious time. The Donner party knew that they were far behind the main group of emigrants that were heading west but a few parties were even behind them. Two smaller parties joined with the Donner party, which completed all the members in the tragic to come. The party was heading towards the Great Salt Lake Desert, where water was non-drinkable, grass was scarce, and resources were low. In the desert, the rich Reed family that had the most cattle and materials lost it and were lower to a poor family that had to be supported by another. After spending so much time in the wilderness or with each other, the tensions within the party were increasing. Stress sky-rocketed and it burst out into a fight between Reed and Snyder, a person in the party. In a flash of chaos and confusion, Reed stabbed him and Snyder used his ox whip to gash Reed’s head. They were both bleeding but by the end, Snyder died. The party buried him and in a court-like case, the party banished their leader from the party. Reed decided to rode out ahead to return with food for his family and left, accompanied by Walter Herron. They rode out to the point where they ran out of food and became delirious until they met Stanton with another party. He was returning back to the Donner party with provisions, saying that Pike was too sick to make the journey back. Stanton traveled back to the Donner party while Reed went to a fort to bring back more supplies. Along the way, the Donner party had encounters with Indians. Unlike before, when the Indians would have dinner with them, they began to steal cattle and provisions and in a week or so, the Donner party had lost half of their food source. After making it through the desert, they encounter an oasis with much joy.

“They had six hundred more miles to go” (Rarick 66).

            I chose this quote because this was right after the Donner party had passed through the canyon. In this canyon, they spent much time to pass through it. They had to upload and reload their wagons so they could be transported across and cut through the thick forest with families. Single men could quickly go through these obstacles but it would take time for families, wagons, and children to pass through them. Even though the Donner party had only passed this trial, they still had a desert and other unforeseen dangers that lurk ahead.

Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West Blogpost #1

Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West Blogpost #1

            This tragic novel started out with the introduction of the members of the Donner party. Before the main story began, dramatis personae of all the people were listed with their approximate age during the time they left Independence, Missouri. The Donner and Reed family were traveling together and were one of the last parties at the end of the group of people manifesting towards Oregon or California. George Donner traveled with his wife and 5 children while his brother came along with his wife and 7 children. The Reed family included James Reed, his wife, his wife’s mother, and their 4 children. Their reasons for moving west differ; whether it was for their children or finding prosperity, the families took a risk to travel on a harsh journey. Within the large traveling group, parties unknowingly came together and broke apart, and the name for the parties changed frequently. The Donner group during this time was joyous while they traveled and time was not a concern to them. James Reed heard from a recently new friend that there was a shortcut to California that was faster than the original way, which looped towards Oregon and down towards California. Lansford Warren Hastings, the author of the book The Emigrant’s Guide to Oregon and California, wrote in his guide a to-do list of heading out and a trail that which he never seen nor set foot on before. Hastings traveled from mid-American to the west coast and along on his trip was James Clyman. He was an experience explorer who was a Southern gentleman and a mountain man, and served in the Black Hawk war with James Reed and Abraham Lincoln. He was skeptical about Hastings route and advised Reed not to follow the trail because the route was not firmly known. But a letter from Hastings himself said that he would guide wagons along the trail, which pushed Reed to follow along. Reed was putting himself in jeopardy by following this new shortcut and ignoring his old time friend’s warning; he told his party of the risk that would soon change their lives.

“It was less obvious at the time than it would be later, but the sad fact was that the journey had barely begun, and the core of what would become the Donner Party was already lagging behind” (Rarick 18).

            I chose this quote because it was like a foreshadowing of something horrible that the readers should have a gist about with the Donner Party. Just hearing the term ‘The Donner Party’ should bring up the image of families that were forced to survive by succumbing to cannibalism. The fact that the Donner Party started out their journey late is a true but sad detail that affected their journey and how they ended up to the tragic ending most of the members received.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place Blogpost #5 (Boston Globe Review)

Between a Rock and a Hard Place Blogpost #5 (Boston Globe Review)

            Ty Burr is the writer to the Boston Globe article ‘The survivor: ‘127 Hours’ goes into the head and heart of Utah hiker Aron Ralston’. He gave a positive review of this movie, and praised director Danny Boyle for jazzing “this up as best he can” (Burr). Aron Ralston was played by James Franco, who was a “sly, skinny changeling of an actor, with an energy that’s almost frightening” (Burr). The many different angles of shots and the timing of each steadies the movie as we see (and feel) of his experience. Then, as Burr describes, “one of my colleagues had to forcefully resist bolting for the exits, hand over mouth” (Burr). Sure, the scene where he cruelly saws his arm off was stomach-curling for some, but at the same time it was a flick of new hope for life.

Burr, Ty. "127 Hours- The survivor: '127 Hours' goes into the head and heart of Utah hiker Aron Ralston". The Boston Globe. 12 Nov. 2010.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place Blogpost #4 (Movie Review)

Between a Rock and a Hard Place Blogpost #4 (Movie Review)

            When comparing the movie to the book, I noticed that the titles were different. The movie title was ‘127 Hours’ while the book title was ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place’.  The movie starts out showing three columns with different activities going on, showing that the world and its people are moving. As Aron rides out on his bike in the desert, there are a lot of establishing shots and long shots, showing how vast and empty the canyon is. Then the scene I’m analyzing about is when Aron falls down and his hand is caught between the boulder and the wall.  The scene starts off with a bird’s eye shot, looking down on Aron as he looks down the canyon. The canyon down below was dim and foreshadows that something bad was going to happen. During this whole incident, Aron is wearing his headphones and we listen to his music externally. Then the camera is in a different spot, between two walls looking kind of above and far away from Aron, as if there was another person looking through this crack through the walls. The light above him is bright, and I guess this could be a hand-held shot; it shows that what he is doing is real and it sort of gives a suspense feeling. The camera then tracks nearer to Aron as he positions himself in a comfortable pose to move around and the shot changes into an overview shot (if that existed), where the camera pasts Aron and on top of the boulder, where his hand is. In a quick moment, the camera is looking up (low-angle shot) at Aron falling down, the boulder right behind him. The position of the camera changes quickly as Aron falls, giving the sense that everything happened swiftly. Then a rapid reaction shot comes up, showing his pain, and the camera points to his headphones, which have fallen off and is dangling from its wire. The music is still playing and the hanging music gives a sense that he’s alone because it’s hanging there and no one is there to pick it up. The music cease to play and there’s this suspenseful, silent sound of wind. The camera goes to a reaction shot again, as Aron looks at his hand stuck between the rocks. The camera zips to a point of view shot as we take a look at the result of his fall and it zooms out as we look at his whole right arm (a hand-held shot again?), and then back to his trapped hand. The camera’s position moves to the side against the wall trapping his hand to face Aron, and shows that he’s panting form the speedy event. The title of the movie shows up on the wall in a mission/computer like font, as if Aron has this ‘assignment’. Aron then looks up and a low-angle shot is used to emphasis the canyon walls and cerulean sky; it gives the impression of something threatening. The camera goes into a close-up of Aron, surprised, looking back down at his ensnare arm. Then the camera switches into a high-angle shot, showing how vulnerable he is right now.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place Blogpost #3 (Pgs 432-632)

Between a Rock and a Hard Place Blogpost #3

            As Aron’s death draws nearer, he gives up on his plans to free himself and only tries to maintain body heat. From his lack of water, he began to die of dehydration. Aron hallucinates about his past memories, his friends and his family while his conscious drifts back and forth between reality and imagination. The nights are worse because his body shivers from the coldness and his physical being in that condition makes it worse. On Wednesday, Aron came up with the idea to smask the gaint boulder with a smaller one, one that’s made out of the similar sandstone. The idea doesn’t work but he still keeps doing it, and Aron records on his video camera again, saying his last words for his funeral and property. He accepted death now and is prepared to leave the world; it was April 30. On the rock above his head, he carved out ‘RIP ARON, OCT 75, APR 03’, as if it was his head stone. Then as he’s about to drift off into another dream, he visions himself and a similar child on his shoulder; this belief gave him new hope. He wakes up to find himself still alive on May 1^st and then he works on pounding the rock again. While brushing away dirt particles off his arm with his knife, he accidentally ripped off a bit of decayed skin. The idea soon came to him: he could snap his fore arm into two to escape! He starts using his dull knife to saw through his flesh, tendons, muscles, arteries, veins, and tissues. After an hour of cutting, Aron is free from the boulder and wrapping his arm up, he begins to pack his stuff and leave the area to find essential water. He climbs back to the big pool he was at with the two women in the beginning and fills up his water supply and at the same time himself. Aron then begins the journey to his truck and he finds a family of three hiking. From there, he is rescue by a helicopter and taken to a small hospital. While Aron was still stuck at the boulder, his roommates and boss at work became even more worried. They contacted all of his friends by hacking into Aron’s email and tried to glean any recent information they’ve heard from Aron. So by the time Aron was cutting his arm, the police were already looking for his in the desert and found his truck. They warned other hikers to keep an eye out for Aron and the family of three knew that the crazed, bloody man that called towards them was Aron. So Aron was rescue, transferred from the small hospital to a larger one, and was reunited with his family. He had to stay there for months because of surgeries and an infection from his knife. After Aron was released, he spent time with his family and all of his friends. Even then, he still climbs mountains and later, he returned to Blue John Canyon with a few of his friends and an entire team from NBC. He continued to do all of the sports he used to do and didn’t regret the experience he gained from the incident because he gave him a chance to be reborn again. Aron ends his biographical novel by stating that “saying farewell is also a bold and powerful beginning” (Ralston 632).

“Through the fall and winter, I returned to lead climbing on rock, mountain biking, ice climbing, backcountry telemark skiing, cross-country skate skiing, and solo winter mountaineering” (Ralston 631).

            I chose this quote because I was amazed. Even though I have read Aron almost die from his experience, I would have never thought that he would still continue to do what he loves to do. Well, if I had gone through that experience, I would have been emotionally (and mentally) scarred because I would have almost died. I would have never had the guts to keep doing daring hobbies. But it didn’t surprise me as much because while Aron was talking about his past, I founded out that he’s that kind of guy to do such stuff. So yeah, I was amazed how Aron could still keep going, even though he only has one hand.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place Blogpost #2 (Pg 217-431)

Between a Rock and a Hard Place Blogpost #2

            Aron, trapped in Blue John Canyon, has to survive and preserve what’s left of his water. He had a few ideas on how to escape from the boulder. One was to lift the few hundred pound rock with his rope and limited tools off his hand just enough to get his palm out; this idea didn’t work. The next idea was to chip away at the block but it was time and strength consuming since he was chipping away at a sandstone boulder; this wasn’t any ordinary sandstone though. It came from the top layer of the canyon, meaning that it’s the most erosion resistant sandstone around the area. His third option was to cut off his arm, but argued against himself for thinking that. The only choice he had left was to wait for rescue or his demise. He tried to schedule and divided the amount of water he had left, estimating that it would last him for 3 days and that rescue won’t come for 5 days; but after dropping the container and losing some valuable water, he wildly drank it all and waits for his death. Instead, he drank his urine as a replacement for liquid. At night the wind and air turned cold, compared to during the day, and he has little material to keep him warm. There are times when he would speak and confess to his video camera, saying his farewells to his friends and family. Then the time came: he tried to amputate his arm off. Using a dull knife, he whacked it on his arm, not feeling pain below the outer layers of his arm. Then he opened it up and started poking around at the yellow tissue. There wasn’t much blood as he thought there would be and saw that he couldn’t cut through his bone; this leaves him stuck. In the chapters about his past, he talked about more mountain climbing, and once he got caught in an avalanche with two friends. The three-some survived but his friends blamed Aron for triggering the life-death situation and never spoke to him again. The talk was mostly about how he ended up living in Aspen and heading out for this adventure, leading up to where he is now. The viewpoint strays away from Aron’s as it makes its way to the two women Aron met before venturing off on his own. They had agreed to meet up later that day and not seeing him, began to worry a bit. Back home, Aron’s friends start to wonder where he’s at, since he didn’t arrive home or to work. They called the police to notify a missing person, but the operator didn’t tell them that Aron wasn’t lost long enough for a rescue party to start looking.

“Fascinated, I poke at the gash with the tool” (Ralston 386).

            I chose this quote because this was during the middle of his ‘surgery’. While reading Aron poking around his arm, I also got curious. I don’t know why it got me curious all of a sudden, because I had already knew that he was going to do this, but still. While some people would feel disgusted while reading his detailed description on observing his gash, I was quite…entertain (?) somehow. Maybe because I have read gorier books and shows than this…but anyways! I mainly chose this quote because out of the many sentences about his examination, this one clearly relates to how I was feeling during the time I was reading this.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place Blogpost #1 (Pg 17-216)

Between a Rock and a Hard Place Blogpost #1

            Aron Ralston begins by describing the setting he is exploring in, such as the different rock and rock formations. He describes the equipment he brought with him on his trip. He switches between each chapter to talk about the present (where he is now) and the past (how he ended up to be who he is). In the chapters he talked about his past, he wrote that his family moved to Colorado when he was 12 and his first impression was it was a place that completely involved skiing; he soon found out that it wasn’t true and found a passion in skiing. This passion led to him hiking, camping, and climbing at different places, mostly the high mountains in Colorado. He then talked about all the trips he made and the people he met. There were times in which he almost got caught in a life-death situation but he managed to survive them. When he talked about the present, he mentioned what he did and what he had planned to do. What he also mentioned was that he didn’t tell anyone the exact details of what he was going to do, or where exactly he was going; this turns out to be a problem later. Before  fully venturing out on his own, Aron meets two women who journey with him for a bit. They soon part ways and Aron continues his adventure. Then the incident happens when he tries to step/cross over a boulder, causing it to make itself and Aron fall. Somehow during the fall, Aron’s right wrist gets pinned against the wall and the boulder; it is actually holding part of the boulder up and against the wall. With limited food, water, and no way to contact anyone, Aron is trap.

“They also told me that if you were to shout at a bear, wave your arms, stomp aggressively toward it, and then hit it rocks, nine times out of ten you could count on being mauled” (Ralston 109).

            I chose this quote because once I read it, I burst out laughing! So Aron was hiking in a national park, and had planned this big trip to go to around 15 or so national parks in the United States and Canada in a month or so. He hiked in his first destination and he met a black bear. The black bear was coming towards him for Aron’s pack of food, making him run barefoot in the frozen ground (it was in the winter). The bear kept strolling behind him and Aron tied the food pack to a uplifted tree root. He returned to find that the bear left but Aron couldn’t get a wink of sleep in fear of the bear returning. When Aron came back for his food pack, he found it in the bear’s jaws and tried to frighten him off by screaming, waving a stick in the air, and making noises. The bear left but when Aron came back to his camp, the bear had gotten its revenge by tearing down his tent. While making his trip back, the bear kept stalking Aron and he tried the methods in the above quote to the bear. I started laughing because he did all of that and didn’t die. I sometimes watch survival episodes on the Travel Channel and I think they said that to scare off a bear, you have to make yourself appear larger. Now I’m not really sure who’s right, the ranger’s or the survivalist’s advice.