Genre
Children's adventure novel
Setting and Context
The Catskill Mountains in New York, during the 1940s
Narrator and Point of View
An unnamed, third-person omniscient narrator.
Tone and Mood
The tone is brave; the mood is dramatic.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Sam Gribley is the protagonist; the forest ranger is the antagonist.
Major Conflict
The major conflict of the novel occurs when Sam starts planning to run away from his huge family in New York City to the rural farm that his grand-grandfather used to live at.
Climax
The climax of the story is reached when Sam meets Bill in a cabin and is taught how to make fire correctly, so that he is able to survive.
Foreshadowing
The self-sufficiency of Sam is foreshadowed by the fact that he has studied survival skills from the books in the library.
Understatement
The importance of family is understated throughout the novel.
Allusions
The story seems to be situated in a genre of individualistic outdoors writing with a few famous examples ("Walden").
Imagery
The imagery of the scary natural world is present in the novel.
Paradox
The fact that Sam should be with his family, yet is alone in the woods is an example of paradox in the story.
Parallelism
N/A
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The fire is a metonym for Sam's hope for the future.
Personification
N/A
