Characters/Setting
What is the man's name in the story?
His name is never said in the story (he is just known as "the man")
Where is the man going?
To a camp to be with his friends.
How far did the man fall into the ice cold water?
He fell in up to his knees.
What happened to the man which was like "hearing his own judgment of death."
The snow fell from the tree and put his fire out.
Quote:
He remembered the advice of the old man on Sulphur Creek, and smiled. The man had been very serious when he said that no man should travel alone in that country after 50 below zero. Well, here he was; he had had the accident; he was alone; and he had saved himself. Those old men were rather womanish, he thought. All a man must do was to keep his head, and he was all right. Any man who was a man could travel alone.
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QUESTION: Make an inference. Identify a character trait which the man possesses using the passage above. What is a character trait we can use to describe him?
overconfident/arrogant/cocky
What is the dog's name in the story?
The dog doesn't have a name in the story (it is just referred to as "the dog").
What time are the man's friends expecting him to arrive?
6:00 PM (6 o'clock)
Where does the man choose to build his fire?
Underneath a pine tree
What did the man have to take off in order to attempt to make a fire?
His mittens/gloves
Quote:
But all this—the distant trail, no sun in the sky, the great cold, and the strangeness of it all—had no effect on the man. It was not because he was long familiar with it. He was a newcomer in the land, and this was his first winter.
The trouble with him was that he was not able to imagine.
-------------------------------------------------------------QUESTION: Make an inference. Why would it be a problem for the man not to be able to "imagine" in this setting?
The man does not realize how dangerous the situation is.
What is the temperature outside in the story?
-50 Degrees
Why is the dog following the man?
What does the man use to break up the ice freezing on his legs?
His knife
What body part(s) does the man lose his ability to use which makes making a fire difficult?
His hands/fingers.
Quote:
As he sat and regained his breath, he noted that he was feeling warm and comfortable. He was not shaking, and it even seemed that a warm glow had come to his body. And yet, when he touched his nose or face, there was no feeling. Running would not bring life to them. Nor would it help his hands and feet. Then the thought came to him that the frozen portions of his body must be increasing.
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QUESTION: What conclusion can we draw about the man's health based on this paragraph?
The man is freezing to death/has severe hypothermia.
Where does the story take place?
The Yukon Territory/Yukon Trail
What causes the man to develop a long, yellow piece of ice in his beard?
He is chewing tobacco.
According to the old man from Sulfur Creek, how many attempts does a person get to build a fire if they are wet in this weather?
One
Name TWO things the man tries to do in desperation to keep from freezing to death after his second attempt at building a fire fails.
He tries to kill the dog and he tries to run to the camp.
Quote:
After a time, he began to notice some feeling in his beaten fingers. The feeling grew stronger until it was excruciating, but the man welcomed the pain. He pulled the mitten from his right hand and grasped the tree bark from his pocket. The bare fingers were quickly numb again. Next, he brought out his pack of matches. But the awful cold had already driven the life out of his fingers. In his effort to separate one match from the others, the whole pack fell in the snow. He tried to pick it out of the snow, but failed. The dead fingers could neither touch nor hold.
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QUESTION: What conclusion can we draw about the man's hands from this paragraph?
His hands are frozen/useless.
Who told the main character not to travel alone at this temperature?
The Old Man from Sulfur Creek.
What does the man make the dog do which shows he doesn't really care much about the dog?
True or False: There was no real bond between the man and the dog in the story.
True
What is the man's final reaction to realizing he is going to freeze to death? (just before he dies)
He calmly accepts his fate.
Quote:
The dog sat facing him and waiting. The brief day ended in a long evening. There were no signs of a fire to be made. Never in the dog’s experience had it known a man to sit like that in the snow and make no fire.
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QUESTION: What inference can we make about the man based on this passage?
He has frozen to death.