chapter 9

in chapter 9 light is used to symbolise hope for joe’s survival. after the rope is cut and joe falls in the crevasse he begins to lose his drive to survive and starts  accept that he is dead and that there is no chance of joe surviving. as the night drags on he becomes more and more certain that he will not survive.  but as the light of day comes out his thoughts become clearer and he decides that anywhere  is better then were he is now. so he makes a few weak attempt at making it up the side before descending down the crevasse.  he soon finds a floor of snow below he then sees rays of light and then the text states ” a pillar of gold light beamed diagonally from a small hole in the roof spraying bright refractions of the far wall of the crevasse. ‘    he then goes on to say ” i was going to reach that sun beam. i knew with absolute certainty. how i would do it, and when i would reach it knew not considered. i just knew’  these quotes show that for joe light represents hope for joe which drives him to concentrate solely on survival which is in contrast to the night when he was hardly thinking of any constructive thoughts .” a pillar of gold light beamed beamed diagonally from a small hole” is metaphor  because there was not literally a gold pillar in the crevasse but it was used because a gold pillar is considered valuable and strong . which is the source of the strength that joe has to get out which compares to a strong pillar.  the small hole were the light comes from describes it to be a small thing that that is hard to get to but something that joe desires to get to. this relates to the gold rush were men rushed to find small but desirable gold no matter the difficulty  just like joes desire to get to the small hole.

i was mesmerized by the beam of sunlight burning