Between A Rock And A Long Hours Summary

“A scar means, I survived” (Cleave). Reading the novel Between A Rock and A Hard Place by Aron Ralston, which took place in John Blue Canyon, Utah. Aron the main character started off hiking on a warm Saturday afternoon by himself, when something unexpected happened and he ended up fighting for his life. After one may read this novel they could conclude that the main theme shown in this story is the will to survive past limits that one could think that they could go. This is expressed throughout the story by three literature terms which are external conflict, characterization, and imagery of the setting. The first literary term that shows survival past unimaginable limits is external conflict. “The rock smashes my left hand against the left wall” (Ralston 23). This was the main external conflict in the story, the boulder plummets onto Arons hand puts Aron into survival mode and takes him to limits that one may not think is imaginable. When Aron was rock climbing up a rock formation he lost his footing and fell down the canyon. When Aron plummeted from the rock wall he grabbed onto a boulder that came loose and fell with him. On his way …show more content…
Since he only packed a limited supply of water with him dehydration is a huge factor played in this novel. In a harsh setting like this in the story you would be able to survive 3 days without water, he was on his fourth day still unable to free himself from the boulders enormous weight when he turned to drinking his own urine. On the fifth day he began taping himself on his video camera, because he knew his time was running short if he didn’t get water immediately. On his video camera, he taped himself talking about his life and told his family that he loved them as his last message. The imagery of the setting played a huge role in showing the reader how devastating the conditions were that Aron had to go through, in order to