Desperate Passage Analysis

The Donner Party a story about eager emigrants traveling to a destination where they can start a new life, but with territory still unexplored they faced tragedy and death. Ethan Rarick the author of Desperate Passage, displayed the factual events from the journey of the Donner party, but also mentions his own scenarios where the Donner Party went wrong. The book captivated the inner circle of the Donner party with their best moments and their worst moments. A destination to California for a new life, led to friendships and cannibalism, but this journey portrayed the hardships each person had to make and scarifies they needed to survive. Desperate Passage could have been avoided, but the shortcut they took changed every individual who followed …show more content…
The 81 members who decided to follow the new path soon found out that Lansford W. Hastings didn’t help bring them to California, but gave them a unreliable map. Once blazed through Wyoming it seemed like the short cut was a sure thing, but as they traveled through Utah they were met with serious terrain of hills and trees. It took strength and energy to work their way through the Utah Mountains, and once they passed The Great Salt Lake going in the direction of Nevada they were faced with the Great Salt Lake Dessert. There the Donner Party already losing two people from the trip go through a dessert that has no water, animals, or food that they could use. Leaving wagons, supplies, and oxen some families are forced to walk. James Reed is soon banished from the group for killing a member of the party over a scuffle and soon leaves without his family who stays. Once the party passes the dessert into Nevada instead of being ahead of schedule they’re weeks behind and soon they would hit