Nick Murphy---comments 3 & 4

I agree with Peter when he says that the brief interruptions add suspense to the overall story, especially in the blizzard scene. As the two become caught inside the snow storm, Bryson interjects at the peak of the suspense with the aside about how poorly maps of the Appalachian Trial are made. All the reader is really interested in at this point is the ultimate effect of the blizzard on the two comrades. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing I am not so sure, because though the aside does add this certain degree of suspense, it does end up becoming quite a little digression from the situation at hand, getting readers to begin to feel a little antsy about returning to the main scenario.

Some of the shorter asides can be tuned out by the reader, but some of the longer rants should be completely removed from the story altogether, for example, the one described by Philip about the Forest Service. Yes, it does last for seven pages and is also entirely unnecessary. The things Bryson said were irrelevant to the scene and too far removed from what was actually happening at that point in time. Not to mention that, interestingly enough, Philip also pointed out that the claims Bryson made about the Forest Service were false. It’s Fascinating that Bryson would go off onto such a wild speech without certainty that his facts were straight. Of course, maybe he too was beginning to succumb to the difficulty of the trail and just needed something to complain about.