My Side of the Mountain

“I put Frightful on the bedpost, and curled up in a ball on the bed. I thought about New York and the noise and the lights and how a snowstorm always seemed very friendly there. I thought about our apartment, too. At that moment it seemed bright and lighted and warm.”

During the middle of his first snowstorm in the mountains, Sam reflects on how differently he used to view snow when he lived in the city. Winter is welcoming and warm in New York, a view that contrasts sharply to other parts of the chapter where Sam describes his surroundings as dark and fearsome. Sam’s analysis here contributes toward a better understanding of the story’s setting.

“As I lay with my face buried in the sweet greasy smell of my deerskin, I could hear Dad’s voice saying, ‘That land is still in the family’s name. Somewhere in the Catskills is an old beech with the name Gribley carved on it. It marks the northern boundary of Gribley’s folly—the land is no place for a Gribley.’” 

This passage helps characterize Sam Gribley as someone who wishes to act and think independently. At the same time, this scene advances the plot by highlighting Sam’s motivation for running away to the Gribley farm. We can infer this idea from the fact that Sam still remembers and thinks about his dad’s warning about the Gribley farm being a folly many months later.

“‘Sam Gribley, if you are going to run off and live in the woods, you better learn how to make a fire. Come with me.’ We spent the afternoon practicing. I penciled these notes on the back of a scrap of paper, so I wouldn’t forget.” 

In Chapter 2 an older man named Bill teaches Sam how to make a fire, which Sam failed to do the night before. This moment contributes to both the plot and Sam’s character development because it teaches Sam the lesson that he can’t learn survival skills by merely reading books. Sam benefits immensely from someone like Bill showing him how to build a fire in person.