Summary
A View from Mount Ritter, written by Joseph T. O’Connor adapted from Newsweek, describes how the author gains a quite new thought toward life after experiencing an unforgettable trip climbing up Mount Ritter in California. In the second week of their trip, the author started to feel frustrated and disagreeable to climb up the mountain because the weather became pretty harsh. Rain fell torrentially after the sky was overcast because of the gloomy clouds; huge hailstones dropped from the sky while thunder roared loudly. There was also lightning striking in front of them in a very close distance.
With continuing efforts and persistence, he finally arrived at the top and saw the perfect match of sun and clouds with his eyes. Most importantly, the marvelous scene made him start to face his past and ponder his life in the future. In the following semesters, he made efforts on his study and entered the college which is near the mountain he had climbed in the end.
Having experiencing tough and gratification through the trip, the author had the opportunity to rethink about his life and apprehended what he had to do at the moment. He deeply understood that after suffering pains, success is so precious.
Response
After reading the article, the first part impressing me most is the description of words author uses. To describe natural scenes, the author uses vivid words and sentences. These words allow us the readers to “hear” and “see” what happened. We seem to appreciate the real pictures in front of our eyes and experience the atmosphere and feeling at that moment. I learn that when I write a story or article, I should try my best to let readers almost undergo the situation.
The second part, which is worth deep thought, is the sentence written by Jonathan Harker and the author quotes, “No man knows ‘till he has suffered from the night how sweet and how dear to his heart and eye the morning can be.” At first of the trip, the author was a little annoyed and upset when he climbed up the mountain in addition of the harsh weather; however, his attitude changed immediately after he stood on the top of the mountain and marveled at the magnificent scene. Besides, he had the opportunity to ponder his following life and future and lived conscientiously at the moment.
I deeply understand the author’s feeling because I also have the similar experience in my four-year life studying in music gifted class in junior high school and the first year of high school. I was very frustrated and unhappy in the four years because I did not like the life. There was too much pressure to me. These four years is the most unbearable period in my whole life. After I made up my mind choosing to transfer to another school, I knew that everything is not so bad as I thought. There is still a cheerful and hopeful life waiting for me to find out. Because of the suffering and sorrow I had ever had, I can fully realize how the life is precious now.
After I finished reading this article, I have the same feeling as you. I can not believe that this author, Joseph T. Connor, writes it in such an amazing way. Surprisingly, he was just an eighteen-year-old senior at Lee High School. He uses words in a surprised way, and it’s really useful for describing the vision he wants to share with us and it makes me feel impressive after reading it.
回覆刪除At the same time, this unforgettable experience really inspires me because it changes author a lot. Before this invigorating experience, he was a bad student and did not think about his future at all. However, he felt born again through this experience. He starts to work hard, not to daydream again. That is to say, he understands what is he really needs to get.
Sometimes we may lose during our lives, like Robert Louis Stevenson has written, ”Youth is wholly experimental.” However, the most important thing is how we get over it. In my opinion, we must have lost our way but we still need to figure it out what the reason is and find the most effective way to solve it as soon as possible. We only have one life, and it does not mean that we have enough time to waste. Therefore, you can lost but you still need to pull yourself together finally, or time will fly and you can never get it back again.