Week 4 Analysis, "Royce"

          In this post, I am going to be writing a literary analysis for the reading about "Royce" which was from our part A reading of week 4. This reading created some what of a suspense, and was also very adventurous which kept the reading interesting. This story uses characterization quite a bit, and here are a few examples. The men and women traveled on mules, which was often how they got wherever they needed to be. So in a sense, these mules represented travel for these people. The men were characterized more as the people building the camps, starting fires, gold mining, and hunting for food. The women weren't talked about as much, but Royce herself was a women. She followed along and often lead the journey, but was also staying back at camp while others were out doing things. Both men and women in this article showed strong and strategic personalities.
         This article also used imagery a lot. In the beginning, they emphasized the steepness of the hills they were traveling, and the awesome views they got of the Sacramento Valley. Each time they stopped at a new camp, it was explained in a very visual way and it was easy to picture somewhere they were. In the scene where the Indians came and tried attacking them, they described the arrows hitting the man in the ribs, and the other men chasing the Indians away. This was a very visual scene and I think that's what made this story so easy to understand.
         A theme in this story that I could relate to was in the beginning when they had just made it to the top of the summit, and realized what a great view they had and that they had made to the Sacramento Valley of California. I can relate to this because I love the outdoors and I am constantly traveling new places, especially lakes. It is always a good feeling when you have arrived somewhere you have never been before, and you're able to look out and take everything in. This theme plays an important role in this story because the Sacramento Valley was there end goal to arrive to, and they finally had made it. It was an opportunity for them to start their life in a different way, and hopefully become rich off of gold. This works as a metaphor because the Sacramento Valley essentially means a new start to a better life. Although it is just described as being a town in California, it has a bigger meaning to the people who have just arrived, and that is Life.
        This readings context relates a lot to a historical meaning, and that is the gold rush. The gold rush is a huge part of California's history, and it changed a lot of peoples lives for the better. I can tell that this influenced how the writer wrote because of its meaning; People were now able to start their lives over and become successful all from the gold of California. This connects to the work because this is exactly what happened in the story. These people traveled to California in hopes of reaching Sacramento. They eventually did, and they adapted to the new lifestyle that they were not used to. They then came in contact with an old friend, and from there they started gold mining and opened their own shop. The shop was not only successful from the gold they were selling, but also from the fresh meat. These people truly changed their lives for the better when they made it to California.