A Week in the Woods

“Looking around, Mark thought maybe they had driven to a different planet. The storm that had promised one inch of snow for his old home had dropped eight inches onto his new one.”

When Mark Robert Chelmsley arrives in New Hampshire, there is a symbolic moment in which he compares the snowfall of his old home to the much heavier snowfall of his new one. The environment of New Hampshire is much more severe than that of New York, and Mark enthusiastically learns to adapt to the wildness of his new surroundings. His experiences in adapting to the new wilderness and to the new social environment at school eventually fuel deep positive changes in his outlook on life.

“The sky was clearing from west to east, and where there had been solid gray twenty minutes ago, now streaks of pink and gold spread along the underside of the clouds. The dark pines along the ridge, the tracery of leafless birch and maple trees, the rocky outcroppings—everything stood out in sharp relief against the blazing sky.”

Clements frequently pauses the plot narrative to insert vivid descriptions of the wilderness that surrounds Mark. It is the most prominent motif in the novel, as well as a source of conflict and growth for the novel’s protagonist, Mark, and its deuteragonist, Mr. Maxwell. Clements paints a clear picture of the view that Mark has and the beauty of his surroundings, and with these lush descriptions, he successfully conveys the deep yearning and love that the characters have for the New Hampshire wilderness.