Horacio Quiroga

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Horacio Quiroga's “Drifting” is a story that essentially revolts around the theme of man vs. nature. Paulino, who is the protagonist, faces great struggles in order to fight for his life. The story begins when a Yararacusu snake bites him, this snakebite is considered to be lethal because it is highly venomous. The pain caused by it is agonizing and last hours. After it bites him, Pablo immediately pulls his machete out and kills it. From that moment on, his fight against time and nature begins. The pains immediately starts to appear and he rushes to find a solution, after seen no solution at home he embarks a canoe to a town that is about 5 hours away. All his effort to survive is useless. For Paulino ends up dying, while he is in the canoe …show more content…
It gives Pablo giving him a challenge than he can’t win. After he is bitten by the snake we can make an assumption that he is basically doomed, for nature is always more powerful. He still reacts and kills the snake, witch is a fair response, but yet it is really useless. Killing the snake will not make the poison magically leak out of his leg. It will not change anything. He fate is in a sense foreshadowed from the beginning by the title of the story. He then tries to treat the injury by wiping out the blood and then proceeding to “bound his ankle with this kerchief”. This a logical response, at this point we are not exactly sure if he will survived his fight against …show more content…
He also doesn’t seem to have any friends at all, which are close and whiling to help. After he sees that Alves is not answering he returns to the canoe. His fate is now in the hands of the river. Nature decides if he lives or dies, for he is having difficulty moving his arms. Almost gone, he begins to admire the great beauty that surrounds him. He states, “The landscape is menacing and a deathlike silence reigns” witch is foreshadowing his soon to be destiny. The narrator also states that the sun has already set when the man was shaken by a violent chill, the sun is a symbolism of his life beginning to fade away.

Everything seems to be astonishing for the man. The view is describes as having the sky open in a golden screen, the river beginning to take color, the smell of orange blossom and woodsy sweetness. Also, he overhead a pair of macaws and continue to drift downstream on the golden river. Nature beauty is majestic, yet it is a powerful treat to humans. He is finally dying, but he tries to hold on to his life by using his human qualities of reasoning, and memories. This long past memories is what keeps him alive, but this is useless. In a fight against nature, this tendency’s don’t
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