Genre
Fiction
Setting and Context
Present time in California, Miami and Manitoba
Narrator and Point of View
Third-person narration from the point of view of an omniscient narrator
Tone and Mood
Foreboding, frightening, critical
Protagonist and Antagonist
Akira, Natalie, Owen, and George are the protagonists while the antagonists are bears, fire and the hurricane.
Major Conflict
Akira lives with her family in California until a fire breaks out while out riding horses. Natalie lives with her mother in Florida where one time a hurricane brings high winds and floods her house. Owen and George live in Manitoba and get attacked by polar bears while out spending the weekend in their family cabin. The four kids have to look for ways to survive the disasters they face.
Climax
The story climaxes when each of them has to face their own disaster. Akira the fire, Owen and George, the bears and Natalie, the hurricane.
Foreshadowing
Akira foreshadowed the fire that happened when she asked her dad if they should call the Fire department to warn them but the father declined. A few hours later the fire spread fast making them homeless and terrified.
Understatement
When Lars comforts Daniel telling him that it was going to be all right, he downplays the real disaster they were in. They were all worried and frightened that they would not make it alive.
Allusions
Akira’s dad alludes to John Muir, a naturalist when he says, “Do behold the king in his glory, king Sequoia” He was referring to the sight of the Californian Redwood on top of the mountain where they were.
Imagery
N/A
Paradox
The statement made by Lars, “A little fire is good for the forest” is a paradox. We know that every fire is dangerous to the forest but when he explains how the little fire helps the forest, it makes a lot of sense.
Parallelism
The quiet season when the town is just theirs alone is parallel to the polar bear season when there is excitement about the tourists coming in and more money to be made as noticed by Owen.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
The flame has been given the ability to lick when the narrator says, “she saw the first tongues of orange fame licking the trees along the road”. Flames do not have tongues to lick.
