Yes, I remember teaching that story. The point I recall getting the students to discover for themselves (aka subliminally forcing it down their throats) was the guy’s overestimation of his ability to quantify the cold and his dismissal of the tacit signs pointing to the rapidly descending temperatures: the old native informant’s advice, the dog’s odd behavior, his own blackening toes hidden under layers of socks (I added that detail). So I saw it as a story less of man-vs-the elements and more of man-vs-his own ego. |