1 Your Fate Hurtles Down at You of Jim Shepard In this work, we are about to write a character response to the

story of Jim Shepard Your Fate Hurtles Down at You. We have decided to choose the narrator of the story as the main character of our work because, to our mind, he represents the best the theme of the story and its concept of fate. The author of the story is doing some research on the snow in the mountains with the team of the persons holding the same views including his twin-brother, Willy. As Willy dies during the fulfillment of their work, the authors character undergoes some significant changes and revelations, which makes it even more interesting for us from the critical point of view. As the story unravels, we are starting to feel emotionally attached to the character struggling between our self-identification to his faults and pitying of his fate One of the most important things that have to be mentioned in our work is the place of the story, the mountains, as it tells a lot about our main character. The way the author describes the snow and the mountain peaks gives us the understanding of his personal attachment to the mountains and devotion to his work. At the beginning of the story from the words of our character we come to perceive mountains as something clear and divine, as one of those rare places where nothing could be grown or sold: one of those places the world had produced exclusively for someones happiness (p. 15). Despite the danger and cold, the brothers with the team proceeded with their work, and we have numerous evidence in the story that speaks for the adventurous nature of our main character. However, with the death of his brother, Willy, our character changes his outlooks and presents the battle between his personal remorse, duty and his love. One of the inner conflicts of our characters that becomes evident after Willys death is the one of his personal affection for his brothers girlfriend, Ruth, and his grief. As Ruth tries to fill the hole of Willys memory with his twin-brother, our character is torn between jealousy, his desire to be with her and the feeling of guilt. He cannot stop comparing himself

2 with his brother who is no longer there and tries to prove his affection for Ruth to be superior. He feels a painful stab as if the worlds been filled with unexpectedly painful things (p. 20) every time Ruth mentions Willy, although it becomes obvious that he feels devastated by his loss. He is trying to fill it with the increasing amount of work, however, it seems that the feeling of remorse never leaves his mind, as he admits to his mother that he might have started the disastrous avalanche that resulted in his brothers death. Another conflict of the main character can be defined as the one between his personal relationship with Ruth and his duties in the mountains. He cannot reject Ruth, even that he knows her affection for him is caused exceptionally by his external resemblance to Willy: She already knew what I felt. It was as if thered never been any point in pretending otherwise (p. 19). He succumbs to her, and here we can see his flaws of a human and his personal morals at a stand. Nevertheless, he never neglects his duties to his work and even tells Ruth: What were doing on the mountain is more important than any of this (p. 21). It means that neither his love for Ruth, nor the death of his brother can drive him away from the life in the snowy mountains and his work with the team. Here we can state the remarkable thing about our character his inability to escape fate. Despite the understanding of fatal danger and continuous catastrophes occurring in the mountains, he cannot abandon his work, nor does he shows any desire to do so. This feature is the one that attracts us in this character his adventurous nature and addictiveness to his work. The challenging environment and the desire to explore push our character to the edges of his abilities and give the evidence of his strengths. Our opinion is that this is exactly the main feature of his character that overshadows all his flaws and imperfections. It is his strongest and weakest point at the same time, because his obsession with the snow makes it impossible to escape his fate: I had my resentments, and my work, and I made my choices with even more (p. 24).

3 ruthlessness than the rest of my family. The constant reminder of deaths in the mountains during the story gives us the insight into the future perspective that is likely to approach our character. We can also see how his perception of the mountains change, as at the end of the story his description of tomorrow is no longer filled with optimism: Weve learned more than any whove come before us what to expect, and it will do us less good than if wed learned nothing at all. Tonight, or tomorrow night, or some night thereafter, the slopes above us will lose their patience and sound their release. Well be overwhelmed with snow as if in a flume of water, the sensation of speed fantastic (p. 24). Here we can see that mountains no longer sound as the place for happiness, but rather the highest point of our characters life and his final destination. We can sense the fatality of our character and inevitability in his prediction of death. However, we can still point out the way he speaks of the mountain as of the living creature with its ferocious beauty, his addictiveness never ceasing, his spirit never fading away, his life being given away as a sacrifice to the infinite after

4 Works Cited The PEN/O. Henry. Prize Stories. New York: Anchor Books, 2011.