Meltdown

In the article "Meltdown" by Wells Tower He is telling us the story about the trip he took with his father and brother to Iceland and Greenland. He is also telling about a personal story and a promise him and his father made to each other that for every year that he was still alive and fighting cancer they would take a trip. His father ended up beating his cancer and they take a trip together every year. There are many sources of tension in this story. It starts out with the tension of Wells wanting to leave the bar that they were in because he was concerned for his father who had a bone marrow transplant just two months before. The tension quickly shifts in the next paragraph when wells takes us back eight years and tells us about his fathers cancer and how the doctors only gave him three months to live. This is when he introduces the context of the story. When the doctors gave his father only three month to live they made a pact that every twelve months that his father was still alive they would take a trip to celebrate. There is also tension between Wells and his brother. Wells describes their not to fond childhood to set the stage for how the first part of the trip would go. The tension started when Wells brother did not get to go to the breakfast he wanted because Wells and his father had already had the trip all planned out. He started by "passive resistance" as Wells called it by staying in the car everywhere they stopped to do something or explore. The tension culminated in a fist fight between the two sons that embarrassed their father. After the fight they were back to normal and they all visited the sites together. The story ends with Wells and his father in the same bar that they started in having a good time and dancing with two local women. They finally found some peace in their stresses trip. This article was written for outdoor magazine so the intended audience is hikers and travelers. this is supported by the end of the article where Wells describes their exact route through the two countries and the expected amounts of money needed for flights and lodging throughout the journey. This is relevant because it serves as both a travel journal and also a story that can relate to everyone, a story about overcoming obstacles and making the best out of situations that are less than ideal. I really liked how in his story how he started at the end and then went back in time and made his way to a final conclusion which was right where he started. I hope to use this in my narrative. His transitions were also very good he gave breaks in between time changes to give the reader time to catch their breath before the next scene, he also makes it very clear what time period he is in like when he said in his first transition "eight and a half years ago..."