Conflicts
Person vs. Nature
This is a confilict in the book, "Peak", because the main character, Peak, has to battle the forces of nature to summit Mt. Everest. The book describes the weather as harsh and unpredictabe. One moment the sky is a brilliant, azure blue, the next, it is grey and snowing like there is no tomorrow. Even for an experienced climber, Mt. Everest's weather is the hardest to get acustomed to and climb in. Everest has experienced everything from snow to sleet, from rain to hail, and from sun to blasting, freezing wind. If you get stuck in a storm nasty enough, you are at risk of dying.
Person vs. Person
Person vs. Person is a conflict in this book because Peak and his father, Joshua Wood, have had some trouble understanding each other's true colors. It is like there is an invisible glass barrier between them, keeping them from breaking through and resolving their problems with one another. Peak needs his father's love, care, and affection to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, but the things his father has done in the past are influencing Peak's decisions about trusting him. Peak's father, Joshua Wood, greatly appreciates having his son be with him, but doesn't express it to his son that well. Peak appreciates his father as well, but wishes that he would show more love towards him.
Protagonist
The protagonist, traditionally, is the character that has to work against an opossing force. The protagonist is what we would call the "good guy". In this case, the protagonist is Peak, the main character. He has a large talent for climbing. The ordeal that he got himself into started when he was climbing a skyscraper and got caught. Peak is not a bad young man, but is simply being boystrous and rambunctious like teenage boys are. At the end of the book, Peak learns about true friendship and what really matters most in life.
Antagonist
The antagonist of the story is, usually, the opposing force that challenges the protagonist. Traditionally, the antagonist's plan fails and the protagonist saves the day. The antagonist in this story is Mt. Everest. When climbing Everest it feels like the mountain is working against you, purposely. One wise saying said by Zopa was " You will never know who the mountain will allow and who it won't". We feel that this quote directly represents the variables of climbing Mt. Everest. For many, it takes months just to find some days with good weather to even start their expedition up the mountain. This is because on a climbing expedition you are at the complete mercy of the mountain's weather. As we said in the quote, IT decides.
Climax
The climax of the book is when there is a change. Something happens that alters the course of the plot. The climax in this story is when Peak is ten feet from reaching the summit of Mt. Everest, and becoming the youngest person to summit Mt. Everest. When he is ten feet away from the summit he stops and waits so his friend Sun-jo, a Nepalese boy, can reach the summit before himself. Peak does this because just then he realizes that Sun-jo needs the fame and money so he pay for his sisters to stay in their boarding school. Peak also realizes that he doesn't have a good reason for reaching the summit, other than to make money for his dad's mountain climbing company, but if Sun-jo reached the summit he could cross down into Nepal and no longer have to live under the strict Chinese who had invaded Tibet (the country Sun-jo's parents came to to find better work) over a century ago. This changes the outcome of the book because if Peak had reached the summit on Mt. Everest he would be in the newspapers and would be the buzz of the media. If Sun-jo hadn't reached the summit his sisters would have never been educated properly.
Outcome
The outcome of the book "Peak" is that Sun-jo makes it down the Nepalese side of Mt. Everest. Because he was the youngest person to summit Everest, he got a lot of money and media attention whcih gave him the oppurunity to send himself and his sisters back to boarding school where they could all get a good education. This really helped out Sun-jo and his family because, otherwise, his sisters and himself would have never gotten a proper education and never been able to find a good job. The other part of the outcome is what happened to Peak. After being flown home from Tibet, Peak arrived back just in time for his younger twin sisters' birthday party. Everyone at his house was very excited that he got back in time for their party. When they sent letters to him while he was at Base Camp all they would ask was if Peak would be back in time for their birthdays. After everything had settled down, Peak was living very happily alongside the rest of his family.
Short Plot Summary
"Peak" is a realistic fiction book. It is about a boy named Peak Marcello who has a deep passion for climbing. He shows this passion through climbing skyscrapers in New York City. One night while he is trying to scale the Woolworth building he is caught by the S.W.A.T team and taken to court. He is saved by his long lost father, Joshua Wood, the famous mountain climber, who volunteered to take custody of Peak for a while. Peak would fly over to Tibet where Josh is running his mountian climbing expedition company. Little did Peak know there were strings attached. Big strings. His father only took custody of him for a publicity reason. He would try to get his son to summit Mt. Everset and become the youngest person to climb it. While in Tibet attempting to summit Mt. Everest, Peak makes some good friends there. His friends are Zopa, and old Sherpa who is now a monk, and Sun-jo, Zopa's grandson. "Peak" is about these characters' wild adventure to the top of the world.
