A Week in the Woods

“The sky was clearing from west to east, and where there had been solid gray twenty minutes ago, now streaks of pink and gold spread along the underside of the clouds. The dark pines along the ridge, the tracery of leafless birch and maple trees, the rocky outcroppings—everything stood out in sharp relief against the blazing sky.”

Clements frequently pauses the plot narrative to insert vivid descriptions of the wilderness that surrounds Mark. It is the most prominent motif in the novel, as well as a source of conflict and growth for the novel’s protagonist, Mark, and its deuteragonist, Mr. Maxwell. Clements paints a clear picture of the view that Mark has and the beauty of his surroundings, and with these lush descriptions, he successfully conveys the deep yearning and love that the characters have for the New Hampshire wilderness.

“The only kind of people Mr. Maxwell disliked more than slackers were environmentally insensitive, buy-the-whole-world rich folks. And the only people he disliked more than rich folks were their lazy, spoiled kids.”

Throughout most of the novel, Mr. Maxwell displays blatant and severe classism toward Mark, highlighting The Dangers of Misjudgment. Rather than giving him a chance to settle into his new environment, he simply assumes that Mark’s jaded attitude is a symptom of his family’s wealth and entitlement. Mr. Maxwell’s unreasoning bias against Mark causes the boy emotional harm throughout their first weeks together and puts both of them in physical danger when Mark becomes so frustrated with this treatment that he heads into the wilderness alone. Mr. Maxwell is Mark’s teacher, but it is Mark who teaches Mr. Maxwell to refrain from judging people before knowing them.

“It would just become another place to visit for a while, like their Santa Fe place and their London place and their Palm Beach place. And now their Scarsdale place.”

Contrary to Mr. Maxwell’s beliefs, being wealthy does not necessarily make life easy for Mark. His parents are often away, and he is forced to move from place to place, a situation that prevents him from forming deep connections to any one place. When he moves to New Hampshire, Mark initially assumes that this is just the latest in a long string of moves, and he expects to be leaving for Runyon Academy soon enough that making friends in New Hampshire hardly seems to be worth the effort. Mark therefore refrains from opening up at school in order to avoid the pain he will inevitably experience if he has to leave.

“Mr. Maxwell liked a good challenge and getting a kid like Mark to loosen up and get with the program, that was part of what he loved about teaching.”

Mr. Maxwell’s values as a teacher are solid and positive, but when it comes to Mark, he soon forgets his own principles and actively works to alienate and reject the boy, even when Mark starts showing a new interest in the class proceedings. Mr. Maxwell gives up on Mark far too quickly, refusing to give him a second chance and forming an opinion that he only amends after experiencing the extreme events on the mountain at night.

“When Leon turned into the long drive, Mark was caught off guard again by the beauty of the place. It wasn’t the weathered house or the dull red barn or the dark rock walls that framed the frozen pond farther down the hillside. It wasn’t the stand of pine trees along the ridge to the west, or the top of Mount Washington far to the northeast, hidden now by snow clouds, but still there. It wasn’t any one thing. It was everything all together that dazzled him.”

This quotation serves to emphasize the profound, majestic beauty of the New Hampshire wilderness. Mark is captivated by his new home at the Fawcett Place, for he adores the contrast between old and new, between modern living and wilderness survival. The property is surrounded by mountains and forests, and Mark feels at home there—a feeling he comes to cherish and appreciate as he slowly learns to embrace the old house as a true home.

“It was only a fifteen-minute drive, but by the time they reached home, that angry little man became a completely different person: Mark turned into a boy again.”

For the first few weeks at school, Mark is agitated and disconnected. He believes that he will only be in Whitson for a few months and doesn’t want to attach himself to anyone there. As a result, Mark exudes the false impression that he is just a lazy student with a bad attitude, and nobody, especially Mr. Maxwell, seems interested in finding out the truth. When Mark goes home and is free to explore the wilderness on his own terms, it is freeing for him and helps him to realize The True Definition of Wealth.

“Still, even in the thin cold air of February, Mark caught wisps of all that past life and activity. And looking down, leaning on the old walking stick, he had felt a deep, satisfying connection to the place.”

What makes the Fawcett Place special to Mark is the beautiful juxtaposition between old and new. While exploring the barn for the first time, he finds many objects that link him to the past and make him feel connected to something larger than himself. Mark’s connection to his new home deepens quickly, and soon he no longer wants to leave it.

“Mark had discovered time. It wasn’t just a sense of history, a sense of time past, that he had discovered. Mark had found his own sense of time—time present—and he had discovered how much this time was worth. This time was valuable. This time belonged to him. This time was like a bank account, loaded with days and hours and minutes, all his. After school and all night and all weekend, Mark could spend his time any way he wanted to. And for the first time in his life, Mark felt rich.”

At his new home, Mark has the opportunity to explore a vast landscape all on his own, and he quickly makes a habit of doing so daily. Mark learns many things about himself, the wilderness, and survival during his explorations. One such lesson is the value of having time to himself, and having control over what he does with it. Mark finds this benefit to be the most fulfilling aspect of being out in the wilderness. Clements uses repetition in this quote to emphasize the significance of time and how important it becomes to Mark.

“Mark realized there was a third character in the story: the cold.”

Just like in the Jack London story that Mark reads, the cold soon becomes an adversary for him when he becomes stranded on the mountain at Gray’s Notch State Park. While reading Jack London’s story To Build a Fire, Mark feels the fear that the character has of never making it out of the cold. Confronting and Overcoming Fears like this one becomes an important obstacle for Mark that he bravely handles when he later becomes lost on the mountain.

“Mark saw a way out: He could change. Maybe not completely, but he knew he could be friendlier.”

While lying on the barn floor by himself, Mark starts to realize that he has played a role in his own poor experiences at school. He decides to make an effort to change his attitude and give the people of Whitson a chance. The night proves to be an important moment of self-reflection for Mark, and his change of heart alters the course of the story.

“And the verdict? Guilty. Beyond all reasonable doubt. This boy was spoiled and disrespectful and ungrateful—in the first degree!”

Mr. Maxwell misjudges Mark badly during the boy’s first few weeks, in part based on Mark’s distant attitude, and in part because Mr. Maxwell harbors feelings of negative bias toward those who have significant monetary wealth. He assumes that Mark’s negative attitude is the result of being spoiled and does not seek to help him feel at home in his new surroundings.

“He felt completely surrounded by nature, but it didn’t feel dangerous or frightening to him. It was simply unknown. It was like a big book that had been lying open in front of him all his life, and he’d been ignoring it. Not anymore. Now Mark was determined to read the whole thing. And he knew he was only on page one, maybe page two.”

Mark and Leon have a campout in the forest clearing, and Mark learns how to build a fire. Rather than feeling afraid of the darkness or of the unknown elements around him, Mark feels excited by and comfortable with his surroundings and looks forward to the infinite discoveries ahead as he explores the New Hampshire wilderness. Clements uses the metaphor of an unread book to express the boy’s eagerness for discovery.

“There was another thought, a thought that Mark didn’t even put into words. It was more like a hope that he kept hidden from himself. Because Mark hoped that when Mr. Maxwell saw him so pulled together, so serious, so well prepared, then the man would ease up, cut him some slack. He hoped the man would show him some respect. Because Mark knew he deserved that.”

Despite Mr. Maxwell’s unfair disrespect for Mark, the boy continues to look up to him as a capable teacher, scientist, and outdoors person. Mark is on the verge of adolescence and looks to the various male role models in his life to figure out the best approach to Redefining Manhood as his experiences usher him into a new stage of maturity. He also hopes that he can still find a way to connect with Mr. Maxwell. Mark also knows that he has more than made up for his initial negativity, and that he deserves Mr. Maxwell’s respect.

“A Week in the Woods had officially begun.”

In this statement, the importance of the camping trip and the anticipation leading up to it is evident. Mark has been preparing for weeks, and Mr. Maxwell has been preparing for months, but neither of them is prepared for what they are about to endure and have no idea just how much they will learn from the upcoming experience.

“He asked himself, If it had been some other kid, would I have reacted like this? Or would I have just said, ‘Nice tool, but you better let me keep it till the week is over.’ Would I? But the fact was it wasn’t some other kid. It was this kid, Mark Robert Chelmsley. And if I did let him off on this, it wouldn’t be good for him. That’s what Mr. Maxwell told himself, and he believed it.”

Mr. Maxwell briefly questions his own bias and hasty judgment of Mark, but he has not yet developed a full realization of his unfair treatment of the boy. Instead, this quotation highlights his tendency to rationalize his own poor behavior, lying to himself in an attempt to justify his decision to punish Mark. In reality, Mr. Maxwell wants to punish Mark for being rich, but he is still largely oblivious to this fact.

“He was going to tell Mark how badly he misjudged him—about a lot of things, probably. And he was going to ask the boy to forgive him.”

When Mr. Maxwell realizes his grave mistake in not taking more time to find out about the knife and surrounding situation, and in judging Mark far too harshly, he instantly feels overwhelmed by guilt and shame. He resolves to find Mark and apologize for mistreating him, realizing that as the adult in the situation, it was his own responsibility to show empathy and understanding toward his student.

“Pigheaded idiot, that’s what I am, he said to himself. Got all bent out of shape because some eleven-year-old kid wouldn’t jump through hoops for me. Had to be the big tough guy and get back at him. Way to go!”

This quotation reveals the true extent of Mr. Maxwell’s guilt and the quality of his conscience and morals, for he feels a horrible sense of his own wrongdoing when he realizes how badly he has mistreated Mark. He blames himself for Mark’s disappearance and makes it his own responsibility to find the boy and repair the rift that has grown between them. Mr. Maxwell’s conclusion that he misjudged Mark is the most important lesson that he learns.

“The scrub oak trees on either side of the trail still held some of their dry leaves from the previous fall, and when the gusts swept up the hillside, the rustling sound reminded Mark of waves breaking along a beach. The bare branches of the maple and birch trees swayed and tapped against each other, and high over-head where the wind was strong, the pine trees waved and sighed.”

The natural landscape of New Hampshire in the early spring is a prominent motif in the novel. When Mark is lost on the mountainside, he is surrounded by nothing but nature, and he begins to pick up on the subtle details in the sounds around him. These vivid descriptions of the natural setting occur frequently in the novel, providing strong imagery for the reader and often incorporating metaphors such as this.

“So for tonight, I’m lost…but not really. I’m just…here.”

Mark knows where he is but realizes that he can’t find the trail or navigate his way back until daylight. He bravely decides to set up camp and survives the night using his own ingenuity, courage, and resourcefulness, as well as the knowledge he has gained from his research, experience, and lessons from Mr. Maxwell in science class. Mark’s strides toward independence are part of his process of discovering a new sense of maturity.

“It was his very own campfire, his first, and Mark would have liked to sit there in the cheerful warmth of it all night long, glowing with pride.”

While stranded on the mountain, Mark is allowed to break the usual safety rules and create his own fire. He relishes the moment, rather than being afraid, and the fire becomes a simple of Confronting and Overcoming Fears and embracing his ability to survive alone in the wild. He therefore savors the sight of his very first fire with pride and a deep feeling of accomplishment.

“The ice crystals from where he’d breathed on his sleeping bag flaked off in a tiny shower of glitter as Mark squirmed out, slipped into his freezing cold boots, and then walked twenty feet away from his campsite.”

The imagery created by describing the behavior and appearance of the ice crystals emphasizes the danger of the brutal cold of the New Hampshire wilderness. Clements also utilizes onomatopoeia by using several “s” words, a sound also commonly associated with cold and shivering, as well as with the sound of the wind soughing through the trees.

“He’d had this feeling many times during his life as a teacher. Only not so much recently. This feeling of quiet awe at the basic decency of people. And especially children, how they understand about right and wrong. He’d seen it so many times, and then he would forget about it. About how if people are given half a chance, they do the right thing. Mr. Maxwell felt certain he wouldn’t forget it again.”

Watching Mark prepare the fire to help keep him warm, Mr. Maxwell feels a sense of emotional warmth that comes not from the embers, but from seeing the strong, positive side of Mark that he had previously refused to acknowledge. Mr. Maxwell has been mistreating Mark for months, but Mark willingly and unquestioningly helps Mr. Maxwell in his time of need. It proves to be a moment in which the student teaches his teacher an important lesson about human beings.

“I want to talk about maybe staying here. Like going to school in Whitson next year.”

In stark contrast with Mark’s initial feelings when he moved to Whitson, the boy ultimately decides that he wants to stay in the area for good. He has become attached to the land, the wilderness, the feeling of independence, and the people. Although the novel concludes without revealing whether he stays or not, it is nevertheless a significant change in Mark’s character and outlook.