Research Paper on:
Lost in the Barrens by Farley Mowat

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
Lost in the Barrens (originally published in 1956), Mowat portrays the Canadian frontier with particular energy. It is a coming-of-age story, in which two boys learn to appreciate the  "other-ness" of someone not raised in their own culture. It is also a narrative that shows an intrinsic connection between the achievement of manhood and a realistic relationship with the  forces of nature, as the narrative demonstrates that, in many ways, the boys learn the true essence of being a man by learning to take responsibility for their own  survival against the forces of nature. The narrative is set in 1935 and concerns two boys who find themselves lost in the "barrens" of the Canadian hinterland, without hope  of rescue. How they survive and the lessons that they learn provide an interesting twist on the juvenile adventure novel. The "barrens" mentioned in the title refer to a stark  wasteland near the border of the Northwest Territories. It is a region that is regarded to be forbidding by both natives as well as white settlers. To this day, this  region is sparsely settled, but in the 1930s, which is when the narrative takes place, there were literally hundred of square miles in which no human being resided.  This face is made clear when the author writes about the remoteness of Uncle Angus cabin from other signs of human civilization. Located on  the border of this region, the cabin of the protagonists uncle is made to seem like a lonely outpost - last stop before trespassing into the frozen north. It is  Uncle Angus who describes the area lying north of his land as the "worst place" on earth, "not a tree for fuel, not a bush for shelter" (Mowat, 1984). Nevertheless,