Troy Ray
May 11, 2003
English 303, Dr. Ramirez
Presentation: The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle
(Chapters V through IX)

1. Overview
Chapter 5 begins when Malone relates the story of his meeting with Professor Challenger to McArdle.  Malone attends a scientific meeting later that evening, with fellow reporter Henry Tarp.  During the meeting, Professor Summerlee agrees to travel to uncharted areas of South America guided by documents provided by Challenger.   As independent and impartial witnesses, Malone and Lord John Roxton join the expedition, the former as a journalist, the latter as a game hunter and scout. The three men set off on a steamship to South America.  When the clock strikes noon on July 15th, the party opens the sealed documents only to find them blank.  In walks Challenger.  Roxton admits that it is good that the Professor appears seeing that it is Challenger’s already damaged reputation that is at stake.  The next morning the party encounters the drums of natives, which are from the local cannibals who will kill the group if such an opportunity presents itself.  Finally the party arrives at the plateau that they seek.  Following chalk arrows that guide them, the group happens upon a cave that they believe White and Colver used to reach the top of the plateau, but the way is blocked.  After circling the raised plateau and finding no means of ascent, the party encamps for the night, dejected.  When day breaks, a renewed Challenger proposes that the group climb a nearby, but separated plateau, and then fall a tree in order to bridge the gap.  Once across the fallen tree and into exploration, a commotion behind them sends the group rushing to discover its cause.  Upon gaining a clearing, they see that one of the ‘half-breed’ guides, Gomez, has pushed the tree bridging the gap off of the plateau, stranding the party.  The reader finds that Gomez is the brother of a slave trader named Lopez, whom Roxton had previously killed in an attempt to curtail the slave trade.  Gomez, in pushing the tree over the edge of the plateau, feels that he has avenged his brother’s death by dooming Roxton.  Realizing they are now stranded, Roxton retaliates by shooting Gomez.

2. Analysis
Doyle uses imagery as a means to illustrate to the reader not only the physical characteristics and demeanor of the characters, but also the sights and sounds of the locations surrounding them.  Upon meeting Lord John Roxton, Mr. Malone writes, “I noted details of the face…the strongly curved nose, the hollow worn cheeks, the dark, ruddy hair, thin at the top.  His height was a little over six feet, but he seemed shorter on account of a peculiar rounding of the shoulders” (Doyle 49).  This description renders Roxton a large, strong, worldly man with clearly defined features, but with thinning hair showing that he is no longer a young man.  The author is explicitly detailed in his descriptions of all characters presented to the reader, leaving no doubt to the appearance, characteristics, and attitude presented by each.  Doyle not only explains his characters in great detail, but also the landscapes that surround them.  On the trip up the river, the group of explorers come upon rapids, and need to make their way around them through the forest.  Upon setting foot in the dense forest Mr. Malone writes, “How shall I ever forget the solemn mystery of it?  The height of the trees and the thickness of the boles exceeded anything…I could have imagined, shooting upwards in magnificent columns until, at an enormous distance above our heads, we dimly discern the spot where they threw out their side branches into Gothic upward curves which coalesced to form one great matted roof of verdure…”(Doyle 66).  This narrative of the forest, through which the group walks, gives the reader a sense of the enormous scale of the trees which form a cathedral-like space.  Doyle gives the reader a vivid image of the scale of the forest that relates to the readers prior knowledge about Gothic curves represented in large cathedrals.  With imagery so clear, Doyle delivers the reader into his realm, creating not only vivid snapshots of the landscapes and portraits of the characters, but also the feelings of adventure and terror those characters experience.

3. Questions
a. How does Conan Doyle represent the notion of difficulty?
b. How does Doyle represent the natives of South America?