Deliverance, by James Dickey, is a story of four men who go on a kayaking trip who are then held at gunpoint and set for survival. Deliverance focuses on how when left to the wild sets people into a murderous state where no remorse is the key to survival, kill or be killed. Ed Gentry, Drew Ballinger, Lewis Medlock, and Bobby Trippe are enjoying their trip together and when Ed and Bobby separate from the group to retrieve supplies two mountain men hold them hostage at gunpoint. One mountain man eventually savagely rapes Bobby leaving Ed to watch and inevitably be next, but just before anything else happens Lewis ends up killing one of the men from the overhang with his bow forcing the other man to flee leaving his friend to die.
Eventually after covering up the murder the four characters decide to head downstream and never speak of what happened again due to killing the mountain man. But along the way Drew is shot and grazed killing him leaving the group to only do one thing, finish what they started or they would be next. Deliverance shows what being pushed to the edge causes people to do, when pit for survival, one would definitely fight and kill to stay alive. If anything were to happen to me I would definitely be the one attempting to protect my friends and survive at any means necessary which would most likely involve taking another’s life.
Deliverance is a great book for those with a vivid imagination as James Dickey makes the book extremely vivid through his spectacular use of words and imagery. When reading the book it almost feels as if you were there and in person seeing the pain and horror these men are experiencing. At times in the story when the characters get injured you can almost imagine what it would feel like due to the use of verbiage that James Dickey uses. Another great example of his writing includes a poem he wrote called Falling which is an amazing piece of work as it describes one hostesses’ fall to her death all the way up from a depressurized plane. The language used is far more descriptive and makes you imagine everything from top to bottom making James Dickey seem like a master of imagery and story telling.
Here’s a link to Falling: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171431