the river of doubt

i am currently reading the river of doubt, by candice millard. this book is extremely exciting and in some places, even scary. millard does an excellent job of conveying the feelings of the members of the expedition. one way she does this is by writing quotes from the persons own journal. these are really helpful because they were written by the men themselves while they were traveling down the river. without these journal entries, it would be much harder to under stand the details of the participants exact feelings toward the trip and their fellow members. even without these short passages, it would not be terribly difficult to gain an understanding of the mens broad feelings and emotions concerning the expedition. the mens mood is quite sad and pessimistic. throughout the entire journey the men have gone through one hard experience after another. after their hard trek out to the river and the few days they have spent on it, the men are suffering from insect bites all over their bodies and several men are suffering from illness. almost all of the journal entries in this part of the book are about tragic events or how badly the trip is going. the mens entries are sad and have pessimistic views on what is going to happen to them. the men dont see how any good can come out of their situation, and it really shows in their journals.