Flood - Summary Essay

 Flood is very engaging for a short story, but not on its own merit.

The whole time I was reading this I was thinking of all the other times I had read of the river flooding. The first was Crookedstar’s birth in his super edition. Then my mind was drawn to Mapleshade’s Vengeance when she and her kits tried to cross the river.

Eventually, I remembered reading the same scene from Fireheart’s point of view. When ThunderClan arrives, we see Crookedstar feeling wounded from enemy warriors seeing his Clan in this state. In the main arc I remember feeling concern for the Clan and elation that Fireheart and Greystripe could help them. The exact opposite.

These feelings from both points of view were playing at equal levels. It’s the strangest thing I have ever felt!

The main theme in Flood is strength. Their are many different things that can contribute to the strength of a group. These strengths can also be seen as weaknesses however. RiverClan is the only Clan that can swim, but during a flood this is as dangerous for them as it is for the other Clans, ‘We’re no more powerful against this river than any other Clan. Everything that makes us RiverClan is being taken away form us.’ Pg. 46. The Clans can gain strength from each other, but have trouble accepting help from cats who are often enemies ‘I this how StarClan chooses to help us? By sending enemy cats?…[Crookedstar] knew he could not refuse their help.’ Pg. 46.

The main character in this short story is the young warrior Silverstream. The reader follows her point of view throughout Flood, and is given insight into her inner thoughts and musings more than any other character that appears or is mentioned. All the other characters that appear in the short story play only minor or incidental roles.

The main situations in Flood are: Silverstream realises that the river has risen from the thaw in the dark. Crookedstar says “[the water] may go down again.” Pg. 44. The water keep s rising and eventually breaks through into camp. Two kits go missing. Silverstream and Mistyfoot save the others. Two ThunderClan cats arrive with Mistyfoot’s missing kits. Silverstream doesn’t show her feelings for Greystripe. Crookedstar doesn’t want ThunderClan to see RiverClan in this state, but Knows he can’t refuse their help, and believes their coming is a sing from StarClan.

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