Caught in a harsh unknown territory where they encounter wild rapids, waterfalls, and vile mountain people, four men who are accustomed to suburban American life must learn overcome the unfamiliarity of both the rough location and their self in order survive.
Ensnared in an uncomfortable situation, the narrator and hero of the book, Ed Gentry recognized that upon returning home his entire life and world view has improved, despite the harrowing experience.James Dickey’s Deliverance (1970) portrays suburban males whose impressions of nature have come largely through the media, as Ed narrates: "Movies and pictures of Indians on calendars gave me a general idea of what to do, and I waved the paddle slowly through the water, along the left side of the canoe. " (p. 73). This is basically where characters’ weaknesses converge – their "rough ideas" create an overconfidence that leads to a series of tragedies.
They eventually realize that is only the law of the jungle in the wilderness: kill or be killed.The adventure can kill you, but it could flesh out one’s worst and best, if you survive. A typical American man Ed Gentry is balding, whose "hips and belly were heavy but solid," and who expects to age quickly” (p. 29).
This is physical form was in contrast to Ed’s best friend, Lewis, who was in shape through lifting weights every day. Ed envied and looks up to Lewis as sort of his mentor. Also, it was Lewis who taught him archery. So when Lewis persuaded him to undertake the jungle adventure down the river, Ed was up for this challenge.
Although there is a potential risk in the trip they were about to take, he was all faithful that he could rely on Lewis if any danger comes along. Then trouble began to unfold. While the Ed and Lewis, together with friends Bobby and Drew, went canoeing, a group of hillbillies attacked them and sexually assaulted their companion, Bobby. When one was about force himself to Ed, Lewis shot the would-be rapist dead with an arrow. The other hillbilly having already “raped” Bobby, escaped.
Relieved, Ed was drawn by shock at what Lewis has done."I moved," Ed says, "without being completely aware of movement, nearer to him. I would have liked nothing better than to touch that big relaxed forearm as he stood there . .
. I would have followed him anywhere, and I realized that I was going to have to do just that" (p. 128). Another twist of fate unfolded because Ed could only rely on Lewis for some time.
When they were carrying the dead hillbilly's body to a remote place in the woods and bury it, they set out in two canoes to get as far down the river as they can, knowing they cannot reach their destination in a single day.They encounter some difficult rapids in which their canoes overturn. The escaped hillybilly appears and apparently shoots Drew, the fourth man, to death while Lewis breaks his leg. Ed’s expected protector becomes totally incapacitated, so Ed is now faced with a huge dilemma: Ed has no choice but to exchange roles with Lewis.
"'It's you,'" Lewis tells him. "'It's got to be you" (p. 150). Hesitantly taking the helm of the group, Ed has to devise a strategy to save himself, Bobby, and Lewis, and physically to carry the strategy out.Ed has to climb a dangerous and steep cliff up the side of the river in the dark of night to capture the hillybilly who had murdered Drew.
Doing so, Ed feels "the most entire aloneness that I have ever been given. " Yet there is "joy at the thought of where I was and what I was doing" (p. 161). Fortunately, Ed accomplishes his mission successfully.
When they are about to decide what to do about Drew’s dead body, Ed decided that to escape prosecution they must sink the body in the river and make up a story for the authorities about what had happened to them.Readers could now deem that he already assumed the qualities he had admired in Lewis, all but the muscular body, although he himself suffers a self-inflicted albeit accidental wound from his remaining arrow. He is now symbolic of the wounded hero, the savior figure, exceeding what he expected of himself (Tout, 2000). Although there are moral questions whether their decisions were the appropriate ones, readers could feel Ed's guilt for his killing of the mountain man and his silence about the truth.Faced with a lot of moral choices, he has killed, he has lied, and now he must lie again, to his wife and to Drew's wife – just to survive their harrowing experience. Later, he has realized that there is still his wife, Martha, to come home to.
Thus, as their love is reaffirmed, he foregoes any regret of the choices he made – a deliverance to any feeling of guilt. . By choosing what he thought was right during the crisis they encountered, Ed comes out a hero in the end as he has gathered enough confidence to continue the roughness of “life” itself.
