s in the book, King will forewarn to indicate what happens next, but will wait to tell the incident in its entirety until it fits into the story in chronological order. For example, when James Reed is banished from the Donner Party for murdering John Snyder, King went on to say, “Reed’s wife and four children remained with the company. Reed caught up with the Donners, where his teamsters, Walter Herron joined him. They went on to reach the California settlements, and that story will be told in its place.” To assist illuminate the story of the Donner Party, many illustrations have been used in this book. There are maps of specific locations the Donner Party traveled through, photocopies of journal entries, illustrations and pictures of many of the key players in the Donner Party. Also, there are recent photographs of where the Donner Party camped in the Sierra Nevada. The thesis of Winter of Entrapment was difficult to determine for the reason that it tells a story of the Donner Party as it happened through chronological order using as much fact as possible. It is obvious though that King was trying to indicate the bravery and commitment the Breen family had to endure to survive. Using Patrick Breen’s diary and interviews, King tells the story of the Breens involvement with the Donner Party. In almost all other books written of the Donner Party the Breens, mostly Patrick and Margaret, were regarded unkindly as is suggested by William Eddy, one of the members of the search party. He stated that when he found the campsite where the Breens were located what he saw “was shocking indeed. And yet Patrick Brinn [sic] and his wife seemed not in any degree to realize the extent of their peril, or that they were in peril at all.” Eddy went on to say that they were found sunning themselves with the bodies of two of the Donner’s children and Mrs. Graves. He said that the child of Graves “w...
