From Death to Drug Use “The Ascent” teaches a crucial moral lesson about how decisions affect more than one individual. In "The Ascent" by Ron Rash, he tells the story of a boy named Jared who has a difficult life due to his parents' decisions. During the Christmas holidays, Jared begins exploring the woods. While he was exploring, he discovers a recently missing crashed plane. As the story continues, Jared reveals little details, or inner thoughts that his young mind can't understand about what's going on around him. Rash's use of a naive narrator, critical foreshadowing, and imagery to create an effective setting that leads to character revelation. Jared, due to his age, misunderstands the world around him, but this does not mean everything he encounters. Jared sometimes imagines things due to his age, but this helps understand his thought processes and emotions. Rash explains: “He thought instead of Lyndee Starnes, the girl who sat across from him in fifth-grade class. Jared pretended she was walking beside him” (279). This situation shows that he is fond of this g...