The Temptation of Two

Throughout her essay “The Temptation of Two”, Susan Fox Rogers questions “What is safer? The folly of two or the caution of one.” Rogers kayaks, and in the essay, she describes two kayaking excursions. During her first solo journey, Rogers is “alert to every possible danger, human or not.” Rogers diction expresses her panic. She uses phrases like “bunched up” and “bold caution” to describe her alertness at the start. By the end, she rediscovers her love of kayaking. On her second journey, Rogers is with her friend Emily and thinks “paddling [..] this evening might be more dangerous then paddling alone” because it is dark when they push off and a storm is brewing. After kayaking, they bike back to the car and Rogers uses imagery to describe “the haze from the full moon [that] keeps us on the narrow country road” after the pair turn their headlights off. Despite paddling alone on her first journey, Rogers felt in more danger on her second journey.