Trekking Through the Woods of Desperation and Reverting to Animalistic Survival Tactics
(because there's so much more to it than that scene)
I found this 1972 movie poster for Deliverance and thought that it described the general plot, not only through the caption, but also in the actual image depicted in the poster.
The hand with the gun coming out of the water is appropriately bloody because of all the pain and suffering (and yes, death) included in the novel. The three figures in the canoe are paddling for their lives, instead of just idling around enjoying the beautiful scenery and nature around them. They know that the bloody hand with a gun is out there, waiting for a chance to knock another one of them out of the picture (read: kill someone if not all of them). I also like this poster because it is set in the actual river. The river embodies the camping trip as a whole because there are parts of it that are calm (such as the water seen above) but that does not mean that a treacherous section of rapids is not right around the bend (such as when the crazy hillbilly tries to shoot another one of them).
Of the four men that entered the woods, one is dead, many agree that another SHOULD be dead, and the other two (the stronger characters) are both physically compromised. For the three remaining men, they (mainly Ed) have resolved the main issue at hand, which is surviving and getting out of the woods in (relatively) one piece. But even after being "free" of crazy murderous mountain men, all the remaining men are forever different people than when they first started their canoeing adventure. One is psychologically ruined and even more incompetent than he was before; another is forever humbled by his injury and full dependence on the others for a majority of the trip; the final (and most important) man is actually more confident in his instincts and abilities and is finally able to get a "brilliant" night's sleep.
Plans to finish the book are a go.
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