My Side of the Mountain revolves around Sam Gribley, a 12-year-old boy who runs away from his crowded New York apartment in search of independence and solitude. Sam is adventurous, determined, intelligent, and resourceful. Sam is also the main character, protagonist, and narrator. The story is narrated from Sam’s first-person point of view. In general, Sam narrates his adventure by speaking in the past tense and relying upon journal entries that he wrote throughout his adventure. It is clear that Sam has spent lots of time researching nature and how to live off the land, and he often references books he’s read, but he comes to find out that experience matters when it comes to survival.

Sam is easily the most dynamic character, and pretty much the entire story focuses on Sam’s survivalist adventure and how it causes him to change. At the beginning, Sam only knows as much about surviving in the wild as reading library books will allow him to know. He’s never made his own fire or cooked his own meal. These are things Sam masters over the course of his journey to becoming self-sufficient, and by the end, Sam is skilled enough to teach others how to hunt, fish, and make fire.