This page seems to act as some sort of transition for S.  While it remains unclear until we read further what exactly this transition will entail, Straka’s description of the door hints that there may be a change up coming.

We are presented with a small cottage sitting atop a the summit of a mountain.  The cottages resilience seems to resonate with S as much of the description is about the cabin, and the word intractable sticks in his head.

However, the usage of intractable here is very weird when we take a closer look at it. Straka says that “the word that runs through S.’s head is intractable: it sits here atop a dead mountaintop on a lifeless island, defying wind and rain and good sense. Push all you like, it seems to say. I am going nowhere” (284).  The way that this sentence is phrased implies that the word intractable is what sits atop the mountain, not the cabin itself.  The final little bit in italics seems it could be more of a statement about himself, and less about the cabin perhaps.

What makes this page seem especially transitional is found once we are given the description of the door.  As S is said to have everything lead up to this, he then comes to a door with an extremely large knocker.  For some reason their is a lot of emphasis on this door, and I believe it signals a transition in the novel.