Firstly, the complimentary story The Lure of the Labrador Wild (Wallace, 1905) within Atwood’s Labrador Fiasco and the memorable camp songs in Death by Landscape provide symbolism for the sense of loss in both short stories. After a debilitating stroke, the father in Labrador Fiasco no longer enjoys Dillon Wallace’s story that he and his family once held so dear. The narrator in the story considers how their father has changed after the stroke, and notes “stories are no good … because by the time you get to the second page he’s forgotten the beginning” (Atwood 87). Wallace’s story once united the family in happiness, but not it serves as a reminder of how much the father has changed and lost his old self. While the father no longer enjoys the …show more content…
When the father in Labrador Fiasco suffers a second stroke from which he is unable to recover, he is like a different person and the rest of the family must move on leaving the man they once knew behind. The narrator mentions “My mother doesn’t know what to do” (Atwood 87), and considers how the mother attempts to distract herself from the reality of losing the husband he once was. It is hard for both the narrator and mother to continue living with the father, as they figure “he’s missing the last four or five years, and several blocks of time before that as well” (Atwood 86). Just as the stroke marks the family leaving the father behind, the canoe in Death by Landscape symbolizes Lois leaving Lucy behind forever. When the girls on the canoe trip fail to find Lucy, there is nothing more they can do than canoe back to camp. Leaving in the canoes “it took them the same two days to go back that it had taken going in … they did not sing” (Atwood 6). The canoes signify Lois having to give up on her search for Lois at the campsite, leaving her behind to never be seen again. Overall, characters in both short stories had to leave someone close behind and move on without them, as was symbolized with the stroke and the
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed is a book about several events that took place in her life after her mom died and how she lost everything including herself and made the impulsive decision to walk the Pacific Crest Trail, alone. This book was possibly intended for people who have been in the same situation as she has been: going through the loss of a loved one or just feeling like you have nothing left. I will conduct a rhetorical analysis of Strayed’s memoir, Wild, and critique her use of rhetorical appeals in order to show that her memoir was written
Many find reverence and respect for something through death. For some, respect is found for something once feared. In a passage from The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy, a man cares for a wolf that has died. The prominent religious motif and the paradox contrasting beauty and terror create a sense of awe that is felt by the narrator as he cares for the wolf.
The novel “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer goes into great detail to describe the main character, Chris McCandless, who died traveling alone into the Alaskan wilderness. McCandless, whom in the novel renamed himself Alex, left his home and family to travel to Alaska in 1992. In Alaska McCandless planned to live an isolated life in the desolate wilderness, but unfortunately he did not survive. This non-fiction novel portrays his life leading up to his departure and it captures the true essence of what it means to be “in the wild”.
In Jon Krakauer’s non-fiction novel Into the Wild, the well-off, upper-middle-class, Chris McCandless disappears donating all of his savings to charity and hitchhiking to Alaska to live off the land, but 119 days later he is found having starved to death at the age of 24. Chris McCandless was and still is a very heavily discussed topic due to the mysteries his death. His “Great American Odyssey” was short, but lack of divulging his plan to anyone else left it in a shroud of guesswork and minimal evidence. But despite that, there is just enough evidence to show that Chris McCandless was for the most part, at fault for his own death despite good and bad luck along the way.
Metaphor is an underlying element used in this memoir to depict the relationship between family and nature, and the profound understanding of oneself, through the sequence of life and death, and the rebirth that proceeds. Using metaphoric references, Williams explores the continual unpredictab...
Sometimes a character may be pushed over the edge by our materialistic society to discover his/her true roots, which can only be found by going back to nature where monetary status was not important. Chris McCandless leaves all his possessions and begins a trek across the Western United States, which eventually brings him to the place of his demise-Alaska. Jon Krakauer makes you feel like you are with Chris on his journey and uses exerts from various authors such as Thoreau, London, and Tolstoy, as well as flashbacks and narrative pace and even is able to parallel the adventures of Chris to his own life as a young man in his novel Into the Wild. Krakauer educates himself of McCandless’ story by talking to the people that knew Chris the best. These people were not only his family but the people he met on the roads of his travels- they are the ones who became his road family.
Although at the end of McCandless’ trip he became extremely ill, he didn’t regret abandoning his life and coming to live in the wild. On August 18, 112 days after he began his way into the wild, his adventure came crumbling down. He showed no pity, he left a note explaining that his trip into the wild was no disappointment, “I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD. GOODBYE AND MAY GOD BLESS ALL!” (219). He passed away being content while admiring the journeys he accomplished.
Another way that death and loss is evidenced by this novel is when Lennie killed Curley’s wife. When Lennie is in the barn (after killing his new puppy) Curley’s wife came into the barn and came on to Lennie. Lennie not knowing what was happening let her lull him into touching her hair. To Lennie it was like petting any other animal. Curley’s wife became flustered when Lennie became scared and would not let go of her hair. She started to scream and Lennie tried to cup her mouth, which concluded in him killing her. Lennie was truly remorseful after this action. Soon after killing her Lennie can be heard saying to himself, “I done a bad thing. I done another bad thing (121).”
Throughout his villanelle, “Saturday at the Border,” Hayden Carruth continuously mentions the “death-knell” (Carruth 3) to reveal his aged narrator’s anticipation of his upcoming death. The poem written in conversation with Carruth’s villanelle, “Monday at the River,” assures the narrator that despite his age, he still possesses the expertise to write a well structured poem. Additionally, the poem offers Carruth’s narrator a different attitude with which to approach his writing, as well as his death, to alleviate his feelings of distress and encourage him to write with confidence. Carruth particularly chooses to title his poem, “Saturday at the Border,” because Saturday signifies the end of the week and is a day of rest. This symbolizes
Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, describes the adventure of Christopher McCandless, a young man that ventured into the wilderness of Alaska hoping to find himself and the meaning of life. He undergoes his dangerous journey because he was persuade by of writers like Henry D. Thoreau, who believe it is was best to get farther away from the mainstreams of life. McCandless’ wild adventure was supposed to lead him towards personal growth but instead resulted in his death caused by his unpreparedness towards the atrocity nature.
In April of 1992 a young man named Chris McCandless, from a prosperous and loving family, hitchhiked across the country to Alaska. He gave $25,000 of his savings to charity, left his car and nearly all of his possessions. He burned all the cash he had in his wallet, and created a new life. Four months later, his body was found in an abandoned bus. Jon Krakauer constructed a journalistic account of McCandless’s story. Bordering on obsession, Krakauer looks for the clues to the mystery that is Chris McCandless. What he finds is the intense pull of the wilderness on our imagination, the appeal of high-risk activities to young men. When McCandless's mistakes turn out to be fatal he is dismissed for his naiveté. He was said by some to have a death wish, but wanting to die and wanting to see what one is capable of are too very different things. I began to ask myself if Chris really wasn’t as crazy as some people thought. Then I realized it was quite possible that the reason people thought he was crazy was because he had died trying to fulfill his dream. If he had walked away from his adventure like Krakauer, people would have praised him rather than ridicule. So I asked the question, “How does Krakauer’s life parallel Chris McCandlesses?”
Into the Wild, written by John Krakauer tells of a young man named Chris McCandless who 1deserted his college degree and all his worldly possessions in favor of a primitive transient life in the wilderness. Krakauer first told the story of Chris in an article in Outside Magazine, but went on to write a thorough book, which encompasses his life in the hopes to explain what caused him to venture off alone into the wild. McCandless’ story soon became a national phenomenon, and had many people questioning why a “young man from a well-to-do East Coast family [would] hitchhike to Alaska” (Krakauer i). Chris comes from an affluent household and has parents that strived to create a desirable life for him and his sister. As Chris grows up, he becomes more and more disturbed by society’s ideals and the control they have on everyday life. He made a point of spiting his parents and the lifestyle they lived. This sense of unhappiness continues to build until after Chris has graduated college and decided to leave everything behind for the Alaskan wilderness. Knowing very little about how to survive in the wild, Chris ventures off on his adventure in a state of naïveté. It is obvious that he possessed monumental potential that was wasted on romanticized ideals and a lack of wisdom. Christopher McCandless is a unique and talented young man, but his selfish and ultimately complacent attitude towards life and his successes led to his demise.
The world of Ernest Hemingway’s “Big Two-Hearted River” exists through the mostly unemotional eyes of the character Nick. Stemming from his reactions and the suppression of some of his feelings, the reader gets a sense of how Nick is living in a temporary escape from society and his troubles in life. Despite the disaster that befell the town of Seney, this tale remains one of an optimistic ideal because of the various themes of survival and the continuation of life. Although Seney itself is a wasteland, the pine plain and the campsite could easily be seen as an Eden, lush with life and ripe with the survival of nature.
This idea of memories being forgotten is when there is a mention of graves being lost in “Elegy for the Native Guard”. This is further reinforced in the line “All the grave markers, all the crude headstones – water-lost.” (44) While the poem does allude to the fact that these graves were destroyed due to natural causes, that of a hurricane, it is still significant. This poem demonstrates that society’s memory is not permanent, it can and will be lost
In Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer explores the human fascination with the purpose of life and nature. Krakauer documents the life and death of Chris McCandless, a young man that embarked on an Odyssey in the Alaskan wilderness. Like many people, McCandless believed that he could give his life meaning by pursuing a relationship with nature. He also believed that rejecting human relationships, abandoning his materialistic ways, and purchasing a book about wildlife would strengthen his relationship with nature. However, after spending several months enduring the extreme conditions of the Alaskan wilderness, McCandless’ beliefs begin to work against him. He then accepts that he needs humans, cannot escape materialism, and can never fully understand how nature functions. Most importantly, he realizes that human relationships are more valuable than infinite solitude. McCandless’ gradual change of heart demonstrates that exploring the wilderness is a transformative experience. Krakauer uses the life and death of Chris McCandless to convey that humans need to explore nature in order to discover the meaning of life.