It was as if she was born again, seeing the light for the first time since the tragedy of her mother’s death. By hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, Cheryl Strade was able to push aside her grief and continue living out her life, pursuing her hopes and dreams. Though she made shameful decisions, making her look even more weak in the darkest moment of her life, in the end, Strade is a strong-minded and strong-willed human being; who shows great strength fighting through her grief. A strong-human being finds a way to keep pushing on, and that is exactly what Cheryl Strayed did. By hiking the PCT, she proved how much strength she really possesses, regardless of the shameful actions she took to get there.
Cheryl Strayed was twenty-two when she lost her beloved mother to lung cancer. It was such an unexpected death, she had no time to prepare for her mothers disastrous fate. Since she had no time to prepare, her grieving process lasted much longer than anyone expected. But, she had great reason. Her mother was the heart and soul of their entire family; keeping her brother, sister, and new stepfather all together. Without their mother being the glue that held them together, they all fell apart from each other, not even keeping in touch.
How would one feel losing their entire family over the death of their mother? It would not be a quick sting that lasted a week or two, no way. It would be an agonizing, emotional pain; lasting for months, even years. In Strade’s case: four years, three months, and seven days. Just because a strong-minded and strong-willed individual has weak moments and expresses them in a shameful way, does not mean they are weak overall. When life knocks you down, a human-being who has strength gets back to their feet...
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...r grieving process she hikes the PCT alone, as a woman, and no one, I mean no one, has a clue where she is. That is the makings of a very strong woman, in fact, the makings of a very strong human-being in general. Against all odds, she keeps pushing on, and she will earn herself a title just as MJ did with, “the Greatest Basketball Player of All-Time.” Her title will be, as she likes to say, the “Incredibly Talented and Extraordinary Brilliant and Successful Writer.” Well would you look at that, Cheryl Strade is an incredibly talented, extraordinary brilliant, and successful writer.
Works Cited
Strayed, Cheryl. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. New York: Vintage
Books, 2012.
Strayed, Cheryl. The Love Of My Life. The Sun Magazine. (September 2002): 3 Pages. 18 Feb
2014. http://thesunmagazine.org/issues/321/the_love_of_my_life?page=3
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
On August 23, 1980 in Conroe, Texas, is 40 miles north of Houston, a 16-year-old girl, Cheryl Fergeson, disappeared while searching for a women’s restroom at Conroe High School (Gores, 1991). Cheryl was the manager of the Bellville High girls’ volleyball team visiting Conroe High School for a preseason scrimmage. Later that day while searching for the girl two janitors, Clarence Brandley who is black, and Henry Peace who is white, found the girl’s body hidden under some scenery flats in the loft above the auditorium stage. Cheryl has been raped and strangled to death. Clarence and Henry were interrogated and made to sign statements. The two janitors were then taken to the hospital and made to give sperm, blood, and hair samples from their head
Strayed portrayed the negative figure of herself representing things she did not like and would like to eliminate. Being with a large amount of men affected her, she wanted to supposedly not sleep with men, but she still did. There were countless occasions she had sexual relationships with men she met on the Pacific Crest Trail. Strayed says, “We spent most of the summer having adventurous sex and doing heroin” (Strayed 53). Although she finally got over her shadow. Cheryl states, “For once I didn’t ache for a companion. For once the phrase, it didn't even live for me anymore” (Strayed 299). She was heartbroken with the divorce of Paul and still liking him, but she eventually gained maturity to be a better person. Sometimes when you are becoming dangerous to one’s self there are people than can see it and change for the
...l of her journey, she always tried, sometimes successfully and sometimes not, but she did try to move on. She also learned forgiveness, to others and to herself. Her story is incredibly insightful to the realities of the world. Her problems were none too out of the ordinary; death, infidelity, drugs, scandal- at least one of those is in everyone's life. She admits, “I’d done a lot of dumb and dangerous things in my life…”(Strayed 94). The way she handled certain situations was not the best, but that is what made her life a learning process and more importantly that is the story that has inspired so many lives today.
In Gary Ferguson’s “The Carry Home”, he narrates his life with his wife Jane. He talks about their adventures in nature, her death, and the scattering of her ashes. Ferguson tells us how he deals with the grief of losing Jane. In the book “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed we hear about her life. Strayed writes about her childhood, her mother’s death, and her hike on the Pacific Crest Trail. Strayed also tells us about how she deals with the grief of losing her mother. Although nature plays a huge role in both of their grieving processes, Ferguson and Strayed had two very different experiences with it. Ferguson uses his friends and community to help him. He has a strong support system around him. Strayed takes the opposite approach. She isolates herself from anyone
...ed to confront the deep pain that she has carried in her heart; she must give an account of her life as she comes closer to the shadow of death.
...lows us to feel a different sort of grief, because we do not have personal attachments to her. It is only shock and helplessness that we are forced to feel.
disappearing for 2 years, McCandless was found dead at age twenty-four in the Alaskan wilderness, the world stunned on why an affluent young man with a bright future would give it all up to live in seclusion in the wilderness. In his book Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer theorizes the motivations of McCandless and why a seemingly sane person would take such dangerous risks. Krakauer’s major theories of why McCandless did what he did revolve around a singular idea: freedom. Krakauer uses McCandless’s change of identity and wilderness adventures to symbolize freedom and self expression. McCandless was previously burdened by the expectations his parents put on him to
Anna Quindlen’s short story Mothers reflects on the very powerful bond between a mother and a daughter. A bond that she lost at the age of nineteen, when her mother died from ovarian cancer. She focuses her attention on mothers and daughters sharing a stage of life together that she will never know, seeing each other through the eyes of womanhood. Quindlen’s story seems very cathartic, a way of working out the immense hole left in her life, what was, what might have been and what is. As she navigates her way through a labyrinth of observations and questions, I am carried back in time to an event in my life and forced to inspect it all over again.
In “Whoever We Are, Loss Finds us and Defines Us”, by Anna Quindlen, she brings forth the discussion grief's grip on the lives of the living. Wounds of death can heal with the passing of time, but in this instance, the hurt lives on. Published in New York, New York on June 5, 1994, this is one of many Quindlen published in the New York Times, centered on death's aftermath. This article, written in response to the death of Quindlen’s sister-in-law, and is focused on an audience who has, currently is, or will experience death. Quindlen-a columnist for the New York Times and Newsweek, Pulitzer Prize winner and author-has written six bestselling novels (Every Last One, Rise and Shine, Object Lessons, One True Thing, and Black and Blue) and has been published in the New York Times and Newsweek.
June Callwood starts her essay by describing the story of a woman who had just recently moved to Canada and was being abused by her husband. The author describes the way people constantly talked about how someone should help the poor woman, but no one actually stepped up and did. A few days later, though, a fund had been established to help the woman, and she had
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.
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.
Strayed, Cheryl. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. New York: Vintage
...can be a life-changing experience. McCandless entered the wild as an overly confident hitchhiker and left as a self-accepting and humble man. He thought that human relationships were futile, he was impervious to materialism, and that he could understand nature on a scientific level. However, McCandless left the wild with a newfound appreciation for humanity, some clarity on his purpose in life, and the ability to create his own legacy. Many people finish reading Into the Wild and form negative opinions about McCandless’ reckless behavior. However, it is important to focus on how being in the wild brought McCandless closer to understanding himself. Into the Wild should motivate humans to participate in explore the wilderness to discover the true meaning of life.