An Analysis Of Cheryl Strayed's 'Wild'

Wild by Cheryl Strayed, is an example of the literary theory of feminism because the book is about the journey of a young woman learning independence by taking a hiking trip alone, without an experienced man by her side, despite men offering to go with her.

Cheryl took the risk to hike the Pacific Coast Trail alone, despite men offering to assist her and doubting her abilities, she wanted to do this to challenge and find herself. She knew she was taking a risk being inexperienced and hiking alone, but she needed to do this by herself as best she could. When offered to push on with a pair of hikers, she responds “ “Thank you,” I said “I’m touched you’d offer, but I can’t.” “Why can’t you?” Doug asked. “Because the point of my trip I’m out here to do it alone””(Strayed, 122). The author pushed herself to value

After making up the lie that her husband was hiking too, “”Well, then he’s crazier than you,” he said, after thinking about it for awhile. “It’s one thing to be a woman crazy enough to do what you’re doing. Another thing to be a man letting his own wife go off and do this.” (Strayed, 74)

While in the woods, Cheryl was forced to let go of the need to feel feminine and learn to own the new feeling of masculinity. Cheryl was challenged as a woman to learn to let go of her femininity and take pride in her new found masculinity. When Cheryl gets ready to go to dinner with a couple of other men hiking, she thinks to herself, “I’d been a girl forever, after all, familiar and with and reliant upon the powers my girlness granted me. Suppressing those powers gave me a gloomy twinge in the gut. Being one of