In Cheryl Strayed's Wild, she gives readers vivid exposure to her turbulent and harsh past. She tells her journey from the beginning of what was the turning page in her life- her mother's death. Strayed goes through a roller coaster with unfortunate events both in her control and out of her control. She makes several poor choices, and she shares all her triumphs with pure honesty. Strayed speaks of her past with a distant remorse, as if she is looking at her past in a movie. She doesn't come across as ashamed of her past, but why should she? As all humans do, Cheryl Strayed makes mistakes and suffers their consequences as well. Everyone handles situations differently, and the best anyone can do is learn from the mistakes and apply it to their future, as she does. Strayed has come to terms with her past and by writing this biography she shows the courage she has gained from the unfortunate events in her life. As the saying goes, "whatever will be, will be." She took the everything, the negative and positive in her life, and made a wild decision to leave her life behind to find peace, move forward, and survive. There is no shame in the act of trying.
It was a very noble decision Strayed made when she decided to share her dirty laundry. Having to confess all her true feelings, knowing the chances of judgement from others, would make that person very vulnerable and essentially naked. It is a very courageous decision when someone decides to expose themselves because one knows you will receive criticism and judgment. Another courageous woman, like Cheryl, shared her story. Beth Whaanga, without intentions of rage, raised much controversy on a social media site once she decided to post post-surgical photos of her new body after having s...
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...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.
Works Cited
Sparrow, Rebecca. "When Beth Posted These Images on Facebook, 103 People Unfriended
Her | Rebecca Sparrow." The Huffington Post UK. N.p., 13 Feb. 2014. Web. 03 Mar. 2014.
Strayed, Cheryl. Wild. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012. Print.
Cheryl strayed and Chris McCandless have had similar stories that ended up contrarily. To compare their lives, there are three main aspects that has to be taken in consideration. First, the way that they grew up with their families, and how they became stressed and depressed over the time. Second, what their escape was to overcome their depression. Third, what they actually did and what was the result of their actions.
The book was very inspiring and I think it covered a lot of great information. Something that Joanne Crutchfield managed to do very well was paint vivid pictures with her words. Everything was so detailed and descriptive, I was really drawn in by that. The use of imagery made the topics more relatable in a sense. I also liked how the book touched on the topic of mental health. Mental health issues affect everyone however, in the black community those health issues go unnoticed or unattended to. The Author shared her story of depression and how she dealt with it. I thought that aspect of the memoir was great, I think that it was wonderful that she shed a light on mental health. On the other hand the book was a little difficult to follow with the way the chapters were set up. Other than that I thought the book was good and I really
All in all, the story was rather sad but eye-opening. I believe Porter’s approach to writing this story allowed readers to reflect back on their own lives and examine both the good and not-so-good times. It shows people not to just live life through the motions, but rather, to look at it as beautiful journey as no one wants to end up like Granny Weatherall and realize that with she never really lived.
She wants to persuade readers to continue to search for love. She tells the Beast with a Limp “You will never have my permission to close yourself off to love and give up” (154). Strayed does not want the man with the limp to give up on love and should always continue searching for love because that day would come. Cheryl Strayed wants Limp to believe in himself and want him to understand that he’s going to hit some bumps trying to find love but to never give up. “The journey you take to find love isn’t going to be average either. You’re going to have to be brave” (155). With this quote she is trying to sway the reader to become more open minded with their love life. Never hold back, keep moving forward until you feel that you’re in the right state of
faced society only to protect and be close to the man she still loved. The
Strayed uses a unique writing style and figurative language in Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail to give a picture of how one can use the past to create a healthy and bright present. Throughout the entire memoir, Strayed uses flashbacks and flash-forwards during her hike. Strayed starts off with her hike when she says, “My solo three-month hike on the Pacific Crest Trail had many beginnings” (1), and then she switches to “I accompanied my mother and stepfather, Eddie, from floor to floor of the Mayo Clinic” (10). With the constant back and forth where chronological time has no place, Strayed uses this repeatedly to clearly show her improvement by using the past as lessons to learn from. Strayed relies on her rare style to show that the past does help forge a better present. Likewise, the tone of the beginning and the end begin to shift. At the beginning, Strayed says that “I’ve never gone backpacking” (32), but at the end, she says, “Thank you. Not just for the long walk, but for everything I could feel finally gathered up inside
Maggie Fitzgerald was raised knowing one thing; she was trash. She had no true family that cared for her. No one even really knew she existed. The only person who gave her hope was her father. That was true up until she found the sport boxing and met Frankie. She earned everything through blood, sweat, and tears. Even when people were telling her she couldn’t do it, she still tried. Through all of this Maggie gained freedom, personhood, and experience.
Like Esther, Joan Gilling grew up in the same small town; she also won the writing competition and was sent to New York to work for the same magazine. Joan was also very conscious about how the world identified her as an individual. She didn’t want to conform to what society sa...
When looking back over her life, so far, she says not a bad life. Then again she’s not done yet and hopes to have another good ten years. I leave you with her life’s message.
Nussbaum, Felicity. “Risky Business: Feminism Now and Then.” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 26.1 (Spring 2007): 81-86. JSTOR. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
. This story embodies how the author saw her experiences that she had lived through.
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
Kastleman, Rebecca. "A Silenced Woman." American Theatre Feb. 2010: 19. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 27 Nov. 2011.
Throughout all of this, the young pop idol kept her career at top priority and continues to rise as we speak. Moreover, she’s a pain hider. She hid sorrow from the whole world all her life, built over it and stood headstrong every single time. “When the whole world turns left, it’s when I’m going right.
Adele Ferguson. “Glass Ceiling Scratched not broken.” The (Melbourne Age) 7 March 2014: Page 28