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Major themes of Canadian literature
Essay on canadian literature
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Brian’s Winter is a must read!
Do you like survival stories? If so, Brian’s Winter is the perfect book for you! Although there are only a couple of characters, this story has an amazing setting, outrageous adventures, and an awesome ending.
With only a survival pack and a few other items, Brian is stranded in the Canadian wilderness. A wilderness is a wild uncultivated region like a forest usually inhabited by wild animals. It is winter, there is snow on the ground, and it is so cold the temperature is below zero. In order to survive, he built a hut near a lake. For example, on page five in Brian’s Winter, it states, “...marooned him in the wilderness…”. Having survival skills is what ultimately saved his life.
Gary Paulsen added an exciting
yet confusing ending in the book. When Brian saw human footprints in the snow, he began to follow them. The footprints lead him to find a family of four and a cabin behind some trees. An example from Brian’s Winter on the last page is, “Brian stood, his mouth open”. The reason he stood there with his mouth open was because he was shocked/confused. This happened because there was a family of four in the wilderness. This amazing ending goes back to all the fun adventures with animals in the wilderness. Brian had to make weapons in order to hunt animals. Some of the animals he hunted includes moose, deer, and rabbit. In chapter sixteen, Brian recalls when he killed his first rabbit. Another fun adventure he had was when the skunk moved in with him. When Brian follows the footsteps, the story changes from one character to five. In the beginning of the story Brian and some animals are the characters. Due to the lack of characters, some people may not want to read this story, but the author uses the animals and weather to bring the story to life. Toward the end of the story, more human characters are added to the storyline. Brian found safety with those characters in a real cabin. In Brian's Winter, the setting is the Canadian Wilderness, where he survived by building his own hut, hunting tools, and making clothing from the animals he hunted. During his time in the wilderness, Brian has killed many animals in order to survive. The book ends with him finding safety and companionship with a family. Even though there are not many characters, animals or human, they still have a role in making the story more exciting.
Brian quickly made a fire using small pieces of bark that caught fire really fast. He now had warmth and a shelter, the only he needed was a steady food supply.
In "First Day of Winter," by Breece D’J Pancake stories, “First Day of Winter” is the twelfth and the last selection of them. The story is about the edgy circumstances of a West Virginia farmer called Hollis. A single man as yet still living on the farm of his family, Hollis battles to make ends meet as he watches over his weak parents. His decrepit mother declines to bathe, "her mind half gone from blood too thick in her veins;" on the other hand, his dad, "now coughing and blind," is "bent with age, with crying" (163, 168). The only sibling of Hollis, Jake, has left the homestead, wedded, fathered two youngsters and turn into a minister. Due to this Hollis’s parents hover over him and persistently remind him that his sibling "has done fine
Although going up into the Alaskan bush alone is foolish, Chris is brave for doing it. He fought off the cold, walked miles a day, and even went days without food while snowed in a school bus. “McCandless had difficulty killing game, and the daily journal entries during his first week at the bus include ‘weakness,’ ‘snowed in,’ and ‘disaster.’ He saw but did not shoot a grizzly on May 2, shot at but missed some ducks on May 4, and finally killed and ate a spruce grouse on May 5. But he didn't kill any more game until May 9, when he bagged a single small squirrel, by which point he'd written ‘4th day famine’ in the journal.” (Krakauer 138). He is also brave when he is sick and knows he is going to die while stranded out in the middle of nowhere. “And then, on July 30, he made the mistake that pulled him down. His journal entry for that date reads, "Extremely weak. Fault of potato] seed. Much trouble just to stand up. Starving. Great jeopardy.’ McCandless had been digging and eating the root of the wild potato Hedysarum alpinum, a common area wildflower also known as
He ventures into merciless terrain of Alaska and unfortunately, as he was not adequately prepared for the life in
Living in the wilderness is difficult, but understanding the meaning of such lifestyle is even more difficult. One of the Christopher’s admirable qualities was that he was well aware of what he was doing. He knew about the difficulties and dangers that he would face into the wilderness, and was mentally prepared for that. Author Jon Krakauer says that “McCandless was green, and he overestimated his resilience, but he was sufficiently skilled to last for sixteen weeks on little more than his wits and ten pounds of rice. And he was fully aware when he entered the bush that he had given himself a perilously slim margin for error. He knew precisely what was at stake” (182). McCandless was an educated youth, who loved nature and dreamed of living in the Alaskan wilderness. Although he ignored to take many necessary things with him on this
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.
He went through many obstacles that could have proved fatal. From canoeing in the Colorado River to picking the right berries, he was testing his intelligence. Chris had a true confidence in the land and in himself to set out on a mission so dangerous. “Wilderness appealed to those bored or disgusted with man and his works. It not only offered an escape from society but also was an ideal stage for the Romantic individual to exercise the cult that he frequently made of his own soul. The solitude and total freedom of the wilderness created a perfect setting for either melancholy or exaltation” (Nash; Krakauer 157). Chris longed to escape from society and rely on only mother nature. An innumerable amount of people desire to withdraw from society as Chris did; but they are so comfortable and secure with a normal life they do not dare take such a gutsy
He could 've even kept the money and go into town and what not to buy some food incase he couldn 't hunt anymore. I say that it is very ironic since Chris McCandless had donated all of his money to the hungry, and burned some of it too, yet he had died from starvation instead of keeping it and buying the food. A good example to why Chris did not use common sense is from Jessica Duling and she states “Chris McCandless was unprepared in more ways than one”, “why would anyone intending to live off the land for a few months, forget Boy Scout rule number one: Be Prepared”. I strongly agree with Jessica because the only thing that chris did to learn on how to live in the wild was buy a book on different types of plants and which ones are poisonous and which ones are not. I believe that if Chris had used a little common sense he would 've at least told his parents or brought a map or maybe look up how Alaska acts during the winter through the summer and maybe he might still be living till this
As Chris became more fascinated with the wilderness, he increasingly became indifferent towards different aspects of his life. Chris’ operation prior to embarking in the wilderness was fruitless because he lacked the sufficient and valuable preparations. Furthermore, it is appropriate to say that the actions that he took were beyond heedless: “He spent very little time learning how to actually live in the wild” (Christian 1). Practice makes perfect is a common proverb that echoes throughout society but was unfortunately missing from Chris’ life. Chris’ enthusiasm towards nature prevented him from making a logical decision of having sufficient experience with the wilderness itself. Ultimately, Chris was an oblivious person because he commenced into the wilderness with meager supplies. However, Chris failed at entering his excursion with sufficient preparations: “He left the map in Gallien’s truck, along with his watch, his comb, and all his money, which amounted to 85 cents” (2). By leaving his belongings in Gallien’s truck, Chris made an extremely absurd decision. More specifically, he disabled any possibility for him to receive immediate assistance when his health began declining rapidly. Finally, individuals should prioritize rationality in certain situations because it is crucial for them to use when they are blinded by a
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”.
Does wilderness exist? To many people, this would seem to be a very meaningless question. Of course wilderness exists. But, coming from a student who decided to enroll in a class called Humans and the Natural Environment: Impacts and Moral Obligations, this question has become one that has almost thrown my world upside down. Before we can answer the question, we must first know the definition of wilderness is this, “an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man is a visitor who does not remain.” Because of my recent class periods and readings, I believe that the concept of wilderness does not exist, and that it is not useful. Throughout this essay I will explain why
...e wilderness.” Krakauer stats this in the book to explain what Chris was up against walking into the wilderness. No ordinary man would do this to survive out on his own facing the wilderness. Kleinfeld made an extraordinary remark in her article “McCandless: Hero or Dumb Jerk” “Jon Krakauer's best seller "Into the Wild" immortalizes this young man, who walked into the wilderness with no map, no ax, no mosquito repellent and no first aid equipment.” She makes a good statement about his bravery because not many men would go out with no supplies to make them survive. He went out by himself, no supplies and try to pull off to live in the wild.
When the narrator introduced the main character of the story, the man, he made it clear that the man was in a perilous situation involving the elements. The man was faced with weather that was 75 degrees below zero and he was not physically or mentally prepared for survival. London wrote that the cold "did not lead him to meditate upon his frailty as a creature of temperature, and upon man's frailty in general, able only to live within certain narrow limits of heat and cold."(p.1745) At first when the man started his journey to the camp, he felt certain that he could make it back to camp before dinner. As the trip progressed, the man made mistake after mistake that sealed his fate. The man's first mistake was to step into a pool of water and soak his legs to the knees. This blunder forced the man to build a fire to dry his wet socks and shoes so his feet would not freeze and become frostbitten. When the man began to build a fire he failed to notice that he was doing so under a large, snow laden spruce tree where he was getting his firewood. When the man had a small fire that was beginning to smolder the disturbance to the tree caused the snow to tumble to the ground and extinguish the fire. "It was his own fault or, rather, his mistake. He should not have built the fire under the spruce tree. He should have built it in the open."(1750).
Monty Python’s Life of Brian is more than just a mere comedy; it is a Biblical, religious, and political satire. Like all Python films, Life of Brian seems to educate the viewer while at the same time providing entertainment. Unfortunately not all of the elements in Life of Brian occurred in real life, which takes away from the validity of the plot. While not everything is accurate, it seems that a majority of the film could be considered genuine. In order to understand an analysis of the film, one must first have a basic sense of the plot.
captive by a sheath of frost, as were the glacial branches that scraped at my windows, begging to get in. It is indeed the coldest year I can remember, with winds like barbs that caught and pulled at my skin. People ceaselessly searched for warmth, but my family found that this year, the warmth was searching for us.