Cheryl Strayed's Wild

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Wild, written by Cheryl Strayed, is a memoir that documents her hike along the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). She wanted to document her journey of self-discovery as she made her treacherous march through the West Coast. She structures her book like a diary, often recalling events that happened earlier in the book or an earlier memory not mentioned, and speaks with familiarity. She uses strong language and describes scenes with drugs and sex, not making it a suitable book for a non-mature audience. From the moment Strayed realized her mother had stage 4 cancer to the time her mother died, Strayed remained by her mother’s side as often as she could. She worked around school so that she was able to take care of her mother. She could not bring herself …show more content…

She manages very high diction while maintaining the language of an enlisted sailor. Repetition can be seen throughout the book, often emphasizing key turning points such as “My mom is dead”. My mom is dead, too. My mom is dead...” (34), or “Fuckthemfuckthemfuckthem” (10). The first quote was about her realizing that she wouldn’t be able to receive her BA and that she was without her mother. The second quote references a prayer that Strayed had to God when the doctor they thought would be the one to tell them that her mother was misdiagnosed confirmed what they all feared. She drags on about her mother's death for a good portion of the book before settling on the present and the way the PCT was taking a toll on her mentally and physically. Although she drags on quite a bit, once the story picks up, the reader can truly identify with what Strayed is saying. She uses imagery to put a lot of events into perspective, like how the reader can feel the blisters and bruises that developed from her Volkswagen Monster pack or the cool “hands” that she felt that night. Strayed does a great job of immersing the reader in her …show more content…

At the beginning of the book, the reader is told that Strayed cheated on her faithful husband. She says, “I stayed behind in Oregon and fucked the ex-boyfriend of the woman who owned the exotic hens. I fucked a cook at the restaurant where I picked up a job waiting for tables. I fucked a massage therapist, who gave me a piece of banana cream pie and a free massage. all three of them within the span of five days.” (36). She doesn’t attempt to use her mother as sympathy, either. The point of her explaining the affairs with her husband and Joe, introducing her to heroin, and impregnating her is to put Strayed’s perspective on the rock bottom she hit—remember, this is not for emotional gain. She just wants to put it in perspective. She understands that everything she is doing is taking a toll on everyone around her and destroying everything. She realizes at some point that she needs to get it together, and the PCT was the way she chose to do it. Strayed can merge her memories and present tense as a way to relate previous events to whatever she is experiencing, but the way she does it allows the reader to stick to what she is

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