Things usually do not go as planned, and most of the time, the results are unexpected. Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods is a novel about a great journey. Usually when hearing that, first thing that comes to mind is the ending of this great journey; whether it is completed or given up. However, writing a novel about an extraordinary journey, usually refers to a great ending. In this story, Bill’s inspiration and confidence truly shows ambition. He also shows that he is genuinely able to finish the Appalachian Trail. However, the outcome is the complete opposite. Bill and Stephen’s journey is a representation of how all journeys come to an end; their determination shrivelled the further they walked, by experiencing physical, friendship, and …show more content…
Throughout Bill and Stephen’s journey, they experience many mental difficulties and problems that leads to them giving up on their journey. Firstly, Katz is a destroyed man looking to shape himself through the hike. Katz was a drug addict and an alcoholic. Going on the hike means giving up all his bad habits and starting off the hike like new person. It is not easy, he always thinks about it and being away for it made him angry and grumpy most of the time. Eventually, Katz does break his promise, thus this effects their friendship greatly, as Bryson says “I was furious, livid - more furious than I had been about anything in years. I couldn’t believe he was drinking again. It seemed such a deep, foolish betrayal of everything - of himself, me, what we were doing out here” (251). This signifies how Katz had a bad mental breakdown when he took the break from the hike. He had to drink in order to calm down, which makes Bill furious, since he is attempting to make Katz a better man. Secondly, Bill’s starts to develop a fear of mental isolation. When Bill is walking through the claustrophobic forest he says, “personally, I would have been pleased to be waling now through hamlets and past farms rather than through some silent ‘protected corridor.’” (202), he explains that being trapped in a confined forest makes him feel isolated and he would rather be out in open spaces able to “breath”. Having Katz being a slow walker even made it worst for Bill. He had no one to talk to, no one laugh with, or discuss his problems with during his walk. This makes him miss home, he wanted his wife to love him and kids to play with. Lastly, Bill losing his stick made him extremely homesick, “that stick ... had become all but part of me. It was a link with my children, whom I missed more than I can tell you. I felt like weeping” (161). This shows how the stick was the
Jimmy Dean once advised, “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to reach my destination.” The novel A Long Walk to Water authored by Linda Sue Park, is a work of realistic historical fiction and a dual narrative focused on adjusting to change. One storyline is about a young eleven year old girl named Nya who is apart of the Nuer tribe and lives in Sudan. Nya lives the life of a young Sudanese girls because they collect water for their family every day. The other storyline is about an eleven year old boy named Salva who is in the Dinka tribe and lives in Sudan, but travels throughout many countries and states in his life. Salva’s story line shows how getting attacked by rebels and escaping from civil war changed his and many others’ lives. Both characters face many changes throughout the story. Linda Sue Park wants readers to know to accept change for good or bad.
Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, describes the adventure of Christopher McCandless, a young man that ventured into the wilderness of Alaska hoping to find himself and the meaning of life. He undergoes his dangerous journey because he was persuade by of writers like Henry D. Thoreau, who believe it is was best to get farther away from the mainstreams of life. McCandless’ wild adventure was supposed to lead him towards personal growth but instead resulted in his death caused by his unpreparedness towards the atrocity nature.
In the story, A Long Walk to Waters, written by Linda Sue Park, the readers are introduced to many different individuals that were able to survive challenging environments. Those individuals used those factors, perseverance, cooperation, and independence. Those factors have allowed individuals to make it past through the harsh environments throughout their journey. Perseverance shows how those individuals kept on going without giving up. Meanwhile, cooperation represents how struggling individuals are able to work together in order to achieve their goal. Last but not least independence shows how individuals can conquer a hurdle by him or herself.
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.
To summarize, the Hero’s Journey is a challenging process, yet Holden answered to his call of journey, undertook challenges under rigorous environments, and finally returned with satisfactory with aides from the helpers.
One of Bryson’s main reasons to hike the AT was the fact that he was scared global warming was going to destroy all of the beautiful nature the AT has to offer. Throughout the book Bryson connects with nature. He gets familiar with the woods and becomes a true hiker. Bill would rather be on the trail ...
Throughout all texts discussed, there is a pervasive and unmistakable sense of journey in its unmeasurable and intangible form. The journeys undertaken, are not physically transformative ones but are journeys which usher in an emotional and spiritual alteration. They are all life changing anomaly’s that alter the course and outlook each individual has on their life. Indeed, through the exploitation of knowledge in both a positive and negative context, the canvassed texts accommodate the notion that journeys bear the greatest magnitude when they change your life in some fashion.
These timeless tales relate a message that readers throughout the ages can understand and relate to. While each of these tales is not exactly alike, they do share a common core of events. Some event and or character flaw necessitates a journey of some kind, whether it is an actual physical journey or a metaphorical one. The hardships and obstacles encountered on said journey lead to spiritual growth and build character. Rarely does a person find himself unchanged once the journey is over.
The primary historical event affecting the story happens before Bryson's journey on the trail. The Great Depression was the economic downturn of the United States. It caused the majority of Americans to become destitute and eager to find work to support themselves and their families. The drive to open a personal business was crushed by the harshness of the Great Depression. The empty building Bill saw on his journey were all remnants of the failed business endeavors. The historical setting of A Walk in the Woods also falls under the period where more individuals were leaving their rural lives to find opportunity in the city. The farming regions visited by Bill have been abandoned and forgotten by the people who once lived there. With the withdrawal of the human interference in those communities nature has come to reclaim its lost territory. The
The story recaps a troubled woman’s 1,000-mile backpacking journey through the Pacific Crest Trail. After her mother’s death, Cheryl Strayed found herself in a concerning drug addiction, a less than perfect marriage, and immersed in sexual promiscuity. Revaluating her decisions into self-ruin, Strayed made an impulse decision to hike the Western edge of the United States, from the Mexican border to the Canadian Border. She then recorded her journey from mid-life crisis to self-awareness.
The book A Long Walk to Water caught me not wanting to stop, with great plotline and character development. Salva was a great character who had a very preserverant attitude. While running away from the refugee camp he was forced with a decision to just give up or to carry on. With his attitude he carried through to get through the desert. The best part of the book was when the two stories met together. It was the best because all of the plot and different changes made that last section happen. If it weren’t for Salva coming to America Nya would have never gotten their well. The worst part was, in my opinion, was the repetitiveness of Nya’s story. The saddest part was when Salva’s uncle and best friend died. This was sad because I can feel
A physical journey occurs as a direct result of travelling from one place to another over land, sea or even space. The physical journey can occur individually or collectively, but always involves more than mere movement. Instead physical journeys are accompanied by inner growth and development, catalysed by the experiences and the decisions that impact the outcome of the journey. These journey concepts and the interrelationship between physical and emotional journeys is exemplified in the text; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, the children’s book Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers and the film Stand By Me directed by Rob Reiner.
This passage displays Katz’s growing maturity about dealing with the challenges the woods bring. Bryson describes the situation by providing detail of the strong surges of the water. In the situation, he explains how Katz figured out his own way of getting across. This reveals growth of Katz’s character since he becomes independent in figuring out how to deal with certain situations. Bryson continues to describe Katz as “helpless” in the situation. However, Katz does not complain or ask for help from Bryson like he previously would, instead he resolves his own problems. Bryson also mentions how Katz acts as if problems like this happen everyday to them out in the woods. This further emphasizes Katz slowly maturing into an independent person
In the novel, A Walk in the Woods, the book has its own strength but also has its defects. One example of the book’s strength is Katz hilarious personality. Katz constantly brings trouble because he’s moves on instinct. For example, once he went out with a big married woman named Beulah after meeting her in the laundromat. Beulah’s husband caught them on a date and went after Katz. Katz then tells Bryson, “Look, if I get shot, do me a favor. Call my brother and tell him there’s $10,000 buried in a coffee can under his front lawn. You buried $10,000 under your brother’s front lawn? No, of course not, but he’s a prick and it would serve him right”. When the narrator, Bryson, goes off and talks about the Appalachian Trail history, it has its
It was a calm, overcast day, and I found myself resting at the side of a large oak tree, admiring the beauty of the woods that surrounded me.