Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods will make you laugh and think. It gives an interesting perspective on life when Bryson and his friend Stephen Katz, head out for a hike on the 2,200 mile long Appalachian trail. He takes you through all of his experiences, ranging from dealing with over-talkative hikers to loud noises and glowing eyes in the night. It gives you a chance to realize how hectic our lives are and that if we just take a step back life can really be quite simple. Bryson and Katz’s journey down the trail will open your eyes to many new things you never would have thought about and give you an urge to find a trail near you (maybe not a 2,200 mile trail though).
I found that one of Bill Bryson's strengths as a writer was his ability
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A great example is shown here, “When I awoke it was daylight. The inside of my tent was coated in a curious flaky rime, which I realized after a moment was all of my nighttime snores, condensed and frozen and pasted to the fabric, as if into a scrapbook of respiratory memories.” His use of these literary devices not only adds texture to the book but also lets you compare things you can easily picture to something you may have never actually seen before. Almost every good writer will stun you with their ability to come up with unique literary devices, and Bill Bryson is no …show more content…
One of which was to enjoy the simple things in life. While Bryson and Katz were walking down the trail you could tell they really began to respect and enjoy the simple things in life like having a bed to sleep in, or a warm meal. It helps show us that we don’t need extravagant things to be happy, we would be just fine with the bare essentials. At one point throughout the book, Bryson points out just how ridiculous some of us have got, “I know a man who drives 600 yards to work. I know a woman who gets in her car to go a quarter of a mile to a college gymnasium to walk on a treadmill, then complains passionately about the difficulty of finding a parking space. When I asked her once why she didn’t walk to the gym and do five minutes less on the treadmill she looked at me as if I were being willfully provocative. ‘Because I have a program for the treadmill,’ she explained. ‘It records my distance and speed, and I can adjust it for degree of difficulty.’ It hadn’t occurred to me how thoughtlessly deficient nature is in this
The author uses a lot of description when setting the scene, or writing how someone looks. He also uses a lot of color imagery within the chapters and writes in 3rd person narrative.
“ The horizon was the color of milk. Cold and fresh. Poured out among the bodies” (Zusak 175). The device is used in the evidence of the quote by using descriptives words that create a mental image. The text gives the reader that opportunity to use their senses when reading the story. “Somehow, between the sadness and loss, Max Vandenburg, who was now a teenager with hard hands, blackened eyes, and a sore tooth, was also a little disappointed” (Zusak 188). This quote demonstrates how the author uses descriptive words to create a mental image which gives the text more of an appeal to the reader's sense such as vision. “She could see his face now, in the tired light. His mouth was open and his skin was the color of eggshells. Whisker coated his jaw and chin, and his ears were hard and flat. He had a small but misshapen nose” (Zusak 201). The quotes allows the reader to visualize what the characters facial features looked like through the use of descriptive words. Imagery helps bring the story to life and to make the text more exciting. The reader's senses can be used to determine the observations that the author is making about its characters. The literary device changes the text by letting the reader interact with the text by using their observation skills. The author is using imagery by creating images that engages the reader to know exactly what's going on in the story which allows them to
In my opinion, Bryson and Katz make unlikely heroes throughout the story because even though they may not look or act as a hero would, their intentions are always the ones I think about when picturing a hero. There are various characteristics that make a hero, but there are some that stand out, such as being helpful, caring, and brave. While reading A Walk in the Woods, I noticed that both Bryson and Katz have all of these characteristics hidden in their personalities. To begin with, after meeting Jim and Heath, the four of them try to cover the walls of the shelter with a plastic sheet to receive protection from the blizzard and banshee wind. When Jim was “trying to rig it [the plastic sheet] across the open front of the shelter”, Katz immediately “leapt to his assistance”, and when they realized the plastic sheet wouldn’t quite reach, Bryson and Katz looked for the way to fix it when they “found that with one of our ground clothes lashed alongside we could cover the entire front”. This shows how the two of them were always willing to help, no matter the conditions in which they were, which is a way their personalities show heroic characteristics, like being helpful.
Throughout the passage many devices appear so the reader can have a deeper understanding of Thoreau’s attitude towards life. “Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito’s wing that falls on the rails. Let us rise early and fast, or break fast, gently and without perturbation;
As the reader may know, Bradbury uses many literary tools to support the theme of his stories, and to make his stories more descriptive. Bradbury also aims to keep the reader’s attention. One could also infer that Bradbury emphasizes the topic of his stories. Even though, he doesn’t blantly tell the reader where he’s going with his stories, he uses another way. Ray Bradbury uses several tools to create meaning in his stories, including personification, symbolism, imagery, and foreshadowing.
. ." (lines 5-7). In this, he tries to begin to explain that in order to truly live the fullest life possible, one must live simply; literally "driv[ing] life into a corner, and reduc[ing] it to its lowest terms" is the only way to achieve fullness. Later, he also states: "Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito’s wing that falls on the rails. Let us rise early and fast, or break fast, gently and without [disturbance]; let company come and let company go, let the bells ring and the children cry. . ." (lines 13-16). In this, he expresses that one should not let the daily disturbances of life affect oneself. Life should be lived with litle disturbance, and even such disturbances should not be taken as seriously. In choosing to give examples, he shows just how many things go on that one can be pestered with, and that one should choose to ignore them and let them pass by. He also states: "Let us settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feet downward through the mud
An example of this is when Kendra was remembering her Grandparents funeral, “Toward the end of the wake, Kendra overheard Mom cajoling Grandpa Sorenson to watch the kids. They were in a hallway around a corner from the viewing area. Kendra heard them talking before she reached the corner, and paused to eavesdrop...”(1) . This is a flashback because she is recounting something with detail like she is actually there. The last example of literary devices is Imagery.
Bill Bryson uses his experience on the Appalachian Trail to show how different your expectations can be compared to the reality of the situation. Bryson believed that he was fully prepared for the hike and that it would be exciting but, in all actuality it was very difficult. He also believed that the hike would be stimulating for the mind but, at times it didn’t require a lot of thinking or attention. His experience and the background research he provided created an image for his audience so they could understand the point he was trying to make. These elements served as evidence in the book and was very effective because it was abundant and meaningful.
A number of writers uses rhetorical devices in their writings whether it’s drama, romance, or a comedy. If you become advanced in the use of rhetorical devices it makes the literature packed with fullness and brings simplicity. Rhetorical devices brings significance instead of plainly stating the details. Writer’s disguise their writings so that the readers have to fathom things out for themselves. In Candide, Voltaire used numerous rhetorical devices to enhance Candide. Voltaire’s use of satire, irony, and symbolism is designed to make fun of philosophical optimism. He utilizes several kinds of rhetorical devices such as satire, irony, and symbols.
The chapter on fecundity addresses the bizarre ways that nature has evolved to ensure the continuity of a species. As the title suggests, fecundity deals with the fertility of species where Annie Dillard explores the inefficiency of fertility and the brutality of nature’s evolution. In the end, Dillard concludes that death is a part of life.
In the novel Walden, transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau proclaims the importance of recognizing a determined life built from the parameters of society. He declares, “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!” (Thoreau 261). In this quote, Thoreau utilizes the literary device of repetition to emphasize the importance of mastering the skill of not letting the unimportant and insignificant matters infiltrate one’s life and not letting others choose one’s actions. Another example of an adamant life is unraveled in Emily Dickinson’s inspiring poem “A Light Exists in Spring.” In the poem, she reveals that, “It passes and we stay/A quality of loss/Affecting our Content” (Dickinson 268). Arguably, this demonstrates that many people struggle with the pursuit of happiness because individuals allow outside influences to change or to decide what one does; this shows that people will often times go along with the raging river of the status quo to later be washed ashore and deserted alone on an island, an island called self. Ultimately, it is essential to observe that by realizing that one lives a dictated life the pursuit of happiness takes one step closer towards breaking away from the overbearing pressures of conformity and the status
Many times weather conditions symbolize the unstable life that this worldliness thinking will bring upon us, for example the earthquake in the beginning of the passage is used to suggest the shaky life that people have been living in. Later in the passage Tom Walker is walking through his neighborhood and decides to take a shortcut, “like most shortcuts, it was and ill-chosen route” (Irving). Showing how people at the time were constantly taking short cuts to prosper, such as when Irving introduces the investors later on he notes how these people become successful yet by taking shortcuts they faced pitfalls and failures which often put you right back where you started. People today are taking shortcuts in many aspects of life, whether it be in the workplace or in relationships people are losing sight of true compassion. Technology is taking away the meaning behind many so called “romantic” gestures, for example a text saying “I love you” should not have the same meaning as someone saying “I love you” in person. Humans should restore the value of relationships to what they once
One craft that Bradbury uses in abundance is repetition, to foreshadow upcoming events and point out important details. One example of this is when both the mother and father of the story are concerned that their children’s nursery feels too real. The nursery turns into whatever environment the children want. In this case, an African veldt. But when the parents inspect it, what is supposedly only electronics feels incredibly realistic. This is observed multiple times in the story and foreshadows that perhaps the veldt is real. The second instance in which repetition occurs is when the parents hear screams coming from the nursery. Later, the parents even agree that the screams sound familiar. This foreshadows that the screams are from someone close to them. All in all, Bradbury uses
Bill Bryson the author of the short story ‘A Walk in the Woods’ constructs the story in a certain way to try to get the reader to accept his attitudes and values about how dangerous and death defying Earl V. Shaffer and other’s are in attempting to travel the trail. He uses the techniques of emotive language, unusual language and use of first hand accounts in the short story ‘A Walk in the Woods‘ . The use of descriptive and humorous language, combined with conversational text has allowed Bryson to express his feelings and opinions on his and others experiences on the Appalachian Trail to the audience.
Montag never appreciated the simple things in life. He would never walk or drive slow enough to see the colors of things. This bothered Clarisse McClellan very much. She loved to catch raindrops on her tongue, and she always left little presents for Montag to make sure he appreciated these simple things. Through her spirit and her small simple presents, Montag finds the strength to also appreciate these things.“And then very slowly as he walked, he tilted his head back in the rain for just a few moments and opened his mouth..”(Bradbury 24). Montag begins to see that no matter how hard life gets, he will always have these smaller things that he can enjoy.