Tragic Flaws

Brutus: selfless, impulsive, extreme, nieve, guiltish, and trusting.
Caesar: ambitious, dramatic, reckless, power-hungry, and self-centered.

25 Random Facts About Me

1.      I live on a farm.

2.      I play the bagpipe.

3.      I did the pole vault for 7 months.

4.      I have 6 pets.

5.      I hate mayonnaise.

6.      Foghorn Leghorn is my favorite cartoon character.

7.      Russian is my favorite class.

8.      I’ve never left North America.

9.      The Hobbit is my favorite book.

10.  I like climbing anything.

11.  I’ve always wanted to go skydiving.

12.  I like springtime.

13.  Friday is my favorite day of the week.

14.  I like writing with pen more than pencil.

15.  My cousin and I gave the UVA lacrosse coach his boat back.

16.  I like corn.

17.  My dog can almost shake hands with a person.

18.  Green is my favorite color.

19.  I was at the rally to restore sanity.

20.  Soda is soda, not pop.

21.  I like the number 21.

22.  I think Maryland has the best state flag.

23.  I think Hawaii has the best license plate.

24.  I like playing Pac-Man.

25.  I hate canned peas.

Shakespeare's Tragic Hero

Both Julius Julius Caesar and Brutus are considered to be tragic heroes in Julius Caesar, however they are character foils and therefore have different character traits that make them heroes. 

Julius Caesar (ambitious)

·         He won great battles as a general in the army.

·         He was  a senator in Rome

·         He became a part of the Triumvirate with Pompey.

·         Defeated Pompey and drove his influence out of Rome.

·         Was considered a god by many Romans

·         Almost became Emperor of Rome. 

Brutus (selfless)

·         He does what he thinks is best for Rome, not himself.

·         He defends the Republic in times of need.

·         He is true, sincere, and has integrity; even in hard times.

·         He is kind and gentile to others, including his wife.

Shakespeare Trip

Our English class to a trip to the Floger's Shakespeare Theatre. There was a big room that looked like the inside of the globe theatre. I thought we were going to see a play, but then four people came out and started talking to us about why we should like Shakespeare. I thought it was just a little prelude to the play, but an hour later I finally realized that this was the show. It went on for another hour or so of us being told why Shakespeare was important, relivent, etc. I was dissapointed because I wanted to see a play, but that didn't happen. One of my main problems was that four people took two hours to impose a point of view on us. They said it was relative, but relativity is contingent on perspective. Not everyone sees things the same way. For example, snow is made of water vapor. There is water vapor in the air in this room. Does that mean that there is snow in the room? There are modern or timeless ideas in Shakespeare's plays, but does that mean the plays themselves are relatively modern or timeless. The opinion that Shakespeare's plays are relative to modern life is just that, an opinion. Trying to make it right or wrong simply doesn't work. Regardless, that was what we saw and it was a good trip.

Final Thoughts on Their Eyes Were Watching God

                The book Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, was a book that has a dynamic enough plot that many different people could enjoy it. People who like coming-of-age stories, adventures, love stories, or African American history would enjoy this book because it can fit into these genera. It has a good plot that carries through the book and can keep readers deeply enthralled.

            I enjoyed the book because of its constant changes in tone, mood, and setting. As Janie progress through her life, the story changes with her; especially when she goes to different places with different people. This could keep any reader on their toes as well as constantly wondering what might happen next. Watching Janie’s life unfold is also interesting read. Overall I think the book was pretty good.

Symbolism in Their Eyes Were Watching God

Pear tree- Janie’s blossoming womanhood and future in general.

Mule- The plight of the black woman during this era.

Gate and Road- Looking beyond to your dreams from behind a barrier.

Lamppost – The light of the first Black Town shining as a beacon of hope to the rest of America.

Janie’s Hair/ head rag- Joes want to own Janie like she is an object.

Checkers- Game for the socially superior, or so Joe thinks. Only the men can play.

Joe’s House- Joe’s desire for power, separation from the rest of the town.

Spittoon – Joe is above the towns people because he has a place to spit is tobacco.

Color Blue- Janie’s rebirth of happiness with Tea Cake.

Guitar- Tea Cakes playful love for Janie.

Overalls- Janie is done with being classed of, they symbolize her true self.

Hurricane- The awesome power of God and the inability to escape it.

Packet of seeds- Tea Cake’s dreams that he never accomplished.

Fishing- Janie and Tea Cake going through their lives together and doing everything together.

Imagery in Their Eyes Were Watching God

1.  “The great rope of black hair swinging to her waist and unraveling in the wind like a plume,” Description of Janie’s hair, which is a big symbol in the novel. Page 2

“She had come back from the sodden and the bloated; the sudden dead, their eyes flung wide open in judgment,” A graphic description that exhibits just how sudden the loss of Tea Cake really was. P.1.

2.    “time makes everything old so the kissing, young darkness became a montropolous old thing while Janie talked.” Time loomed on as Janie told her story to Phoeby. Page 7

“In her former blindness she had known him as shiftless Jonny Taylor… that was before the golden dust had beglamoured his rags and her eyes.”

Love is blind, and it really blinds Janie in this scene. P. 12

3.    “She had glossy leave and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her.” This compares Janie to the blooming pear tree and how it is blooming as she is growing up and becoming a woman. Page 11

“It was a lonesome place like a stump in the middle of the woods where no one had ever been. The house was absent of flavor too.” Logan’s house is a dull, dreary place that Janie doesn’t like. P.22

4.    “Mind- pictures brought feelings, and feelings dragged out dramas from the hollows of her heart.” Nanny is trying to raise Janie while remembering the past things from her life, and trying to do better this time. Page 16

“Logan held his wad of tobacco real still in his jaw like a thermometer of his feelings while he studied Janie’s face and waited for her to say something.” Conversations between Janie and Logan become tense, and long periods of silence pass. P.27

5.    “They sat on the boarding house porch and saw the sun plunge into the same crack in the earth from which the night emerged.” This is symbolizing the start of a new day, and Janie has a new start for happiness. Page 33

“Joe noted the scant dozen of shame-faced houses scattered in the sand and palmetto roots…”

The town where Janie goes is a glorified shanty town to say the least. It looks rough, but Joe intends to make the best out of it. P. 34

6.    “The fact that the thought pictures were always crayon enlargements of life made it even nicer to listen.” Listening to stories and talking makes life seem a lot better than it is to Janie; it idealizes things. Page 51

“So he picked out the eyes in the ceremonial way and the feast went on.”

The mule was taken out into the field and consumed by the impatient vultures who feasted upon his decaying flesh. P.62

7.    “The new moon had been up and down three times before she got worried in mind.” It had been a long time before Janie started to worry that she wasn’t falling in love with Logan as she hoped she would with time. Page 22

“The years took all the fight out of Janie’s face. For a while she thought it was gone from her soul.” Joe’s constant snuffing of Janie has put her in a bedraggled, submissive state of misery. She doubts if she can ever break the system.

8.    “She knew the world was a stallion rolling in the blue pasture of ether.” Life is fast changing and constantly moving. Page 25

“Finish. End. Nevermore. Darkness. Deep hole. Dissolution. Eternity.” Joe was gone and dead as a door nail. Janie’s abusive husband was gone and she was again set free.

9.    “Joe’s funeral was the finest thing that Orange County had seen with negro eyes. The motor hearse, the Cadillac and Buick carriages; Dr. Henderson in his Lincoln; the hosts from far and wide.” Joe is going in like he came out; in such a grand way such as the town hasn’t ever seen before. P.88

“Most of the day she was at the store, but at night she was there in the big house and sometimes it creaked and cried all night under the weight of the lonesomeness.” Although she didn’t really like Joe she is now alone in a community that didn’t really know her without him and she is lonely. P.89

10.      “At five-thirty a tall man came into the place. Janie was leaning on the counter making aimless pencil marks on a piece of wrapping paper. She didn’t know his name, but he looked familiar.” A perfect scene to introduce Tea Cake. The slow mood follows his smooth personality.

“So she sat on the porch and watched the moon rise. Soon its amber fluid was drenching the earth, and quenching the thirst of the day.” Janie is really happy and content for the first time since Joe died. P.99

11.  “He frowned and struggled with the pegs of his imaginary instrument watching her out of the corner of his eye with that secret joke playing over his face.” Tea Cake is such a goofy, lighthearted character and no scene illustrates it like this one.

“But the fourth day after he came in the afternoon driving a battered up car. Jumped out like a deer and make the gesture of tying it to a post on the store porch.” Tea Cake’s light hearted humor is just the thing to cheer Janie up and drive off the loneliness that is inside her. P.108

12. “Done took the high heel slippers and a 10 dollar hat! Looking like some young girl always in blue because Tea Cake wanted her to wear it.” Janie is very happy with Tea Cake and wants to feel young and in love, so she doesn’t care what the townspeople say about her. P. 110

“That next morning Pheoby picked her way over to Janie’s house like a hen to a neighbor’s garden.” Phoeby wants to talk to Janie about Tea Cake, but she has to be real casual to keep Janie from being suspicious.

13. “The train beat on itself and danced on the shiny steel rails mile after mile.” A perfect image of Janie riding away from her past with Joe to her future with Tea Cake. P.116

“The room inside looked like the mouth of an alligator- gaped wide open to swallow something down.” Janie feels alone, and a bit scared in such a new, different place without Tea Cake there with her. P.118

14. “To Janie’s strange eyes everything in the Everglades big and new. Lake Okechobee, big beans, big cane, big weeds, big everything.” Janie has now entered a new stage of her life with Tea Cake that is unlike anything that she has ever known. P.129

“Day by day now, the hoards of workers poured in. Some came limping in with their shoes and their feet sore form walking.” The Everglades is drawing in thousand of people and its about to become the most hopping place in Florida. P.131

15. “Janie learned what it felt like to be jealous. A little chunky girl took to making a play out of Tea Cake in the fields and in the quarters.” Many people have been jealous of Janie, but it is a new feeling for her… and she doesn’t like it. P.136

“She cut him with a blow and they fought from one room to the other, Janie trying to beat him, and Tea Cake kept holding her wrists and wherever he could to keep her from going too far.” The issue with Nunkie causes one of the greatest fights in their marriage. P.137

16. “He claimed that she had been shaped by a cow kicking her from behind.” A great physical description of Mrs. Turner. She acts like a cow kicked her behind too. P.139

“Janie’s coffee-and-cream complexion and her luxurious hair made Mrs. Turner forgive her for wearing overalls like the other women who worked in the fields.” This is one of the first compact descriptions of Janie in the book. P.140

17. “No brutal beating at all. He just slapped her around a bit to show he was boss.” Last time Janie’s husband beat her she never forgave him. Tea Cake better hope that he’s different. P.147

“It got so that the floor was knee-deep in something no matter where you put your foot down.” Mrs. Turner’s place was so trashed that they ran her clear out to Miami. P.152

18. “They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.” This hurricane was so powerful that it was only comparable to God Himself. P.160

“The dog stood up and growled like a lion, stiff-standing hackles, stiff muscles, teeth uncovered as he lashed up his fury for the charge.” That dog meant business and there is no doubt that he would have killed Janie if Tea Cake hadn’t saved her. P.166

19. “Some dead with fighting faces and eyes flung wide open in wonder. Death had found them watching, trying to see beyond seeing.” The fury of the hurricane had spared none in its path. The horrible, raw power of the storm was the last thing that they would see.

“She saw him coming from the outhouse with a queer loping gait, swinging his head from side to side with his jaws clenched in a funny way.” Tea Cake was gone, all that was left was a diseased animal in his body. He gave his life for Janie’s. P.183

20. “There was a finished silence after that so that for the first time she could hear the wind picking at the pine trees.” Janie’s story has been told, after looking so far back at her past she returns to the present. Time to carry on again. P. 192

Zora Neale Hurston versus Richard Wright

After Zora Neale Hurston wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God, her writing credibility and career quickly went downhill due harsh critiquing of her work. She ended up dying in poverty and obscurity in a nursing home because she was so deeply discredited by the critics. The harsh critique of Their Eyes Were Watching God inevitably ruined Hurston’s writing career, but were the criticisms fair or even correct? One would hope that they would be if they destroyed her career, but research shows that they weren’t very well founded.  

            One of Hurston’s greatest critics was Richard Wright, a civil rights activist and writer. Wright used his writing as a means of expounding on the evils of racism. Hurston’s book contained scenes that went against Wright’s philosophy of showing White cruelty towards African Americans. Scenes, like the one where the protagonist is beaten by her husband, seemed to back up White stereotypes of African Americans in Wright’s opinion (Jack).

            Wright wanted writing to be propaganda to end racism in the US, which is not a bad thing. However his harsh criticism of Hurston for depicting what many would consider to be the truth about the African American woman’s life at the time could be considered questionable at best.

            Now we can look back on the book without the turbulence of the civil rights movement and see that it has gone from a failure to a success. It is now considered to be a very well written book that is not bias in any way. Looking back, one could defiantly say that many of the things that Wright said about Hurston’s book were unfair judgments, and not worth the collapse of her writing career.

Jack, Grace, “Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960),” www.library.csi.cuny.edu, December 7, 1998.    April 13, 2011. Web

Into the Wild Project

As our final Into the Wild project I made a poster. I drew a picture of Chris's boots, which are still arranged under the stove in the bus where he died. Under that I put a breif quote from the book about his boots and how they were still there eventhough Chris is now gone. It is a strange thought that eventhough Chris has been dead for 19 years, his boots are still arranged under the stove like he's going to come back and put them on.

Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston

·         She lived from 1891-1960.

·         She was an African American writer and an anthropologist.

·         She was a contributor to the Harlem Renaissance.

·         She was born in Notasulga, Alabama.

·         She spent her childhood in Eatonville, Florida.

·         She gathered folklore from her hometown, Haiti, Jamaica, Bermuda, and Honduras.

·         Their Eyes Were Watching God was her most famous book, and was published in 1937.

·         She developed heart problems, which eventually killed her.

·         She died in total obscurity.

·         In the 1970’s her work was rediscovered and she became famous for her writing.

The Harlem Renaisssance

The Harlem Renaissance

·         Harlem was the core of the Harlem Renaissance.

·         The Harlem Renaissance were in the 1920’s and early 30’s.

·         The Harlem Renaissance was an African American cultural movement.

·         The Harlem Renaissance was a advancement of African American literature, art, theatre, music and politics.

·         The Harlem Renaissance was also known as the New Negro Movement.

·         It began a surge of African American cultural pride.

·         The Great Depression was one of the factors that brought the Harlem Renaissance to a close.

·         It opened up opportunities in the publishing world for African American writers.

·         It expanded the popularity of Jazz and Blues music in America.

·         The NAACP help to start the Harlem Renaissance.

Wintz, Cary DeCordova. "Harlem Renaissance." Microsoft® Student 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008.

Langston Hughes

·         Langston Hughes lived from 1902-1967.

·         He published his first poem in 1921.

·         He published his first compendium of poems in 1926 with the help of Vachel Lindsay

·         Most of his poems were free verse

·         He lived in Missouri, Paris, Washington DC, Madrid, and New York among other places.

·         "Langston Hughes." Microsoft® Student 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008.

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Claude McKay

·         Lived from 1890 -1948.

·         Was originally from Jamaica, but moved to the US.

·         He was a writer, and published his first book in 1928.

·         His books were about black life in America.

·         Six years before he died he became Catholic and changed his entire life philosophy.

·         "Claude McKay." Microsoft® Student 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008.

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Countee Cullen

·         Lived from 1903-1946.

·         He was a writer who wrote plays, novels, and poems; and was also a teacher.

·         He was an orphan and never knew where he was born.

·         He wrote many poems, but only one novel.

·         He taught at a black middle school.

"Countee Cullen." Microsoft® Student 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008.

   

www.montgomerycollege.edu

langstonhughesfacts.com

www.english.illinois.edu

Who was Chris McCandless?

Some argue that Chris was a rash, mentally ill lunatic who died due to a lack of preparation or sanity. I would disagree. Although Chris made some decisions in his life that are hard for us to understand, it is important to attempt to understand them before we judge his life. The book Into the Wild was, I beleive, an attempt to do just that. Having read it, I have made my decision about who Chris really was. He seems to have been a person who wanted to find the truth, for better or for worse. His acts were well thought out in principle, but not in much else. He was intelligent, and was on an amazing journey that would define his life. He was a good, sane person, who made a few misteaks that eventually killed him. Had he not died, I doubt if anyone would have questioned his mission, but he did so we ignore his triumphs and highlight his misteaks.

Characterization Notes on Christopher McCandless

Characterization Notes on Christopher McCandless

(a.k.a. Alex Supertramp)

Assignment Directions:  As you read Into the Wild, take notes on direct and indirect characterization traits about Christopher McCandless.  For each chapter, pick out 2-3 descriptions about Chris that really stand out to you.  This could be direct descriptions about what Christopher looks like to indirect descriptions about how Chris acts, what he says, how others view him, how he treats others, and anything about Chris that helps you form an opinion about him by the end of the novel.  Keep in mind that by the end of the book, you will write an essay that gives your opinion on either side of the following argument presented in the “Author’s Note”:

            “Some readers admired the boy immensely for his courage and noble ideals; others fulminated that he was a reckless idiot, a wacko, a narcissist who perished out of arrogance and stupidity – and was undeserving of the considerable media attention he received.”

Fill out the chart as you read and post on your blog when the chart is completed. Mrs. Z. will check your chart on your laptop periodically to see that you are adding notes and keeping up with the character chart as we read.

Direct and Indirect Characterization Notes on Christopher McCandless

(Alex Supertramp)

Chapter and page #	Description/quote from novel		What impression you get about Chris with this character trait or description?
Chapter 1, page 4	“Five feet seven or eight with a wiry build, he claimed to be 24 years old and said he was from South Dakota.  He explained that he wanted a ride as far as the edge of Denali National Park, where he intended to walk deep into the bush and ‘live off the land for a few month.’” “He had an answer for everything I threw at him.”		Chris is not physically fit for walking into such a dangerous environment.  He seems a little crazy. Chris is stubborn about his point of view. Even when he thinks he is prepared for something he might not be, but won’t hear otherwise.
Chapter 2	“S.O.S. I need your help. I an injured, near death, and too weak to hike out of here. I am all alone, this is no joke. In the name of God, please help me. I am out collecting berries close by and shall return this evening. Thank you, Chris McCandless. August?” “…that recorded the young man’s final weeks in 113 terse, enigmatic entries.”		This note shows that Chris is all high-up and “I’m so right about everything” until he gets into trouble. Then he goes back to his old name and starts begging for help. Even when Chis is dying he writes 113 entries in just a few weeks. That’s more than two entries a day! He is very meticulous about his writing and he wants everyone to know what he thinks about what is happening to him.
Chapter 3	When Chris works for Westerburg, he is very diligent in his work and tries hard despite how hard the job is. “He read a lot. Used a lot of big words.”		Chris is a hardworking, responsible person. Even as master of his own destiny he still respects others. He can keep a head on his shoulders, even in situations like being the lone supertramp. Chris dislike education, but he keeps it with him, even when he abandons his life as a college graduate. He also keeps feeding his brain wit literature even though he demotes the importance of learning.
Chapter 4	“…he came across a sign warning that he was trespassing on the U.S. Army’s highly restrictive Yuma Proving Ground. McCandless was deterred not in the least.” “On January 16, McCandless left the stubby metal boat on a hummock of dune grass southeast of El Golfo de Santa Clara and started walking north up the deserted beach.”		Likes his country, or at least the land it is made up of; but he hates the government. He doesn’t care about laws or officials. His seems to be rather naive about the fact that without the government there would be no America. Chris might be a little more impressionable by fear then he seems. He puts on Bravado when he is comfortable, but after an incident like he was in in the canoe he quickly abandons the canoe for good.
Chapter 5	“…they started asking him if he needed soap or anything. That made him mad- you could tell. But he never showed it outright. About three weeks later he just walked out the door and quit.” “McCandless was epically attentive to Burres, flirting and clowning with her at every opportunity. ‘he liked to tease me and torment me,’ she recalls. ‘I’d go out back to hang clothes on the line behind the trailer and he would, and he’d attach clothespins all over me. He was playful, like a kid.”		Chris is the kind of person who gets angry about something, and it just festers in them for a long time. They don’t really let anyone know that they’re mad until one day they just burst an it all comes out, usually in the form of them just leaving. Even though McCandless was a road hardened, college graduate intellectual with strong opinions and a very loner-like, independent outlook on life, he still acted playful sometimes. He still liked to play and mess around when he was in a good mood. He had a young hart.
Chapter 6	“God he was a smart kid,’ the old man rasps in a barely audible voice. He directs his gaze at a patch of sand between his feet as he makes this declaration; then stops talking.” “I hope that the next time I see you, you will be a new man with a vast array of new adventures and experiences behind you. Don’t hesitate or allow yourself to make excuses. Just get out and do it. Just get out and do it. You will be very, very glad that you did.”		McCandless was smart. He had a college education, and a very good one at that. He worked hard in school and learned a lot. Even though the things he did seemed ignorant, in truth they were often anything but that. At first, when everyone meets Alex, they think that they are the ones helping him. That his is tired, and broken, and hungry. They help him, but in the end it seems that he is more of a help to them then they are to him. During his journey he is able to improve the lives of many people that he meets along the way.
Chapter 7	“If  Alex were here right  now I’d be tempted to chew him out real good: ‘what the hell were you thinking? Not talking to your family all that time, treating them like dirt!” “Nor was McCandless endowed with a surfeit of common sense. Many who knew him have commented, unbidden, that he seemed to have great difficulty seeing the trees, as they were, for the forest.”		Westerburg has a very valid point: Chris alienated his family and caused them harm that will haunt them for the rest of their life because of principles. He never saw or talked to them again after his graduation, maybe he regretted it as he slowly perished painfully and alone in a rusty school bus in the middle of nowhere. Chris may have been smart and street wise, but he doesn’t naturally have the gift of commonsense. It is sometimes hard for him to put two and two together or understand the sequence of events or cause and effect scenarios in life.
Chapter 8		“His ignorance, which could have been cured by a USGS quadrant and a boy scout manual is what killed him.” “Although he was rash, untutored in the ways of the backcountry, and incautious to the point of foolhardiness, he wasn’t incompetent- he wouldn’t have lasted 113 days if he were.		While McCandless may not have been totally ignorant, it can’t be overlooked that what he did in Alaska wasn’t quite as well thought out as it could have been. If he had been more prepared he might have gotten out with his life. When it came to survival with almost nothing, McCandless knew his stuff. He’d been in the desert, the ocean, the plains, and survived with little more than rice and instinct.
Chapter 9		“I’ve decided that I’m going to live off the land for some time to come. The freedom and simple beauty of it is just too good to pass up.” “We like companionship, but we can’t stand to be around people for very long. So we get ourselves lost, come back for a while, then get the hell out again.		When Chris gets an idea, it seems that he overlooks some of the gory details, so to say, and sees something nearly impossible as simply beautiful. Chris did enjoy other people; he just only needed them in limited quantities. He likes to know people, but he didn’t really like them to know him too well.
Chapter 10		“Westerburg found the station in time to catch the end of the Paul Harvey broadcast, and he was forced to agree: The few sketchy details made the anonymous hiker sound distressingly like his friend.” “…he had scrawled ‘Exempt Exempt Exempt Exempt’ and given his name as Iris Fucyu.  Address: ‘None of your damn business.’ Social Security Number: ‘I forget.”		Chris was the kind of person who was so distinct that even a few sketchy details about a body in Alaska could give away his identity to Westerburg. Chris hated the government and everything to do with it. He detested their control over the country and its people and how little they understood the country that they protected.
Chapter 11		“We’d run as fast as we could down strange roads, through the woods, whatever. The whole idea was to lose our bearings, to push ourselves into unknown territory. Then we’d run a slightly slower pace until we found a road we recognized and race home again at full speed. In a certain sense that’s how Chris lived his entire life.” P.112. Chris spent time discussing the state of the world with his peers, contrasting right and wrong, and he would drive around cities talking to homeless people. P.113. Chris was embarrassed by his family trips to Europe, Colorado, and the Caribbean. p.115.		Chris wasn’t afraid of the unknown, he ran into it head-long with not fear. Then he’d wonder around until he found himself and then he’d plow on to the next excursion. Chris wasn’t like other high school kids. Instead of parties he was concerned with moral issues. Morality, overall, was the core concern of his life. He judged other people and himself based on his own, harsh moral principles. Chis didn’t like the ‘lavished’ vacations his family took. His idea of travel was being part of a place. Experiencing it in its true authenticity.
Chapter 12		“If something bothered him, he wouldn’t come right out and say it. He’d keep it to himself, harboring his resentment, letting bad feelings build and build.” P. 122 “Like many people, Chris apparently judged artists and close friends by their work, not their life. Yet he was temporarily incapable of extending such leniency to his father.” P.122		Chris was neither forgiving nor straight forward. This combination could make it impossible to tell if he was mad at you. That’s why his parents never really knew how he loathed them so. Chris was unpredictable when it came to judging others. It was impossible to tell who he would like and who he would dislike.
Chapter 13		“Chris didn’t think twice about risking his own life, but he never would have put Buckley in any kind of danger.” P.128 “Like Chris, Carine is energetic and self-assured, a high achieve, quick to state an opinion.” P.129		In general Chris did not have a lack of respect for life. It was just the concept of losing his life that he probably didn’t really grasp. These traits are the traits that really make up Chris. They are the traits that drove him to clash with his parents and gave him the will to do all of the things that he did.
Chapter 14		“If this trip proves to be fatal and you don’t ever hear from me again I want you to know you’re a great man. I now walk into the wild.” P. 134 “Like McCandless, figures of male authorities aroused in me a confusing medley of corked fury and hunger to please.” P. 134.		Chris was not afraid of death. He was fully aware that his endeavors might kill him, but that was of no concern. That was a big part of why he enjoyed what he did so much. These traits are part of what made Chris’s relationship with his father so rocky and abrasive. This, in turn, played a big part in what he did with his life.
Chapter 15		“Like Chris McCandless, I was a raw youth who mistook passion for insight and acted according to an obscure, gap-ridden logic.” P. 155. “In my case- and, I believe in the case of Chris McCandless- that was a very different thing from wanting to die.” P. 156.		The logical path that Chris followed was full of holes. It was these holes in his thinking that started so much conflict and sparked so may problems. In the end, reality comes out ahead of his idealism. Nowhere, in any of Chris’s travels, did he have any desire to die at all. He was not suicidal or anything of the sort. His constant encounters with danger would indicate that he was, but it was the risk of death, not death itself that compelled him.
Chapter 16		“He was champing at the bit to get out there and get hiking.” P.158 “Alex was clean shaven and had short hair. I could tell by the language that he used that he was a real sharp fella. He wasn’t what you’d call a typical hitchhiker.” P. 158-159.		Chris was anxious about doing the things that obsessed him. Maybe that is why he jumped into Alaska with so little preparation. Even though Chris was a tramp and hitchhiker, he remained the cultured person that he was before he left Atlanta. He always remained himself in his journey, he never go lost in that way.
Chapter 17		“I now wish I had never shot the moose. One of the greatest tragedies of my life.” P. 166 “McCandless was a weak swimmer and had confessed to several people that he was in fact afraid of the water.” P.170		Chris had respect for the wildlife in the environment that he had placed himself in. He saw the animals as more than just a means of food; he saw their life and valued it.
Chapter 18		“Chris would never, ever intentionally burn down a forest, not even to save his life.” P.198 “I have had a happy life and thank the Lord. Goodbye and may God bless all.” P.199		Chris valued the forest more than he valued his own starving, suffering life. That is dedication to nature. Chris died happy and thankful of the life he had had, even though the end was grizzly and unpleasant to say the least. He had a great respect for the world and life in general.