Half Way Through Into the Wild

1. Chris McCandless is from “a well –to-do East coast family” and graduated from Emory University with honors in the summer of 1990. He hitchhiked to Alaska and went into the wilderness alone north of Mt. McKinley. ( 1^st page of Author’s Note)


2. Jon Krauer presents three different themes in the “Author’s Note”

1.      The grip wilderness has on the American imagination

2.      The allure high-risk activities  hold for young men of a certain mind

3.      The complicated, highly charged bond that exists between fathers and sons

(2^nd page of “Author’s Note”)  

3.  The quoted material in the beginning of chapter one is to show that Chris actually still has people he cares about greatly. It also shows that Chris does know what this trip might do to him. (page 1)

4. Alex is the name that Chris McCandell changed his name to when he started this journey to Alaska. He says that ‘Alex’ is from South Dakota and is 24 years old. (page 4)

5. McCandless and Gallien meet when McCandless is trying to hitch hike his way to “as far as the edge of Denali National Park”. (page 4)

6. At first Gallien thinks that Alex is stupid and doesn’t know what he’s getting himself into. But then after talking to him for a while he realizes that Alex is actually pretty well educated but still he doesn't believe that Alex is ready for the adventure that lies ahead of him.  (page 4-7)

7.Gallien tell McCandless that he shouldn’t really do this but McCandless doesn’t want to give in and he has his mind set on doing this. So, Gallien tries to give him some food, boots and better supplies then the few things McCandless has. ( page 6-7)

8. When Galline offered to buy McCandless some better supplies he is very stubborn and didn't want to have him give him anything. But instead Gallien gave McCandless some boots that were too big and his lunch. (page 7)

9.  Galline decided not to alert the authorities about Mccandless because he thought that after 2 days of being tired and hungry he would just walk out to the highway and give up on this huge adventure he had planned because he found out it was too hard. ( page 7)

10. It is ironic because we know that when Mccandless started getting hungry he didn't walk back to the highway he just kept walking on deeper and deeper into the wild. So, according to Gallien he isn’t a normal person.

11.Krakauer put the quote in the beging of the chapter from Jack London because  Jack London wrote many books about the Alaskan Wilderness. Also, at the sight of Chris McCandless’s death they found a piece of wood that had “Jack London is King” carved into it.  (page 9)

12. It showed just how far McCandless went and how it would've been almost impossible to turn around from where he was at his condition. It aslo showed all of the hard things Chris had to go through to get there.

13.The cause of Chris McCandless’s death was form injury, starvation and weakness. They think it was mostly from starvation though.  (page 14)  

 14. Wayne and Chris got along very well. Chris had actually given a job to Chris and they first met when Wayne pulled over and picked up the hitchhiker that was Chris. (10 -11)

15. A rubber tramp is someone who has a car and a leather tramp in someone who doesn't have a car so they result to having to hitchhike or walk everywhere.  And they describe the culture of Saco Hot Springs.  (17)

16.The author said that because he started to live there and actually liked the family he lived with. Chris also found a job in Westerberg that helped him earn money

17. Westerberg had been caught up with the law so there was no work for McCandless. So, Chris decided to continue his adventure and leave Carthage. (19)

18.We know that is important because it says “he gave Westerberg a treasured 1942 edition of Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Chris obviously cared for Wayne and he gave the book to Wayne before he left.

19. Chris was raised in an upper-middle class home in Annandale, Virginia. Walt, Chris’ father, was an eminent aerospace engineer. Chris’s mothers name is Billie and she was a work partner with Walt. There was eight children in Chris’s extended family and he was especially close with Carine, a younger sister. (20)

20. One clue was that he thought he had a perfectly good car that could go anywhere yet his parents wanted to buy him a new car. He tried to tell them that he didn't want a new car, which is strange for someone to say. He also lived off campus in college with a thin mattress, a table and some milk carts.  (21)

21. Chris McCadless changed his name to Alex Supertramp. This showed that he wanted to make a completely new life for himself. (23)

22.Chris just wants to get away his life, his family and everything. So he went to the desert

  to ‘find himself’ (26)

23. Jan Burres met Chris when they saw him scavenging for berries on the side of the road. Chris also stayed with Jan in the Slabs for a while before he felt like je needed to continue his journey.(30)

24.   Chris bought a canoe from a second hand store to try to paddle it down the Colorado River to the Gulf of California, but ended up getting frustrated and left the canoe “on a hummock of dune grass south east of El Golfo de Santa Clara.”(32-36)

25. He is almost as if he is writing a story about someone else. It is very detailed and has ‘he and his’ in it. (34-35)

26. He realizes that he is far from what he used to be when he first set out for his adventure. He also realizes that since he hasn't been around people very much he now feels awkward around other people.

  (37)

27. Chris lived a life that was very boring, yet semi-permanent, in Bullhead City. He told people his name was actually Chris McCandless not Alex Supertramp, and he actually went as far creating a savings account in the local bank. He also had a steady job at McDonalds, where he went to Chris. (39-40)

28.Many of the people that lived at the Slab were roamers, like Chris. All of the people at the Slab all really took a liking to Chris. When he left after a couple of months many people missed him. (43)

29.She said that he was extremely likable and very good worker. He made many friends at the Slab. (45)

30.She thought that since he figured out how to do everything and survive this long that he should be able to figure out how to survive in Alaska too. (46) 

32. Anza-Borrego is a Desert state park. (48)

33. While he was overseas on New Year’s Eve, his wife and son were both killed by a drunk driver. (50)

34. Franz became very attached to Chris and he really wanted him to stop all of this moving around, settle down, find a job, and get education. (51)

35. He says that throughout McCandless’ adventure he tries to not become too attached to people. Yes he become friends with people, but he tries to not be too close to them, to make it easier for both of them when he leaves. (55)

36. He says that throughout McCandless’ adventure he tries to not become too attached to people. Yes he become friends with people, but he tries to not be too close to them, to make it easier for both of them when he leaves. (55)

37. McCandless strongly suggested that Franz should move out of his apartment, buy a camper and go see the world. Since Franz thought do highly of McCandless he listen to him and did exactly what he told him. (56-58)

38. He learned from two hitchhikers that he picked up. They told him that Chris had been dead for a while. As soon as he found out he completely stopped believing in God and started drinking again. When his son and wife died he became a huge church person and he completely stopped drinking, so this change was a very drastic one for him. (60)

39.He was annoyed because he had been working too many eighteen-hour-days and because his business was very shorthanded so they had to work extra hard. (62)

40. The author said that since both the son (Chris) and father (Walt) were high strung and stubborn it was obvious why they didn't get along very well. Also, Chris has more of an independent nature and his father always felt the need to control him, which Chris did not like. But, Chris had a very strong relationship with his younger sister, Carine. They were very close and he talked about her a lot. (64)

41. Gene was a lot like Chris. He was an excellent student, had money, was a great athlete, he had everything going for him, but then out of nowhere he decided to go try and live off the land and ends up dying. This story of Gene Rossellini is extremely similar to Chris McCandless’ story (73-75)

42. It was to show that this, again, was very much like Chris’ story. It also said in the beginning that John did not get very much recognition for this travels and his adventures he had. (75-80)

43. It shows once again that McCunn and McCandless’ story are very similar. And it shows that Chris McCandless was not the only person to try to live in the wild in Alaska. (80-84)

44. Everett really loved the beauty of nature. That is the reason why he went out on the wild in the first place. The first time he went hitchhiking and trekking was in the summer of 1930 and since then he was hooked. By the end of the summer he returned home, but not for long. A short while after He returned home he went back into the wild, he started to despise the entire world and thought that any other way of living besides the way he was living, was stupid and pointless. Everett basically disappeared and no one has seen him since. (90-92)

45. Sleight said “We like companionship, see, but we can’t stand to be around people very long. So we go get ourselves lost, come back for a while, then get the hell out again. And that’s what Everett was doing.”  He is saying that Everett is very much like McCandless because they both don’t necessarily like to be alone for too long, so whenever the get lonely they find someone to live with for a while and then before they become to attached to them they leave again. Chris has done this with many people: Jan Burres and Wayne Westerberg are just two examples. (96)

             

Hawaii!!!!

I have always wanted to go to Hawaii . My friend went two years ago and she said it was the best vacation she had ever been on! I am not the type of person who likes to go somewhere where the only cool thing there to do is to go to museums and learn about history, I like to go somewhere where you can do all kind of different things. I also really love to go to the beach. And I would also like to see all of the different volcanoes that make up Hawaii .
Since Hawaii is islands I would obviously have to get there by boat or a plane. I would probably end up going there in the summer so i would have to bring shorts, t-shirts and swim suits to go swimming in the many beaches there. All year round Hawaii is pretty warm, but you can find snow on the mountain tops.  Hawaii is mostly known for its beaches and the volcanoes that make up the 8 islands of Hawaii. It would be very cool to take a helicopter ride above the islands and see all of the volcanoes. 


(from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii) (Pictures from http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.alohaislandtravel.com/maps/images/islands)

Jon Krakauer

Jon Krakauer was born in 1954 in Corvallis, Oregon. In Oregon his father introduced him to mountaineering at age 8. Krakauer graduated from Hampshire college in 1976 and decided to travel. He went to Alaska, Colorado and the Pacific North earning his living as a carpenter or a salmon fisher and spending all of his free time in the mountains. In 1977 he decided to go the remote Stikine Icecap in Southeast Alaska. In Alaska he did not come in contact with anybody for 3 weeks! Krakauer was an extremely adventurous person and loved climbing mountains. In 1999 Krakauer recieved an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.  According to them "Krakauer combines the tenacity and courage of the finest tradition of investigative journalism with the stylish subtlety and profound insight of the born writer. His account of an ascent of Mount Everest has led to a general reevaluation of climbing and of the commercialization of what was once a romantic, solitary sport; while his account of the life and death of Christopher McCandless, who died of starvation after challenging the Alaskan wilderness, delves even more deeply and disturbingly into the fascination of nature and the devastating effects of its lure on a young and curious mind."

"Jon Krakauer." Random House - Bringing You the Best in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Children's Books. Web. 08 Feb. 2011. 

The Wild Adventure of Into the Wild

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, is about Chris McCandless who goes into the Alaskan wilderness and tried to survive. He ends up having to to hitch hike to Alaska and barely has anything to bring with him. When he declines the offer from a friend to buy him better supplies to endure the cold, he only has 10 pounds of rice, a rifle, several boxes of rifle rounds, a camera, and a small selection of reading material. with these very few supplies he survives 119 days until he eats a poisonous plant and dies in August in an abandoned bus in Alaska. I am very excited to read this book because I have seen a little bit of the movie and would love to see how the book and movie match up. 

  http://ryanpatton.glogster.com/Into-the-Wild-Before-the-End/

Dream

I had a dream that rats had infested our house. We went on some vacation and when we came back our house was tapped off with yellow caution tape. We went inside and we weren't sure what was wrong with our house. But then we saw Copper (our dog) chasing a rat that was about a foot long and had dark brown fur. The mouse holes where under our kitchen sink and stove. When we captured the rats we would pick them up by their tails and throw them out the window to our garden but they always somehow seemed to get back inside.

What rats in dream mean:
"To see rats in your dream symbolizes the presence of extremely disagreeable or distasteful thoughts.
Alternatively, it signifies feelings of uncertainty, guilt, envy or some other repressed emotions that is eating at you. It may also stand for someone who personifize the characteristics of a “rat”."
From dreamforth.com

Half Way Through My Freshman Year!!!!!!!!!

I am now officially half way through my freshman year! That much closer to being a sophomore! High school has helped me change a lot. Coming from public school, John Carroll has really made me a better student and I feel like I have learned so much more then if I would have stayed in public school and went to Bel Air. This semester we are going to be finishing A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare and we are going to be starting the true story of Into the Wild. All together John Carroll, for me, has been a wonderful experience and I cant wait for the next three years here.    

Character Sketch Essay

Erin H.

Mrs.Zurkowski

Character Sketch: John Tyree

            Everyone needs something to stride for. Whether it’s a lifelong dream or even just for someone you love, it is something that you need to live your life to the fullest. If someone doesn’t have something or someone else to live for then their life is uneventful, boring and usually ends up in trouble. In Dear John, by Nicholas Sparks, that is exactly what happened to John Tyree. His Mother left his father when he was very young, so he was raised by his father. At first they both loved to collect coins, but then as time went on John became less and less interested in coin collecting and soon they had nothing to talk about. John’s father was different, he liked everything on schedule and if the schedule changed he didn’t like it all. John and his father soon couldn’t relate at all and their conversations usually consisted of one or two words. John didn’t have much to live for, no family, no steady girlfriend and not even a job. Almost every job he had he either got fired from or quit. Every girlfriend he had either broke up with him or he didn’t really like her. John smoked and drank a lot and had basically nothing of his own. He finally decided he wanted to change his life and made a spontaneous decision to join the army. There he quit smoking because he “almost coughed up a lung in boot camp” (Nicholas Sparks, 24), learned discipline and finally did something with his life. On one of his leaves he went home to his father’s house where he would sleep in late, surf all day then go back to bed again. During one of his surfing outings he met Savannah Lynn Curtis. Little would he know that she would help him finally become mature like an adult and teach him what true love really is.

            John Tyree is 23 years old and has brown hair, brown eyes and olive skin. He grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina, where he never left. He, to many people, is intimidating because he is so big and sometimes he is. When he was younger he would always be getting in trouble and has gotten that reputation, though he has changed now. Even though John may seem intimidating he actually cares a lot. One huge example of that is when he saved Savannahs purse when it fell into the water. He had never met Savannah before and when he saw that she dropped her purse from the pier he jumped right into the ocean to get it, this shows that he truly does care about other people. He also tries hard to try to communicate with his dad but most of the time he is not very successful. Many people mistake John Tyree for something he used to be.

            The beach, that is where it all started. That’s where John met Savannah Lynn Curtis. When John was on leave in his home town, Wilmington North Carolina, he one day went to the beach where he saw two girls, a brunette and a tall blonde, and two boys, one wearing a pink shirt and one wearing an orange shirt, walking on the pier. “Pink shirt pushed back from the railing but somehow his hand must have hit the bag because it slid, and tumbled over the edge.” (31) The tall blonde’s bag had fallen into the ocean and they thought it was lost. John had watched it all that’s when he heard “‘I need that purse! It’s got all my money in there!’ It wasn’t any of my business, I knew. But all I could think as I leapt to my feet and rushed toward that edge of the pier was, oh what the hell…”(32). Soon to find out the tall blonde and the owner of the bag was Savannah. After they met they were basically spending every minuet they had together. John would come to the house that Savannah was staying at every day and they would go out to eat, surf or just spend the day at the beach, each day falling more and more in love. But John knew this time would end soon and he would have to go back to the army. This leave he had was only 2 weeks, and then he would be going back to the army for a long time before his next leave, where he could see her again. When John had to return to Germany they promised they would write to each other and call each other whenever possible. At first it was hard on both of them but then they learned how to deal with it and would count down the days to John’s next leave. Every leave John had, he would go to where ever Savannah was. He met her parents and stayed at their house, he then went to stay at Savannahs apartment that she had bought. Each time they saw each other they picked up where they last left off. Then when John had to go back, Savannah would take him to the airport and there would be lots of hugs and tears, but they would still know that they would see each other during John’s next leave. They still sent each other letters and talked as often as they could. But one letter was different from the others. Savannah hadn’t sent a letter in a couple weeks, when they used to come every couple days. “She was in love with someone else. I knew that even before I finished reading the letter, all at once the world seemed to slow down” (233). After he received that letter, John went into a state where he didn’t want to talk to anyone and was basically depressed. “Over the next few weeks, I became the consummate soldier, escaping into the only word that still seemed real to me. I volunteered for any mission regarded as dangerous, I barely spoke to anyone in my unit, and for a while it took everything I had not to be too quick with the trigger while out on patrol.” (234) Everything seemed to change in his life for the worse. Some weeks later another terrible thing happened, his father died. John was granted an emergency leave to go to the funeral and make arrangements for what would happen to all of his father’s things. John sold everything in the house, except his father’s most prize possession; his coin collection. After the funeral John went to see Savannah. He was not exactly sure why he went there but he did. When he first saw Savannah she came running to him and gave him a hug and then the awkwardness settled in. “I saw the mysteriousness and maturity that had always made her attractive. I noticed a hint of sadness and reticence as well.” (262) She was married to another man yet John was still in love with her. He soon found out that the other man was Tim, a longtime friend of Savannahs that John had met. Tim had gotten very sick he had melanoma and needed help with his brother, Alan, who had some problems. When John found that out he was astonished but he was glad it was Tim and not some random guy he didn’t know. The longer he spent with Savannah the more he loved her again and she started to love him too. She told him that Tim was so sick that if he didn’t go to a better hospital he might not make it, but they didn’t enough money. One of the times John went to see Tim at the hospital he told him some very important things that John learned a lot from. Tim told him that he was very worried about his brother Alan who, if Tim died, would have to be taken care of by Savannah and he wasn’t sure if she was up to that. Tim also told John that Savannah still loved him, as much as she would try to hide it Tim knew that. “I know she loves me, but she’s never loved me the way she loved you” (324).

After talking to Tim in the hospital John comes to a huge realization. He realizes that true love is when you care more about the other person’s happiness than your own. He also realizes that right now Tim needs Savannah and that him being there is only making things worse, so he had to say goodbye to Savannah. “Saying goodbye was the hardest thing I ever had to do. Part of me wanted to turn around and race back to the hospital, to tell her that I would always be there for her, to confide in her the things Tim had said to me. But I didn’t.” (329) John also knew that Tim was going to die if he didn’t go to a better hospital, so he sold his father’s coin collection and gave the money anonymously to Savannah to help Tim, and that helped enough to get Tim to a better hospital and eventually cured. Before John would have never been mature enough to be able to leave Savannah because he knew he had to. He had changed so much since the first time he met Savannah.

Throughout John’s entire experience with Savannah he changed a lot. Before he didn’t care about anything, “I spent every dime I earned, had zero illusions about eventually working my way up the ladder to management and ended getting fired from every job I ever had. For a while, I didn’t care.”(19) He also didn’t really know what true love really is and Savannah and Tim taught him that. He was not mature at all when he first met Savannah and having to say good bye to her just shows how much he has grown. John Tyree goes from being a careless guy to a strong mature man. John Tyree changed because of Savannah Lynn Curtis.