Chapter 18:
Cheryl uses this chapter to prove that she has been successful in what she had originally set out to do. At one point, she sits by a river and finds herself once again thinking about her mother: "Where was my mother? I wondered. I'd carried her so long, staggering beneath her weight. On the other side of the river, I let myself think. And something inside me released" (Strayed, 306). This quote proves to the reader how much Cheryl has grown, improved, and healed on this trip because she is finally at the point where she can release her mother from her metaphorical grasp. Her mother would have wanted Cheryl to learn from her mistakes, to grow and heal after everything that had happened, and to make a new life for herself. Cheryl is on the path to doing all of these things; she has reflected on everything she did wrong in her life and has accepted that she did them, she has used this experience to heal and to become a better person, and she will move to Portland after her trip ends to kick-start her life again. Her mother would have been very proud of the woman that she is becoming because of how much she has grown as a person because of her hike on the PCT. Because Cheryl has learned how to let go of her mother's death, she has finally been able to heal herself.
Chapter 19:
As Cheryl sits on a bench near the Bridge of the Gods, reflecting on her journey that she has just finished, she meets a man in a BMW who gives her a card with his information on it, offering to meet up with her in the future. Cheryl later reveals that she never sees that man again. This completely juxtaposes her previous encounters with men she has just met at other points in her life because normally, she would have followed through, met up with the man, and probably would have slept with him. Now, she chooses never to contact him. This shows how much she has grown and changed as a person because she no longer feels the desperate need to be with a man at all times, and does not need to be intimate with strangers all the time. She chooses to include this seemingly insignificant event to end the book to show strong character development and how she herself has changed her views and ways. By going on this life-changing hike on the PCT, she has healed herself and now has a completely new perspective on her life.
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Chapter 16&17 Wild Blog Entries
Chapter 16:
In this chapter, Cheryl makes a list of all of the things that her mother did wrong when Cheryl and her siblings were children. She does this when she realizes that her mother would have been fifty years old that day, and she becomes angry at her for not living to that age. This adds a new sense of how Cheryl is recovering to the book; one of the five stages of grief is anger, and Cheryl is just now embracing that stage. Later in the chapter, Cheryl reflects on her previous anger and other feelings she has had: "The truth was, in spite of all that, she'd been a spectacular mom. I knew it as I was growing up. I knew it in the days that she was dying. I knew it now. And I knew that was something" (Strayed, 268). This perfectly juxtaposes the list she previously made because now she is realizing how great of a mother her mother actually was. This can symbolize Cheryl's acceptance of what has happened and how she is truly on the path to completely healing herself. The contrast between the two main emotions Cheryl expresses in this chapter shows how much she has grown from the day her mother died to now.
Chapter 17:
In this chapter, Cheryl encounters two hunters in the woods, whom she supplies with water and iodine. After she leaves, one of them approaches her alone, and she does not know what his intentions are. She describes the scary encounter: "'You changed your clothes too,' he said suggestively, and his words expanded in my gut like a spray of gunshot. My entire body flushed with the knowledge that when I'd taken off my clothes, he'd been nearby, watching me" (Strayed, 286). This section exemplifies the fear she feels during this moment, as shown through her choice of words. She uses the word "suggestively" to describe the way the man talks to her, to make the reader uncomfortable; she makes the reader understand how what he says makes her feel when she writes "his words expanded in my gut like a spray of gunshot". That section depicts the tone of fear that Cheryl writes with in this scene. Lastly, when she realizes that he had been watching her change, she uses the words "flushed" and "nearby, watching me", to show the creepiness and terror of the situation that she is in.
In this chapter, Cheryl makes a list of all of the things that her mother did wrong when Cheryl and her siblings were children. She does this when she realizes that her mother would have been fifty years old that day, and she becomes angry at her for not living to that age. This adds a new sense of how Cheryl is recovering to the book; one of the five stages of grief is anger, and Cheryl is just now embracing that stage. Later in the chapter, Cheryl reflects on her previous anger and other feelings she has had: "The truth was, in spite of all that, she'd been a spectacular mom. I knew it as I was growing up. I knew it in the days that she was dying. I knew it now. And I knew that was something" (Strayed, 268). This perfectly juxtaposes the list she previously made because now she is realizing how great of a mother her mother actually was. This can symbolize Cheryl's acceptance of what has happened and how she is truly on the path to completely healing herself. The contrast between the two main emotions Cheryl expresses in this chapter shows how much she has grown from the day her mother died to now.
Chapter 17:
In this chapter, Cheryl encounters two hunters in the woods, whom she supplies with water and iodine. After she leaves, one of them approaches her alone, and she does not know what his intentions are. She describes the scary encounter: "'You changed your clothes too,' he said suggestively, and his words expanded in my gut like a spray of gunshot. My entire body flushed with the knowledge that when I'd taken off my clothes, he'd been nearby, watching me" (Strayed, 286). This section exemplifies the fear she feels during this moment, as shown through her choice of words. She uses the word "suggestively" to describe the way the man talks to her, to make the reader uncomfortable; she makes the reader understand how what he says makes her feel when she writes "his words expanded in my gut like a spray of gunshot". That section depicts the tone of fear that Cheryl writes with in this scene. Lastly, when she realizes that he had been watching her change, she uses the words "flushed" and "nearby, watching me", to show the creepiness and terror of the situation that she is in.
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