Christopher Cox

A man’s desire is always to conquer something. Whether it is an object or a task at hand, the nature of man has always been wired to conquering something by adapting, adjusting, and overcoming to whatever is put in front of them. Jon Krakauer, a brilliant writer, delivers and personifies this notion to a tee. An expert mountain climber, Krakauer has been to the highest peak on the face of this Earth, but at times he felt he was at the lowest depths of despair. This sudden swing of emotion is…

The True Man for All Seasons Throughout all spans of time society has exhibited the strange tenacity for assigning labels to anything and anyone. In most instances these affectations are frivolous, egotistical, unnecessary, or wholly misplaced. However, when assigning the singular title of “The Bard,” no such frivolity or error exists. William Shakespeare is The Bard, and a man who shines brighter than any other in the firmament of English literature. The stature of William Shakespeare is…

Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu to Nikola and Dranafile Bojaxhiu on August 26th 1910 in Skopje, Yugoslavia and she was the youngest of three children (Spink, 1997). Her parents were originally from Albania, but settled in Yugoslavia, which at the time was formerly known as Macedonia and was an unstable land (Spink, 1997). When it came to her personal life, Mother Teresa was always secretive, and thus most of the information provided about her childhood and discussed below comes from…

Jon Krakauer’s “Death of an Innocent” appeared on the Independent’s website on 11 April 1993. Krakauer, an American writer and mountaineer, mainly known for his works about the outdoors, especially mountain climbing has produces yet another amazing news article among numerous others. This specific news article in fact have been the highlight of his writing career as it paved him to write his best-selling non-fiction books—Into the Wild. After reading “Death of an Innocent” by Krakauer, I have…

A good portion of Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, is focused on the characterization of the protagonist, Chris McCandless. Krakauer shares his opinions on Chris frequently throughout the duration of his novel. Krakauer very purposefully dictates what anecdotes he wants to include in his novel to shape how the reader views Chris. A very prominent theme that is made apparent to the reader about Chris is how young he is. By making this, a theme Krakauer asks the reader to treat Chris’ adventures…

During the late sixteenth century, Spain had been fueled with fervor for colonial expansion. This reflected the European ideology of the time, which entailed the culturally myopic notion that Europe was the paragon of civilization, and that European nations had not only the right but also the obligation to civilize and westernize barbaric people from barbaric cultures, and to seize and imperialistically re-appropriate their foreign land. Jan Van Der Straet’s allegory “Discovery of America:…

The holiday of Columbus Day has kindled an undeniable amount of controversy over the years. Whether or not it should be celebrated is debatable because while Columbus did open up the Americas to commerce with Eurasia, his travels also led to the decimation and abuse of the Native American population. The current Columbus Day is overly simplified. To extract the true meaning of Columbus Day, Columbus himself must be removed from the center of the holiday, and the holiday should recognize both the…

One of my favourite books and movies is Jon Krakauer’s Into The Wild (1996) that was adapted to the screen by Sean Penn in 2007. The film follows the true story of Christopher McCandless’ expedition across North America and his time spent in the Alaskan wilderness where he died alone. During the film viewers are taken along a journey where they see the main character search for his true place in the natural world independent from the trappings of a normal suburban life. The movie is beautifully…

Columbus found something further than the west and the other side of the Atlantic. • The priest, known as Peter Martyr, started to use the world “New World” and noticed that what Christopher found really was a New World. After Christopher’s first expedition, some of the men that were educated took thirty years to realize that the world really was going through an adjustment. • In 1497, John Cabot, along with the English, desired to…

On the sandy shores of Mexico in 1519, Hernan Cortes strode off of his ship and stepped into unfamiliar territory. Around the small group of conquistadors was a half-naked crowd of native Aztec people – people who thought that Cortes was a messenger from their gods. Little did these so-called savages know, within a few short years millions of their race would be massacred and their way of life would be destroyed. Up and down the coast of the New World, Europeans took advantage of the weaker and…