Trails

When I was ten years old, I attended a camp session at Camp Bonnie Brae that took us off the main camp property and into the depths of the Appalachian Trail. The Appalachian Trail is a hiking trail that stretches approximately 2,200 miles between Maine and Georgia. Sadly, the camp didn’t have the time or resources to look after us for months on the trail, so we were to spend only three days on…

Gemma thought back to when they were a family. Tracking was just a normal way of life for them. The Jaeger’ was a close-knit family who came from a long line of Trackers. The worse day in her life wasn’t when their parents were killed and it wasn’t a preternatural creature that killed their parents. Their parents were killed trying to protect Danelle. Danelle had been attacked and raped. Their parents heard her screamed. They were killed attempting to save her. Danelle was a wreck for months.…

How Democratic Was Andrew Jackson? Andrew Jackson the democrat? More like Andrew Jackson the DEMONcrat! Andrew Jackson is considered to be one of the most famous presidents in American history because of his “democratic” views. The era of the “common man” marked the beginning for American democracy where ordinary people had a say in the government. To Jackson, democracy meant that all agencies of the government, including the congress, the president, National Bank, and Supreme Court must…

In "Captivity," Sherman Alexie retells the historical backdrop of European venture into North America and the expulsion of Native Americans from their conventional grounds. The story appears to claim that Native American history as we probably am aware it rotates around Mary Rowlandson. Toward the start of the story, Alexie quotes Rowlandson's 1676 account, in which she was caught by Indians, one of whom "gave me a biscuit, which I put in my pocket, and not setting out to eat it, covered it…

The film adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild is based upon Christopher McCandless and his attempt to abandon all his possessions, give his $24,000 in savings to charity and hitchhike to Alaska to live within the wilderness. Christopher abandons all family and during his lengthy journey to Alaska meets different people that help shape him in a unique way. Christopher ultimately wants to live off the land, only having what he needs. Although he states he does not want or need anything to be…

As I am someone that has no interest in mountain climbing, Kevin Macdonald’s interpretation of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates’s intrepid journey, ‘Touching the Void’, is a powerful film that is sure to turn heads and has definitely made me reconsider spending time mountain climbing. This docudrama follows a tragic incident that results in one man’s fight for survival after Joe and Simon’s descent up the unclimbed Peruvian Andes and ends with the audience questioning what they would do. To achieve…

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a true story based on a gentleman named Christopher McCandless, who died on an odyssey while trying to escape the poisonous civilization, he was living in at the time. As the story develops it describes the experience McCandless had on his journey Krakauer was inspired to tell Chris’s story because he too encountered a similar experience when he was his age. Jon Krakauer illustrates Chris McCandless experiences he articulated in his daily journal as well as…

Teresa Loutfi Professor Gualtieri Humanities 20th Century 13 July 2017 Existentialism in Into the Wild Into the Wild based on the nonfictional novel by Jon Krakauer was adapted into a film by Sean Penn in the year 2007. The film focuses on the life of twenty-three-year-old Chris McCandless whom after graduating college rejects his family, wealthily upbringing, identity and potential of becoming a lawyer in order to travel across the United…

The Native Americans of the plains struggled to survive as European settlers began to colonize larger amounts of North America. Battles between the colonists and Native Americans left many tribes weak and unable to defend their nations. The population of the buffalo that once used to run in large herds throughout the area dwindled close to extinction due to mass hunting. By the late 1800’s the plains tribes had been stripped of their lands, their resources, and their rights. They were sent to…

It is not difficult to find the tale of a golden child gone awry in not only literature, but life as well. However, in the book Into the Wild, author Jon Krakauer captures this stale premise in a way that in compelling, understandable, and above all, trustworthy: a rarity in the world of nonfiction. Into the Wild revolves around the life of Chris McCandless, but it is very much a personal story, made so not only by the author incorporating McCandless’s family in the suffering and loss of their…