Wild horse

In the novel, Giants in the Earth, Rölvaag goes to great lengths to portray the total experience of what life was like for those daring enough to settle it and start over again in the unknown and unexplored regions of the great American prairies. He writes so that the reader can feel just how vast and open the land is as well as the (hardship) harshness of frontier life and the destructive effects it had on the settlers—both the strong and the weak. It is no surprise that isolation, loneliness,…

Appalachia is a culture within itself created by individuals looking to get away from a more structural environmnet set with rules and limits. The individuals who set out to move into the Appalachian Region did so in order to have more privacy and be left alone. The Appalachian Region gave protection to anyone wanting to be alone and live life his or her way. Unfortunately, those wanting to live this way were looked at as barbarick which created labels like poor and uneducated. Those outside the…

There was a guy who had never met his natural father in one village. He lived in peace. He often went out and adventured into forests or mountains with a friend of his as kids do out of their curiosity. His name is Riku. He spent most of time with the friend. His name is Heracles. He was so courageous and that he had beaten a great number of monsters that used to threaten people in their village. He was also well-known as a son of Zeus. His father was a son of Cronos and ruled as a king of gods.…

Robert Flaherty’s Nanook of the North is a silent ethnographic documentary following a family of Inuits living in the Arctic Circle. Regarded by some as a turning point for documentaries, it serves as a ground for debate around representation and ethics of documentary film. In 1922 Flaherty set out to record the previously unseen lives of the Inuit in snowy Alaska as they struggle to survive in such a harsh environment. Flaherty spent 16 months living with Inuit where he staged sequences of them…

Krakauer, the author of Into the Wild and Paulo Coelho, the author of The Alchemist intertwine worlds of fiction and nonfiction through the personal aspects of pursuing a journey of self-discovery. Krakauer, a journalist, reports the events leading up to the death of Christopher McCandless, who embarks on a foreign path to Alaskan territory. McCandless cuts ties with his material lifestyle and relies on his newfound wits to persevere and endure the ways of the wild. Coelho depicts his fictional…

A Walk in the Woods. In my opinion, a very appropriate title for Bill Bryson’s book. His trek through the Appalachian trail and its tributaries are perfectly be described as just that, a walk. The google definition gives you, “an unhurried rate of movement on foot,” you can see what is meant by this. As Bryson and Katz make their way through the woods, their movements can be described as anything but hurried, with Bryson waiting around every bend for Katz and normal hikers passing them on a…

David went through many conflicts on his journey in the novel I Am David. A few of the conflicts he faced were, finding out what is wrong with his eyes, getting to Denmark, and why the man let him escape. There are many more conflicts that develop as the story goes on and he meets new people in this novel. Other conflicts that were quickly resolved were How would David get food, how could David get away from the Italian family, and how would David escape the evil farmer who kept him for free…

Every step of our sixty-mile Canadian canoeing adventure was another challenge. As Chris Hadfield said, it was just a matter of working the problem. That’s NASA-speak for descending a decision tree, methodically looking for a solution. The most rewarding part was being the man in charge; from meal preparation to dangerous situations, the final say was mine. Of all that we went through, I think our fourth portage (a “trail” between two lakes that are not connected by a traversable waterway)…

Chris McCandless was a man full of great intentions, all he wanted was to seek happiness. He was looking for an escape to what he truly wanted, and that was to go to the wild. I honestly believe that he was not running away from his problems, he was separating himself from them to create a new stress free life. I do not consider that breaking away from the issue. Chris was being the bigger person and walking away. Chris may not have known what he was doing when he left, but you know what… he…

You're Missing Something Christopher McCandless is a man who had everything and gave it up because he was annoyed with the world and he wanted to escape. The drastic decision he made captivated many, especially the author Jon Krakauer because he had a similar experience and he could relate to McCandless's disappointments. Jan's review is based on the Outside Magazine article that was written by Krakauer describing McCandless's journey. To some McCandless' story is just a tale of nature's harsh…