by Samantha SheetsInto the Wild Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is non-fiction recount of Christopher McCandless’ journey in the Alaskan wilderness in the 1990’s. During his retelling of the events that inevitably led to McCandless’ demise, Krakauer follows in his muse’s footsteps to the infamous locations McCandless resided. Instead of opting for a more tradition route after graduating college with remarkable grades, McCandless chose to explore the wastelands of America, specifically Alaska. While the main elements of the novel revolve around being a member of society and what that entails, I found myself focusing my attention on McCandless’ favor of solidarity. I read this book my junior year of high school, right before I began applying to colleges. While Into the Wild was a required reading for my AP English class, my teacher Mr. Guille insisted I read the book regardless of the impending assignment; he felt I could learn a lot from McCandless’ journey of self-discovery. Even with the deadline of the class’s final paper approaching, I deliberately chose not to read the book; I resented required readings and had the notion built in my mind that there could be nothing gained from reading what I deemed a nature book. While I could avoid reading the novel, I could not escape from watching the movie adaption of it in class. Fast-forward one-hundred-and-forty-eight minutes later, and I was sobbing in the middle of Mr. Guille’s class. McCandless’ story touched me. I sat through the rest of the day with the book in my hands and scanning the pages vigorously. McCandless was an extremely bright man, and instead of marching alongside society into what was expected of him, he disconnected from the world around him. He simply packed his belongings and traveled, something I’ve learned I want to follow suit in. The same English teacher who pushed and pushed me to read this book also nudged me not to attend college, but instead join the Peace Corps and travel. He’d slyly leave a Peace Corps application or pamphlet in my book bag as a joke and I declined his suggestions daily. As I begin my third year at John Jay college, I’ve come to the realization this teacher knew me better than I knew myself. He read me like an open book. I do not know what I want to do in life, or even the kind of person I’d like to be, but I’ve begun to be more and more like McCandless. I do know that I want to travel as much as I can and this book taught me that. That being said, I can confidently affirm that I will not be exploring Alaska. “Make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservation, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future.” (Krakauer, 1996) “A Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Raven” Both of Edgar Allan Poe’s pieces “A Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Raven” are impeccable and have shaped how I write. While Poe’s stories are different in many ways, they bare the similarity of evoking an emotion out of the reader through the use of descriptive details. “A Tell-Tale Heart” surrounds the murder of a man and the guilt consuming the murderer into a frantic and insane state. This shows the reader the intensity of emotions and their relation to their mental well-being. In the story, the man inevitably confesses to the murder to the police after hearing the dead man’s heart beating where he has hidden the body. Similarly, “The Raven” is about a young man whose grief has drove him insane. His unstable mental state leads him to converse with a raven that remains perched on a bust in his manor. I’m drawn to Poe’s work, because both are internal pieces and explore dark themes. They also become more intense as they continue, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats. Like the murderer in “A Tell-Tale Heart”, my heart pounds as each line approaches the story’s climax and the thrill I feel when reading Poe’s work wants me to emulate that emotion within my own work. His work has shaped my own writing and has changed me as a writer. “I would define, in brief, the Poetry of words as the Rhythmical Creation of Beauty” (Poe, 1850). Grief is a Thing with Feathers This novel was written by Max Porter in 2015 and bares similarities to Poe’s “The Raven”. Both pieces are about men grieving and interacting with a talking bird. This book, like Into the Wild was also read as a class assignment; I read it in Professor Rougier’s class on Death and Dying during my sophomore year at John Jay. Again, bearing a similarity to Poe’s “The Raven”, the book is written poetically. This is evident in not only the style Porter chooses to write in, but the word choice and emotion presented as well. Professor Rougier’s class was fascinating to say the least; every student approached death differently and our views on the books we read reflected that. I’ve been lucky enough to not have lost many important people in my life, but this book still had the ability to strike a chord inside me. Every line is like a puzzle that holds hidden symbolic notions, and I was eager to learn how the death of a wife could impact the lives of a family so deeply. The bird teaches the family and the reader how to grieve, and while this lesson was not needed at the time of reading this book, it will be used in the years to come. As the book explains, grief is unavoidable, but manageable. “Moving on, as a concept, is for stupid people, because any sensible person knows grief is a long-term project” (Porter, 2015)
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