Literary Analysis #3: Into the Wild

Literature Analysis

NONFICTION ANALYSIS

Into the Wild

Jon Krakauer

TOPIC(S) AND/O EVENTS

1. Krakauer begins the book by describing the story behind Christopher McCandless. In April, 1992, the young McCandless hitchhiked his way into Alaska and took up residence in the wild nearby Mt. McKinley. Later, in August of that year, a group of hunters found his body, prompting Outside magazine to request Jon Krakauer to write a story about McCandless’s life and times. He describes McCandless’s college education at Emory University and the events that followed directly after he graduated. He gave away all of his money to charity, left his things, and took to being a drifter and explorer.

The article arrived in Outside magazine in January, 1993, but Krakauer’s interest in the story did not die with the story’s publication. Rather, he was personally attracted to the aspects of McCandless’s life, the outdoors attraction and rocky relationship with his father. He compares himself to McCandless to give a little perspective, and describes the reaction many people had to McCandless’s actions, so many labeling him young and foolish. Krakauer does not agree though and states that McCandless would still be alive if he had only kept from making one or two crucial mistakes. He ends his note by announcing he hopes to allow the reader to form their own opinion of McCandless and his actions.

Vocabulary #8

cursory - hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough
A low paid worker is likely to do a cursory job.

impetus - the act of applying force suddenly; a force that moves something along
With impetus, I pushed aside the crate.

pinnacle - the highest level or degree attainable; the highest stage of development;
He was the pinnacle of health, nothing hurt him anymore.

contumely - a rude expression intended to offend or hurt
She commented on my favorite shoes contumely, I ignored her.

Value of Life Assessment

Hamlet's Soliloquy

Page 4 of English Expository Composition Textbook

----------------------

Activity 3: Surveying the Text

  1. What prior experiences have you had reading plays?

     - I've read many plays by Shakespeare as well as George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde.

  2. What did you notice about the front page format and annotations?

     - It was very creative and informative.

  3. What did you notice about the text's structure?

     - It's a monologue, it's a collection of text that one character says. It's like a poem and has lines like one.

Literature Analysis #2: The Great Gatsby

Literature Analysis

NONFICTION ANALYSIS

The Great Gatsby

TOPIC(S) AND/O EVENTS

1. On the surface, The Great Gatsby is a story of the thwarted love between a man and a woman. The main theme of the novel, however, encompasses a much larger, less romantic scope. Though all of its action takes place over a mere few months during the summer of 1922 and is set in a circumscribed geographical area in the vicinity of Long Island, New York, The Great Gatsby is a highly symbolic meditation on 1920s America as a whole, in particular the disintegration of the American dream in an era of unprecedented prosperity and material excess.

To Be or Not to Be

The question is: is it better to be alive or dead? Is it nobler to put up with all the nasty things that luck throws your way, or to fight against all those troubles by simply putting an end to them once and for all? Dying, sleeping—that’s all dying is—a sleep that ends all the heartache and shocks that life on earth gives us—that’s an achievement to wish for. To die, to sleep—to sleep, maybe to dream. Ah, but there’s the catch: in death’s sleep who knows what kind of dreams might come, after we’ve put the noise and commotion of life behind us. That’s certainly something to worry about. That’s the consideration that makes us stretch out our sufferings so long. After all, who would put up with all life’s humiliations—the abuse from superiors, the insults of arrogant men, the pangs of unrequited love, the inefficiency of the legal system, the rudeness of people in office, and the mistreatment good people have to take from bad—when you could simply take out your knife and call it quits? Who would choose to grunt and sweat through an exhausting life, unless they were afraid of something dreadful after death, the undiscovered country from which no visitor returns, which we wonder about without getting any answers from and which makes us stick to the evils we know rather than rush off to seek the ones we don’t? Fear of death makes us all cowards, and our natural boldness becomes weak with too much thinking. Actions that should be carried out at once get misdirected, and stop being actions at all. But shh, here comes the beautiful Ophelia. Pretty lady, please remember me when you pray.

I think it is better to fight what you may or may not know, despite the odds and the opposition ahead. It is nobler to fight than to cower, to stand than to fall. I'll fight to get what I want, to succeed and avenge my family.

Vocabulary #7

cursory - hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough
A low paid worker is likely to do a cursory job.

impetus - the act of applying force suddenly; a force that moves something along
With impetus, I pushed aside the crate.

pinnacle - the highest level or degree attainable; the highest stage of development;
He was the pinnacle of health, nothing hurt him anymore.

contumely - a rude expression intended to offend or hurt
She commented on my favorite shoes contumely, I ignored her.