Someone's Keeper

I am the keeper of my best friend. I never want anything bad to happen to her so i try to look out for her as best as i can. I think that she is my keeper too. We have been best friends for a while now, and I've never this close to someone before. So, if I did have a keeper, it would be her. Even if we don't stay as close as we are now in the future I will always watch out for, and care about. She's not the only keeper I have, and I may look out for others as well.

Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult is 44 years old, and is the bestselling author of 18 novels. She went to Princeton to study creative writing. While she was still a student, she had two short stories published in Seventeen magazine. She has won several awards for her books. Her first two books got awarded New York Times Bestsellers. After having multiple different jobs she decided to go to Harvard to get a master's degree in education. Jodi is married to Tim Van Leer, whom she met at Princeton. Jodi and Tim have three children and live in Hanover, New Hampshire.

http://chicklitreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/jodi-picoult.jpg

http://www.jodipicoult.com/

Christopher McCandless Editorial Essay

Katie H.

Mrs. Zurkowski

Greens

4/11/11

Cross Country Traveler, Leading Towards His Final Odyssey

By Katie Helmlinger

            “The solitude and total freedom of the wilderness created a perfect setting for either melancholy or exultation” (Nash, 157). Christopher McCandless was a person who found exultation in the wild. He was an adventurous, intelligent, and confident man whose expectations could take him anywhere he wanted to go. Some people thought that McCandless was just another incompetent person trying to survive in the wild bush of Alaska. Clearly, some people did not know this incredible person, or his reasons for this outrageous journey, so instead they judged him. This story, about a 24 year-old man’s thrilling, final odyssey will be told, and finally people will understand that their impressions of him were wrong. Rather, McCandless was a wise, young man searching for his ultimate happiness.

            Chris McCandless was never the most social person when he went to school. He was highly intelligent, but the amount of friends he had fizzled out during his years at college. Once he hit the road, he was like a different person. Every one of the people Chris met, while on the road loved him. However, the one problem Chris had was actually forming attachments. He liked being by himself most of the time, and that was one of the reasons why he wanted to go into the wild. He wanted to be free of the world we live in.  He always kept intimacy and friendships at an arm’s length with the people he met on the road. For example, when Chris dodged Ron Franz’s request to adopt him and make him Franz’s grandson, Chris replied, “We’ll talk about it when I get back from Alaska, Ron” (Krakauer, 51). This decision Chris made of keeping all of his friendships distant, was because he genuinely liked being by himself; he wasn’t lonely, but instead he was peaceful. McCandless belonged in the wild; it was what he always wanted and what he planned to do, no matter what anyone said.  I believe that his journey towards his goal was brave and inspiring, and I think that the reason he kept people far away was because he never wanted anything to get in the way of what made him ultimately happy: being on his own, in the wild.

             Chris McCandless was also extremely intelligent; he excelled in college with straight A’s at Emory. However, he wasn’t just book smart; he knew how to take care of himself throughout his entire journey. Gaylord Stuckey’s first impression of Chris was that, “Alex was clean-shaven and had short hair, and I could tell by the language he used that he was a real sharp fella. He wasn’t what you’d call a typical hitchhiker” (158). When it comes to surviving in the wild, McCandless should’ve been regarded highly. It’s unfathomable to me how people can’t see Chris as a hero. He lived out in the wild bush for over 100 days, and all those people who judged him probably didn’t consider how difficult that could have been, especially with such little supplies. Chris walked into the wild with very few things that are needed to survive in the bush, i.e., a .22 caliber, ten-pound bag of rice, cheap hiking boots, the plant book Tanaina Plantlore, and his favorite books to read to keep him entertained. He used all of these things to help him survive in the wild, but particularly two items, the .22 caliber and Tanaina Plantlore. McCandless used his .22 caliber to shoot small game, and he used the plant book to help him gather wild berries and potatoes. The majority of his diet came from the use of these two items. Chris’s planning and actions clearly demonstrated that he was not a man of little intelligence.

            Chris was often described as over confident. He was very naturally talented, and he always thought that he was the best. Chris’s dad reflected on this by saying, “Chris was good at almost everything he ever tried, which made him supremely overconfident. If you attempted to talk him out of something, he wouldn’t argue. He’d just nod politely and then do exactly what he wanted” (118-119). Chris was also very stubborn in the way that he would never give up on something. Almost every person he met on his way to Alaska tried to talk him out of what he wanted to achieve; surviving in the wild. McCandless didn’t let anything or anyone get in his way, he was so excited as if he were a little kid again. This stubbornness and confidence helped him a lot when he was in the bush. He wasn’t going to give in or back down. Even on his final days he stayed strong, the last picture he took of himself was when he was very sick, but there was no doubt that he had a smile on his face all the way up until the end.

            Not everyone thought of Chris McCandless as brave, smart, and courageous. Instead these people that were against Chris thought he was pathetic, stupid, and incompetent. One Alaskan who had read the article about Chris said, “The scope of his self-styled adventure was so small as to ring pathetic- squatting in a wrecked bus a few miles out of Healy, potting jays and squirrels, mistaking a caribou for a moose (pretty hard to do)….Only one word for the guy: incompetent” (177). The reason I believe these people judged Chris the way they did was because they used to be just like him, just as eager and carefree. McCandless might remind them too much of their former selves. So deep down, they’re all just bashing against what Chris did, but it very well could’ve been them to whom this had happened. Coming from someone who had changed their view of McCandless decided to say, “Sure, he screwed up, but I admire what he was trying to do. Living completely off the land like that, month after month, is incredibly difficult. I’ve never done it. And I’d bet you that very few, if any, of the people who call McCandless incompetent have ever done it either, not for more than a week or two. Living in the interior bush for an extended period, subsisting on nothing except what you hunt and gather- most people have no idea how hard that actually is. And McCandless almost pulled it off” (185). I understand how some people can be against him, but only to a certain extent. Chris made a few decisions that could’ve been thought over differently, but overall he did everything that he knew how to do, and that took him very far. So from now on those people who were against what McCandless did should have absolute respect for this incredible, inspiring man.

            I believe Chris McCandless finally found exultation. His journey into the wild was in some ways a journey of self-exploration as previously said, he was perfectly content with being alone. His intelligence provided him with the resources to survive in the wilderness. Chris’s confidence also served well for it enabled him to have enough guts to do what he did in the first place. While some people thought he was just plain stupid to go into the wild bush of Alaska, I feel his actions are inspiring. He had a life of privilege, but still chose to abandon such lifestyle in pursuit of his true happiness. He was a man of courage, and I for one admire him for that and so should all of you.  

            

Characterization Chart of Chris McCandless

Katie

Greens

4/7/11

Chapter and page #	Description/quote from novel	What impression you get about Chris with this character trait or description?
Chapter 1, page 4	“Five feet seven or eight with a wiry build, he claimed to be 24 years old and said he was from South Dakota.  He explained that he wanted a ride as far as the edge of Denali National Park, where he intended to walk deep into the bush and ‘live off the land for a few month.’”	Chris is not physically fit for walking into such a dangerous environment.  He seems a little crazy.
Chapter 1, page 6	“There was no talking the guy out of it, he was determined. Real gung ho. The word that comes to mind is excited. He couldn’t wait to head out there and get started.”	Chris had Alaska set in his mind, and he wasn’t going to let anyone change his mind. This is what his journey has let up to and he couldn’t be more excited.
Chapter 2 Page 12	S.O.S. I need your help. I am injured, near death, and too weak to hike out of here. I am all alone, this is no joke. In the name of God, please remain to save me. I am out collecting berries close by and shall return this evening. Thank you, Chris McCandless. August?	The impression I get from this note he left on the bus was that he was not so strong anymore. He was asking for help, from anyone who might be able to give it. He needed someone now, he couldn’t finish this odyssey alive if he didn’t receive help.
Chapter 2	Not enough information for second characteristic quote
Chapter 3 Page 16	“He used to sit right there at the end of the bar and tell us these amazing stories of his travels. He could talk for hours. A lot of folks here in town got pretty attached to old Alex. Kind of a strange deal what happened to him.”	This quote tells me that Chris was very outgoing. He wasn’t afraid of meeting new people and he really enjoyed carrying on a good conversation. That says something about a person who can become friends with practically anyone in just a few days.
Chapter 3 Page 18	“You could tell right away that Alex was intelligent. He read a lot. Used a lot of big words. I think maybe part of what got him into trouble was that he did too much thinking. Sometimes he tried too hard to make sense of the world, to figure out why people were bad to each other so often. A couple of times I tried to tell him it was a mistake to get too deep into that kind of stuff, but Alex got stuck on things. He always had to know the absolute right answer before he could go on to the next thing.”	The impression I got by this quote was that he obviously was very smart. He believed he was right mostly all of the time, and he didn’t like it when he wasn’t. He wanted to understand things that were too difficult to understand. He had to know something was right before he could move on.
Chapter 4 Page 30	“He was a nice kid. Said his name was Alex. And he was big-time hungry. Hungry, hungry, hungry. But real happy. Said he’d been surviving on edible plants he identified from the book. Like he was real proud of it. Said he was tramping around the country, having a big old adventure. He told us about abandoning his car, about burning all his money. I said ‘Why would you want to do that?’ Claimed he didn’t need money.”	This quote described Alex as someone who liked to do things his way. He was proud of the way he was living, and he doesn’t believe you need money. Although I think that’s a little odd.

Chapter 4 Page 37	“Can this be the same Alex that set out in July, 1990? Malnutrition and the road have taken their toll on his body. Over 25 pounds lost. But his spirit is soaring. Alexander buried his backpack in the desert on 2/27 and entered Las Vegas with no money and no ID.”	This description of his body is sad. This journey has weakened him in the body but definitely not in the spirit. He couldn’t be happier. Once again he goes to another place with no money, just making another stop on his way to his destination.
Chapter 5 Page 39	“It’s a good place to spend the winter and I might finally settle down and abandon my tramping life, for good. I’ll see what happens when spring comes around, because that’s when I tend to get really itchy feet.”	This is something that really changed my perspective about McCandless. He was always about never staying in one place for too long and now he’s even thinking about settling down. I don’t doubt he’ll be back moving right along as spring comes around.
Chapter 5 Page 40	“I don’t think he ever hung out with any of the employees after work or anything. When he talked, he was always going on about trees and nature and weird stuff like that. We all thought he was missing a few screws.”	McCandless was different than most people, but he had his reasons. He became close with most people that he met along his journey, but I guess this job just didn’t do enough for him. He knew he was meant to be with nature, and not as much society.
Chapter 6 Page 51	“He seemed extremely intelligent, I thought he was too nice a kid to be living by that hot springs with those nudists and drunks and dope smokers.”	This description of McCandless is correct. He was very smart and even though he was too nice a kid to be living by the hot springs, that’s where he lived and he had no problem with it.
Chapter 6 Page 51	McCandless, uncomfortable with the request, dodged the question: “We’ll talk about it when I get back from Alaska, Ron.”	This was how McCandless was after Franz asked Chris to be his grandson. Chris had relationship issues, he always kept the other people he met at arm’s length, and getting attached to people wasn’t his plan.
Chapter 7 Page 63	“He was kind of shy at first, he acted like it was hard for him to be around people. I just figured that was because he’d spent so much time by himself.”	The people that Chris met didn’t know what to think of him at first, but then when they all got to know him they loved him. He was a very talkative person.
Chapter 7 Page 65	“I don’t recollect Alex ever talking about any girlfriends, although a couple of times he mentioned wanting to get married and have a family someday. You could tell he didn’t take relationships lightly. He wasn’t the kind of guy who would go out and pick up girls just to get laid.”	This quote makes me think McCandless wasn’t a big relationship guy. Through this entire journey so far, there has been a girl who liked him, but he never really showed any interest. He might want to get married someday, but doesn’t really seem like that sort of person to me.
Chapter 10 Page 101	Across the top of the first one, dating from McCandless’s initial visit to Carthage, in 1990, he had scrawled “EXEMPT EXEMPT EXEMPT EXEMPT” and given his name as Iris Fucyu. Address: “None of your damn business.” Social Security number: “I forget.”	This passage tells me that Chris didn’t like people knowing his business. He didn’t like formal things, he just wanted to go by what he said, and not by what was totally true.
Chapter 10 Page 101	But on the second form, dated March 30, 1992, two weeks before he left for Alaska, he’d signed his given name: “Chris J. McCandless.” And in the blank for Social Security number he’d put down: “228-31-6704.” Westerberg phoned Alaska again. This time the troops took him seriously.	This passage says that because Chris knew Wayne for some time, he felt comfortable opening up just a little bit. Wayne never even really realized until this point, but it showed that he doesn’t keep people totally far away and that he does care.
Chapter 11 Page 107	“Even when we were little, he was very to himself. He wasn’t antisocial- he always had friends, and everybody liked him- but he could go off and entertain himself for hours. He didn’t need toys or friends. He could be alone without being lonely.”	This quote from Carine shows that Chris wasn’t a loner or the jock. He was perfectly fine being with people or being alone. I feel like he almost liked being alone more because I think he thought no one understood what he thought about things.
Chapter 11 Page 111	“Chris had so much natural talent, but if you tried to coach him, to polish his skill, to bring out that final ten percent, a wall went up. He resisted instruction of any kind. I’m a serious racquetball player, and I taught Chris to play when he was eleven. By the time he was fifteen or sixteen, he was beating me regularly. He was very, very quick and had a lot of power; but when I suggested he work on the gaps in his game, he refused to listen.”	I think Chris was very stubborn. This makes it seem like it was his way or the highway. He didn’t seem like he wanted help with doing anything. He liked the way he did things and he didn’t want people telling him otherwise. He could have let his father help him become a better athlete, but he didn’t.
Chapter 12 Page 118-119	“Chris was good at almost everything he ever tried, which made him supremely overconfident. If you attempted to talk him out of something, he wouldn’t argue. He’d just nod politely and then do exactly what he wanted.”	Chris didn’t let anyone influence him really. He thought he was great at everything, since most of the time he was. But that almost makes him seem cocky, because he doesn’t think he needs to get any better.
Chapter 12 Page 122	Like many people, Chris apparently judged artists and close friends by their work, not their life, yet he was temperamentally incapable of extending such lenity to his father.	This passage made me think that Chris has very strong feelings about people. He’s kind and most of the time he doesn’t judge them by their life, but he’s the opposite of that with his dad. I feel like he has some serious issues with his dad that might’ve been hard to ever fix because of Chris’s stubbornness.
Chapter 13 Page 128	In both photos Chris stares at the lens with the same pensive, recalcitrant squint, as if he;s been interrupted in the middle of an important thought and was annoyed to be wasting his time in front of the camera. His expression is most striking in the Easter photo because it contrasts so strongly with the exuberant grin Carine wears in the same frame.	This passage shows that Chris is very sometimes close-minded of things. If he didn’t want to do something he’d make sure people knew that he didn’t want to do it. This picture there talking about especially shows you how much taking a simple picture bothers him, because he’s even taking it with his sister, who he cares for very much.
Chapter 13 Page 132	“I just don’t understand why he had to take those kind of chances, I just don’t understand it at all.”	This quote from Chris’s mom, Billie, will never be answered. No one truly knows why Chris McCandless did the things that he did. It was his dream and he sure lived it to the fullest.
Chapter 16 Page 158	“Alex was clean-shaven and had short hair, and I could tell by the language he used that he was a real sharp fella. He wasn’t what you’d call a typical hitchhiker. I’m usually leery of ‘em. I figure there’s probably something wrong with a guy if he can’t even afford a bus ticket.”	This passage came from someone who had just met Alex. He wrote Alex off as just another hitchhiker, but once he got to know him everything changed. This shows that Alex was very comfortable with strangers, but he still didn’t always open up completely.
Chapter 16 Page 168	I am reborn. This is my dawn. Real life has just begun. Deliberate Living: Conscious attention to the basics of life, and a constant attention to your immediate environment and its concerns, exampleà A job, a task, a book; anything requiring efficient concentration (Circumstance has no value. It is how one relates to a situation that has no value. All true meaning resides in the personal relationship to a phenomenon, what it means to you).	This journal entry written by McCandless shows the things he has learned from living out in the wild. He understands things to a deeper meaning, and thinks about a lot of things differently. He likes the new perspective he has on life.
Chapter 17 Page 177	“The scope of his self-styled adventure was so small as to ring pathetic- squatting in a wrecked bus a few miles out of Healy, potting jays and squirrels, mistaking a caribou for a moose (pretty hard to do)….Only one word for the guy: incompetent.”	This quote from an Alaskan correspondent was quite harsh. They only knew what they had heard in the article about McCandless’s story. This point of view doesn’t make me change my mind about Chris. He was smart and all those people who thought he got so many things wrong, turned out to be wrong themselves, because Chris didn’t make all the mistakes people thought he did.
Chapter 17 Page 185	“Sure, he screwed up, but I admire what he was trying to do. Living completely off the land like that, month after month, is incredibly difficult. I’ve never done it. And I’d bet you that very few, if any, of the people who call McCandless incompetent have ever done it either, not for more than a week or two. Living in the interior bush for an extended period, subsisting on nothing except what you hunt and gather- most people have no idea how hard that actually is. And McCandless almost pulled it off.”	This quote came from Roman, one of Krakauer’s friends that came along for the trip to the bus. He finally somewhat understood that McCandless wasn’t actually crazy. Chris became very bonded with the land, because of the long time he experienced it. And it’s true not too many people have done what Chris decided to do, and he is brave for doing what he’s done. And Roman was right about saying that he almost pulled it off, because he almost did. But since he didn’t I guess that’s why people think they can say he’s incompetent, because if he did make it he would be a hero.
Chapter 18 Page 189	“Happiness only real when shared”	This quote was written by McCandless on the side bar of one of his books. This shows that maybe Chris really did want to settle down and find someone to share his life with. He had experienced complete solitary, so maybe his was finally ready to be with someone.
Chapter 18 Page	“DAY 100! MADE IT! BUT IN WEAKEST CONDITION OF LIFE. DEATH LOOMS AS SERIOUS THREAT. TOO WEAK TO WALK OUT, HAVE LITERALLY BECOME TRAPPED IN THE WILD.-NO GAME.”	This quote was also written by McCandless in his journal. This was on August 5th, and Chris had pretty much accepted that he was going to die here. He admitted to being scared and lonely which were never really two characteristics that he carried earlier in his journey.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2390/2100030576_0e11227aac.jpg

My Symbolic Belt

If I made a symbolic leather belt with eight designs on it, the first one would be the St. Margaret School. That was the school I went to from first grade through eighth grade. I met a lot of my friends there that I'm still good friends with to this day. St. Margaret's taught me a lot, but I'm glad to be in high school now. The next design that would be on my belt would be a gymnast. Gymnastics was a big part of my life when I was younger. I did gymnastics for 6 years. It really helped me just a little while ago with cheerleading. A big part of cheerleading is tumbling, and that's pretty much the gymnastics part of cheerleading. Now every summer I've grown up with a golden retriever all my life. My first dog died when she was 13, but then i got two puppies, and now only one of them is alive and her name is Raven. My cousin's backyard is a very special part that would be on my belt. My family means a lot to me, and it's even better cause my family is huge. The backyard represents all those cookouts during the summertime with my family. The initials MKC would also be on my belt, it stands for Mary Kate. She is my best friend, she is a freshman at C. Milton Wright, and we can tell each other anything. Mary Kate has changed my life, and I think our friendship will last for a long time. The next symbol would be the symbol for my high school, John Carroll. I will spend the next four years of my life there, and I can't wait to see how this experience will change my life. The symbol love will definitely be on my belt. I chose this symbol because I never want to let myself forget about love. Love helps you through the hardest things and there wouldn't be a time where love wasn't in my life. The last symbol would be a camera because I think when I am older I would like to be a photographer. It's always been something I thought was interesting, and next year I'm hoping to take photography as my elective and join the photography club.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_M0XWtS5JSEQ/R2A2IQ4xkDI/AAAAAAAAAAU/ACsy5F1OzUE/s320/belt+completed.bmp

Jon Krakauer Author Biography

Jon Krakauer was born in 1954, and he grew up in Corvallis, Oregon, where he was introduced to mountaineering when he was only 8-years old. After college he spent most of he free time in the mountains. in 1997 he traveled by himself to the Stikine Icecap in Southeast Alaska, and went three weeks without seeing another person. He has climbed an intimidating peak called the Devils Thumb, the West Face of Cerro Torre in the Patagonian Andes, and even Mt. Everest. His tragic descent of Everest became a cook called Into Thin Air, and it became a #1 New York Times bestseller. This has lead Krakauer to do more articles and write more books.

Katie's "Intro to Into the Wild" English Project

The book that I'm going to be reading soon is Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. This book is about the two-year wilderness trip Christopher McCandless took from 1990 through 1992. The book will describe the life McCandlss had while trekking through Alaska. We will go through the way he was able to live for 119 days in the wilderness with barely anything. We will also learn about the way people think he died. I'm very excited to read this book after I read the summary learning what it was about. I looking forward to learning about his survival, and how he made out there on his own for how long he did.