Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Student Metaphors of Themselves as Writers talks about the different metaphors students use, telling about thier writing skills. This includes Metaphors of Process and Speed, Metaphors of Fear and Courage, Metaphors of Control, and Metaphors of Silence. This article claims the struggle of students as writers and how they have to overcome their fears, weaknesses, and stuggles as writers. This relates to the overall thesis of the article which was to have students write metaphors about their images of themselves as writers. Most of these writers as we can tell had a bit of a struggle.
Monday, February 20, 2012
A Stand Against Wikipedia
I agree with Middlebury College policy: Wikipedia should be just a starting point to research for college students. There is a lot of information out there and it's hard to trust most of it. Wikipedia is the first source that shows up in google, use it. Don't base your whole research paper about what you found in Wiki because it could be faulty. It's okay to find little things like just today I used it to find the magnetic field strength of Earth, I had information to back it up. I just needed that one more source to let me know I was correct.
With my major, and many in depth majors. It's hard to find a source for the answer you are looking for and even then, I would trust Wiki over some other sources that don't look very credible. The information on certain topics aren't very general. This leads to hey, looks like Wiki is the only site that has what I need. What else is there to do? You can't find it in your book, you google it and find it on Wiki.
In high school, we were never under any circumstances allowed to use Wiki for a work cited source. If it was on there, automatic fail. For this reason, I don't really use Wikipedia too much because it's just drilled in my head not to. However the information is not very hard to change on Wiki. I remember a group of my guy friends in high school who changed the bibliography of history figures that we had discussed that day. They got a good laugh as to how long it lasted on there, it was gone the next day. For this reason it would be a good idea to use Wiki because so many people read it and review it. In my opinion it shouldn't matter if you cite Wikipedia. It's reliable and convenient.
With my major, and many in depth majors. It's hard to find a source for the answer you are looking for and even then, I would trust Wiki over some other sources that don't look very credible. The information on certain topics aren't very general. This leads to hey, looks like Wiki is the only site that has what I need. What else is there to do? You can't find it in your book, you google it and find it on Wiki.
In high school, we were never under any circumstances allowed to use Wiki for a work cited source. If it was on there, automatic fail. For this reason, I don't really use Wikipedia too much because it's just drilled in my head not to. However the information is not very hard to change on Wiki. I remember a group of my guy friends in high school who changed the bibliography of history figures that we had discussed that day. They got a good laugh as to how long it lasted on there, it was gone the next day. For this reason it would be a good idea to use Wiki because so many people read it and review it. In my opinion it shouldn't matter if you cite Wikipedia. It's reliable and convenient.
Into the Wild_9
The book definitely tells a better story like all books do, however the movie was easier to follow. The movie focused on Supertramp and Supertramp only. The other men who traveled down the same road as McCandless, didn't have a significance of the story. It just leads you to believe that Chris isn't as crazy as he seems to be described in the chapters. The movie shows Chris more as a normal kid: drinking in the bar, running off with the girl, swimming in the ocean. Some of the things he says just aren't quite right.
High points on the book would be the explanation. There are many details left out of the movie. I feel like the bond between the McCandless sibling are greater expressed in the movie. Also double life that was expressed of Chris's father makes more sense. In the movie I believe it was just said that his mother was cheated on. The book had a greater idea as to why Chris went on his adventure: get rid of and away from materialistic objects. I wish Chris could have lived for this day and age where everything has grown to be materialistic.
I think we all need to get away from materialism sometimes. Go camping for a weekend where there is no service. The only people you have are the ones surrounding you. It's kind of a good feeling to break free from technology. That's all vacation is really, a get away.
I think the movie played better in the aspect of emotions. For me, it was disturbing to see McCandless in pain starving, going crazy talking to himself because he was so lonely and scared. In my mind, if McCandless was so smart why didn't he come up with a plan to make some floatation device to get across the river? One part I wasn't sure what the significance of the bear was. Chris was so weak he couldn't even stand up and then some grizzly just comes out of nowhere right next to Supertramp. Why didn't he attempt to kill it for food? But the book did better express the pain and suffering that McCandless was going through in the last days of his life.
High points on the book would be the explanation. There are many details left out of the movie. I feel like the bond between the McCandless sibling are greater expressed in the movie. Also double life that was expressed of Chris's father makes more sense. In the movie I believe it was just said that his mother was cheated on. The book had a greater idea as to why Chris went on his adventure: get rid of and away from materialistic objects. I wish Chris could have lived for this day and age where everything has grown to be materialistic.
I think we all need to get away from materialism sometimes. Go camping for a weekend where there is no service. The only people you have are the ones surrounding you. It's kind of a good feeling to break free from technology. That's all vacation is really, a get away.
I think the movie played better in the aspect of emotions. For me, it was disturbing to see McCandless in pain starving, going crazy talking to himself because he was so lonely and scared. In my mind, if McCandless was so smart why didn't he come up with a plan to make some floatation device to get across the river? One part I wasn't sure what the significance of the bear was. Chris was so weak he couldn't even stand up and then some grizzly just comes out of nowhere right next to Supertramp. Why didn't he attempt to kill it for food? But the book did better express the pain and suffering that McCandless was going through in the last days of his life.
Into the Wild_8
Chris, aka Alex SuperTramp isn't really lost in the world. He knows what he has to do, find himself. Along the way, Alex makes a few mistakes. He wanted to get away from all that did him wrong, his family, but he was also forgetting they are also what did him right. He never told them he was safe or he was having a good time, he didn't even let them know he was alive.
Chris expressed love for others. He was out there living his dream, completely happy. He touched others with his words and was by no means selfish. He was a hard worker and did anything that he put his mind to. Chris was different. It was just too bad that he lost his life on his adventure. Imagine what he could have done for this world.
Chris had no fear, thinking nothing bad was going to happen to him, he took risks, lived on the edge. His only fear was water, which in the end was what killed him really. He could cross the river but if he wouldn't have feared water so much maybe he could have thought to look for a better place to cross.
Chris was definitely foolish in a lot of ways. He could have learned to hunt properly and preserve the meat. If he did these things maybe he wouldn't have starved to death, maybe he could have thought to collect herbs that weren't poisonous before he went on his hungry rant, collecting the first thing he found, maybe he should have realized he was hurting himself whenever he had to make another hole in his belt. That should have been the wake up call like hey you're not eating enough man. You need to start getting food some other way.
Chris McCandless's family realized their son was happy in the last months of his life. The journals and pictures he left behind were living proof. Just imagine, having a son with all the talent in the world and suddenly giving it all up on a silly voyage to find himself. I would be pretty devastated. His family honored the area in which Supertramp died. It wasn't easy for any of them.
Chris expressed love for others. He was out there living his dream, completely happy. He touched others with his words and was by no means selfish. He was a hard worker and did anything that he put his mind to. Chris was different. It was just too bad that he lost his life on his adventure. Imagine what he could have done for this world.
Chris had no fear, thinking nothing bad was going to happen to him, he took risks, lived on the edge. His only fear was water, which in the end was what killed him really. He could cross the river but if he wouldn't have feared water so much maybe he could have thought to look for a better place to cross.
Chris was definitely foolish in a lot of ways. He could have learned to hunt properly and preserve the meat. If he did these things maybe he wouldn't have starved to death, maybe he could have thought to collect herbs that weren't poisonous before he went on his hungry rant, collecting the first thing he found, maybe he should have realized he was hurting himself whenever he had to make another hole in his belt. That should have been the wake up call like hey you're not eating enough man. You need to start getting food some other way.
Chris McCandless's family realized their son was happy in the last months of his life. The journals and pictures he left behind were living proof. Just imagine, having a son with all the talent in the world and suddenly giving it all up on a silly voyage to find himself. I would be pretty devastated. His family honored the area in which Supertramp died. It wasn't easy for any of them.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Into the Wild_7
Chris McCandless isn't the only young and crazy man out there; many others have set out on the same adventures. For the most part these where men who didn't fit into society. They didn't just dream, they lived the dream. McCandless aka Alex was a man of intelligence, everybody loved him. One man had a dream to set out on his adventures with a good looking female friend. Even then he didn't succeed, however Alex had no interest in women, for the most part. Of all the men who set out on the adventures and lost their lives, McCandless was the most successful, surviving his 113 days.
The young hikers changed their names. One man called himself NEMO; this is thought to be a character from one of his favorite books. They took on other names as part of a new identity. They thought of themselves as kind of warriors. The men were out there to survive in the wilderness, nothing else. The males didn't want to be recognized by others, traveling without others.
Krakauer interrupted this story to view other points of view. This tells us that McCandless isn't just a crazy American, it allows the readers to view others in their tracks of life. The other men were careless with their adventures, surviving in pain. One man fed off of the pain and adrenalin of his forest adventures. McCandless did not want to harm nature. Another man ate a diseased caribou.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)