Ariela Ojalvo American Literature Blog

 In Into the Wild, Christopher McCandless gives up many of his possessions in pursuit of freedom and meaningful experiences. If you had to simplify your life and keep only a few important possessions, what would you keep and why? What would be hardest to leave behind? If I had to simplify my life and keep only a few important possessions I would keep a journal, a multipurpose blade, and a durable pair of boots. The journal preserves the internal journey, the blade ensures survival and feels overall necessary, and the boots are for my ability to keep moving . The hardest thing to leave behind would be digital archives the photos, voice notes, and curated memories that serve as an external hard drive for the soul along with my communication with the people I love and without it I would grow confused as to my location.  Summary: Today in class we read chapter 4 of Into the Wild and we did a writable assignment on it.  Reflection: Today I learned more about Christopher's...

  People sometimes feel the need to step away from their normal routines or environments in order to better understand themselves. Describe a time when you needed distance from a situation, place, or group of people in order to think more clearly or gain perspective. What did that experience teach you about yourself? One time when I needed to distance from a person was in sophomore year when I had a friend who I was having a world of issues with. During this time I found myself more miserable then ever in my life and I kind of stepped back and realized that that was not the real me. I felt trapped in a situation that left me feeling like a different person. I eventually fully removed myself from the situation and I found people that left me feeling like I was really myself and this taught me that I am not miserable and I am worth something. It made me realize that some things were never meant to last and if something doesn't feel right it probably isn't.  Summary: Today in cla...

  After reading Chapter 1 of  Into the Wild , consider your first impression of Christopher McCandless. Based solely on the events and details presented in this opening chapter, do you believe McCandless truly understood the risks he was taking when he entered the Alaskan wilderness? Why or why not? My first impression of McCandless is that he is extremely confident, stubborn, and determined. One detail that showed me his confidence is his persona throughout the ride with Gidion conveying his relaxed, excited, and single sided mindset going into this showing how he is confident in his abilities to survive and thrive. One detail that showed me his stubbornness was his refusal to listen to much needed advice, allow Gidion to buy him better gear, and understand what the driver was trying to tell him because of his confidence of success. Finally the detail that showed me his determination was his inability to allow himself to turn back and back down this also spawned from his conf...

  Today you worked on creating your Vocabulary Digital Cards in Adobe Express. In one well-developed paragraph, reflect on the assignment by explaining which vocabulary word was easiest for you to understand, which word was most challenging, and how creating your own sentence and selecting an image helped strengthen your understanding of the vocabulary. Use specific examples from your work. Creating my vocabulary digital cards in Adobe Express helped me understand the words better. The easiest word for me was benign because it means kind or favorable and it says Ben in the beginning which is my really kind and favorable cousin's name. I wrote a sentence about a benign teacher who is always nice to students, and the picture of a friendly teacher helped me remember the meaning. The hardest word for me was recrimination because it was harder to understand that it means blaming each other and I could not think of a correlating phrase or idea to help me remember it. I wrote a ...