Speech and Dialogue

Regarding the speech and dialog in Into the Wild, Jon uses various ways to report to other people and how he put his or other people’s ideas into the text. He sometimes uses direct speech, which I will focus on here, to reduce his presence or influence on the text. For example, (the Indian youth interrupted:”Was his name Alex MacCandless?”) As you see he gives you the opportunity to live inside the character and see yourself what they have said exactly. To make it clearer, if you read some descriptive or argued essays, you will notice that direct speech is rarely used, but why?! The reason is obvious, there are seldom any characters to speak it. On the other hand, when you read stories that involve many characters, writing conversations between them is s key tool to make the story more logic and cohesive. And this is what Jon does in his book, he uses direct speech to create more comprehensive dialogues between the characters, to make you understand the personality of each person and how each person speak differently, which can provide the reader with more excitement and action when there are strong arguments between characters.

Setting of Into The Wild

As you can see, Into the Wild setting is primarily about the wilderness, specifically the western parts of America and Alaska. Most of the important events took place during the 1980s and 1990s. Also, Jon managed to support that type of setting by providing vivid descriptions about the parts of country that MacCandless crossed. Traveling back and forth through time is other feature for this story, For example, in chapters 1, 2 and 3, Jon narrates in different periods of times, once descriping MacCandless’s life and how he abandoned everything to leave to the Alaskan wilderness, and once more to talk about the Alaskan Terrain and the history of that place where Alex lived his last minutes there. However, when I was reading the book, I realized something. As a setting, the conflict between wilderness and civilization has a big presence in this story. In several occasions, when Jon goes back and fourth through time, he once describes the nature of the Alaskan terrain and other about the town MacCandless lived in. Nevertheless, the wilderness wins this conflict by having a greater influence in jon’s writing and descriptions, which makes us think that this wilderness was the home of Alex and as if he lived all his life there.

Themes

A theme of a novel is its main ideas. For instsance, Into the Wild has two or three possible themes, but I will choose what MacCandless wanted in the first place which is the ultimate freedom. During my reading throughout this book, I figured out that freedom is what all this story about. I mean it is the reason he left and abandoned everything, he wanted to feel that ultimate freedom. So, he chose the Alaska to live completely alone where are no rules except the nature’s rules! However, I believe this theme, which is freedom, is a recurring theme in many travel books, most of the travelers who set out on a journey, seek that ultimate freedom, but does that freedom require that level of isolation?! Can not you feel it while living within your society?! Well, I believe that most travelers or book writers who chose freedom as their main theme or goal, feel like they have some obligations towards other people when living amongst them, so they leave and abandon everything to get rod of all these obligaions. And that is what MacCandless did, he could not bear the tensions living in this modern part of the world, so he decided to go to the Alaskan wilderness as an endeavour to find that freedom.

Symbols in The Story

In the story there are some symbols that can tell you about a lot of hidden things in the story. These symbols more like a specific details that support an important image. These symbols make it easier for the reader to see the picture and easier to feel it which make the story more real and more enjoyable. For example, the part when Alex went to work in MacDonald’s after he left the job and when his colleges were asked about him, one of the colleges used to not like him and when she was asked about him she said that he was dirty and he always smells, so this word can be used as a symbol. This symbol shows us that he was homeless and he was living outdoor, so he cannot take a bath. Now after we read this symbol, we can feel the story easier because it has supported the image.

My Own Response

The power of the language in this book can change our minds and thoughts about a lot of things. when I first read this story and I read about Alex and his crazy decision, I thought that he is out of his mind because I have ever heard about anyone how had done this before, especially in my culture. The idea is that people do everything to study at universities and to get a good job in the future whereas Alex decided to leave all these things behind and start from zero. However after I read the story and the things that happened to him and the people who he had met; I changed my mind to a strong agreement with his decision. By this trip that he made he can learn a lot of things from the real life, I know it's a little bit dangerous ,but at the end it's a good experience for the whole life.

UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN

In the previous tow posts, we were talking about Jon Krakauer and about some amazing pieces of his work. We have read a little bit about his life and we talked about one of his best seller books which was Into Thin Air which has a real story which is build on his own experience. i think it is a good time to talk about another nice popular book by this creative writer.

In 2003, another amazing book was written by Jon Krakauer became Krakauer's third non-fiction bestseller book. Under The Banner of Heaven is much different from what we used to read from this writer. Jon Krakauer usually writes about road trips wild trips; however in this book he wrote something different. This time he wrote about something more riligous, In Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, this time his talking about strong believes. I think this book much different from the previous books however, as long as the book is written by Jon Krakauer, it will be a good ,so if you are one of the people who does not like trips stories and you do love Jon karkauer you should try this book.

while i was searching about Jon Krakauer ,i found amazing and exciting information about him and a good review about his book Into Thin Air which conceder as one of best selling books , so in this post i really would like to shire this information with you .

" The author of the bestselling INTO THE WILD (1996) and an acclaimed journalist, Jon Krakauer was assigned by OUTSIDE magazine to write an article concerning how commercialized the climbing of Mount Everest had become. Some climbers have paid as much as $65,000 to join a guided group that would lead them to the summit. Krakauer makes the point that high-altitude climbing is dangerous even for the most veteran of climbers let alone for any novice group member. The author bluntly states that some of the novices were not qualified to climb Mount Everest. Because of this situation, Krakauer witnessed experienced guides taking on more responsibility than usually would be necessary. Krakauer’s group was led by the veteran New Zealand climber Rob Hall. Climbing at high altitude is a painful experience. Individuals can be hit with agonizing headaches, loss of strength, and loss of brain cells. Losing brain cells will make it impossible for a climber to think clearly.

Krakauer describes what it means to reach the summit. Unfortunately, a terrible blizzard struck Mount Everest within minutes of his reaching the top. For all of the climbers on the mountain, the blizzard turned what hopefully was to be a successful climb for all concerned into a nightmare. Because of poor planning, several of the climbers found themselves in a desperate situation that they had no way of protecting themselves against. Guides were forced to attempt rescues that were extremely dangerous. As described by Krakauer, the physical torment experienced by the climbers makes for both exhilarating and painful reading. In the end, several climbers lost their lives on Mount Everest, including two of the experienced guides. In addition to the personal story, Krakauer also makes the point to add historical facts about the climbing of Mount Everest. While he has attempted to be fair to all concerned, there have been participants who have taken issue with Krakauer’s pronouncements. INTO THIN AIR was intended merely to be an article for OUTSIDE magazine, but Krakauer felt it necessary to expand the 17,000-word article into a full-length book. It took great courage for him to complete this brilliant memoir. Rightfully, INTO THIN AIR became a bestseller."

Jon Krakauer

We have been talking about road trips specifically about into the wild and what happened in this amazing story and about Alex and about everything happened to him for instance, people who he had met, the events and situations that he had faced and even the thoughts that he had thought of, however we hadn’t have a chance to talk about who had written this story. I n this post I’d like to talk a little bit about the writer Jon Krakauer.

He is an American writer and mountaineer, he was born in Brockline, Massachusetts on 12^th of April in 1954.He studied in Hampshire College in Massachusetts and he got his degree in Environmental Studies in 1976. He is author of best-selling non-fiction books such as into the wild, into thin air and under the banner of haven. Which make his books and stories are great is the experience that he has about the outdoor trips . He is an amazing writer and almost all his books are worthy to read.

Into The Wild

Into the wild is a road trip story which was written in 1996 by Jon Krakauer.The story is about a guy, mcCandless, who is educated and from a rich family. He has got an amazing life that everyone does want to have, however mcCandless has a different feeling and a different opinion. McCandless doesn't like that life because he thinks that his life is not a real life , so he decides to leave his home and his family without telling anyone about his destination because he doesn’t want anyone to stop him or to be in touch with him then he starts a trip to Alaskan wilderness. In his trip, he wants to travel to Alaskan wilderness as homeless or hitchhiker and that will allowed him to meet a lot of people and he is going to experience a lot of different things.

In into the wild, we are still reading about MCcandless and his crazy one life time trip and how he had changed his life from a luxury life into a life for homelessness. during the story and all the changes that has happened, we have known that MCcandless has changed his name to Aleax and he started talking about himself by using the third person narrative , but what is the reason for that??? It might be one of many reasons such as, for a literary reason or for changing style of writing.

But in my opinion, I think he used the third person narrative to present his new characteristic or to show that he is a different person, very different from the person he used to be. I think Mccandless now has a new personality and a new name, so he loves to call himself Alex because he can see in his new personality the one who he always dreams to be.

Into the wild

Travelling Alone

Travelling alone
people Usually prefer to travel in groups of friends and families but they don’t like to travel by their own because they think that travelling with their families and friends is more interesting , more exciting and more enjoyable. This is why people usually travel, the main reason for them is for having fun and relaxing which is very different from what we have been studying during this term.

All the writers who we studied about have different aims for their travels or different motivations from us. As we studied in the Snow Leopard ,the motivation for the writer is the loss of his wife, and in The Blue Highways the motivation was similar to the Snow Leopard’s motivation, whereas in Into The Wild the writer ,Jon Krakauer, wanted to experience the real life. I believe that this way of travailing can help people a lot in terms of finding one self and forgetting the pain. Also, I is a good experience that everyone does need it in his life.

The Snow leopard book has a distinctive feature, usualy, when we read books like this one, we go through real adventure.


I mean when someone sets out on an extreme journey, he or she does it for excitement or even risking their lives for enjoyment. But Peter does it for a different reason. When I first read this book I found that this trip is different. it is something spiritual reminding you of the native Americans and how they relate spirits to their lives.




Peter compares the Snow leopard with his wife in which he thinks that this creature is hard to find or even something came fron ancient stories,mythical, but that does not stop him from the journey as he goes on it in order to heal himself from the loss of his wife and discover the Haimlayan mountains.


This is the book's feature I wanted to write about, it is unlike the other adventures. I hope you like it :)

As we studied in the class, there are many kinds of travel literature and my favourite kind is road trips.I like to read about trips and about the things happen during them but what i love the most is when i read a book written in more literary way,so i was looking for a book about these kinds of trips.It was easy to find a lot of books such as Road Fever by Tim Cahill ,On The Road by Jack Kerouac and The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson , all these books are so good and so popular,but there is one of them was the most exciting for me which was Blue Highway by william least heatmoon.


This book is about a man who drives his old van through Ameirca but the new thing in this trip is he does not drive through the main roads.He decides to drive through the back roads of Aemirca.The motivation for this trip ,which is similar to the Snow Leopard motivation, is after the writer brakes up with his wife and after losing his job he decides to do this trip.This book is one of most popular books and it's worth reading it .

BUSES

If I asked any one about the buses ,what are they??he or she might say it's a way of transport or a kind of different kinds of public transport, this is the idea that people have about the buses.In my opinion I think they are more than that ,they are more than a huge slow vehicle helpes people to move from a place to another.

Buses can reflact the society and people feelings and emotions.For example if you are getting on the bus on Monday morning you will find people tired and worried about the time and the traffic jam, some people read a book, which helps them to relax and make their way shorter ,some lazy people prefer to take a nap till they reach their works and some other prefer to listen to music in their Ipods but they play laoud music so they usually bother other people, but they don't mind it because they are so rude.The same thing happens everyday during the week but in the weekend it's very different from that.

In the weekend you can see that all people are happy ,dressed up and talk loadly।In the weekend you will feel and notice that there is something different something make people happy ,which is the holiday,you can see the happines in their eyes.

Has anyone woundered why people go to work while they don't like it ??, why thieves steal money even when they know it's not legal and it's dangerous and why people study so many years going to schools and universities??.

The answer is because they want to earn a huge amount of money,but why they would like to earn this amount of money??.People believe that money bring happiness ,but is that true? Does money bring happiness?? i think it's the opposite,because if you have a lot of money ,you will be so worried about it and you keep thinking of ways to increase it or how to protect it but is that happiness?? for me the answer is NO.

Happiness in my opinion is when you shear nice moments with family,when you be loved from your family and your friends,when you make a sad person smiling,when you help other people,when you find your soul mateand you share everything with her,when you feel satisfied about yourself and your acts and when you know who you really are. All these things make me feel happy ,but do they need money to feel them?????? of course not i mean there are a lot of rich people who have a lot of money but they haven't felt any of these things and their money couldn't even help them.

Homesickness

One of the things that make people scared of traveling or visiting other places or other countries is homesickness.It's the hardest part in an enjoyable trip. People don't like to stay away from their families friends and the people who they love.

When I wanted to go to England I was worried about leaving my family and my friends ,and about leaving my country and changing my life style and a lot of other things ,but what made me feel better was my previous experience with traveling. I used to travel a lot in the past and i used to stay away from my family for three months and during the times those i stayed away from home, I had never felt homesick,I mean yes I had, but it wasn't really strong feeling so,thats made me feel more comfortable and relaxed.

But then I remembered that there is something different this time which is the period of time. A whole year it's not a short period and i will face a lot of things in that year, some good things and some other bad but at the end, it will be a good experience and a life time trip.Now I'm here away from home away from the people i used to live with,but I'm alright and I'm happy that doesn't mean that i don't miss them,but it means life won't stop if i stay away from them for a while .

In my opinion home sickness it's all about you.If you're really good at making friends and making good relationships with other people,you will never feel homesick, but you will feel homesick when you go back home because you will miss your new friends.

The First Moments

Because I’ve been here for ten months and I haven’t written anything yet ,I’ll go back to the first moments when I first left Saudi Arabia.

Of course when I heard that I’m going to England I was so excited and I was dying to start that amazing trip. During the last days in Saudi Arabia I met my friends, who I will never and ever forget because whatever I do ,wherever I go I will never find friends like them, and we started to know each other and they were so nice so it didn't take me to long to feel comfortable with them .After we met each other we started to organize our things like booking hotels, accommodations and flight. Since most of the flights were fully booked, we had to go to Dubai first then we can change plane from there.

Once we got to Dubai,I was so amazed , i had known that Dubai is beautiful and modern city however, i’ve never thought that it will be like what i’ve seen. Huge buildings ,wide clean streets fancy cars and elegant restaurants. The first thing crossed my mind was that Dubai is the best place to live along, exciting life. One of the things that i noticed in Dubai is it's a multicultural city; there are various nationalities in Dubai, Which enables people who there to experience new and different cultures, lifestyles and traditions, and that what makes Dubai distinctive. And the best thing about Dubai is that Dubai has improved in a very short period of time. I mean if you asked anyone about Dubai fifteen years ago, probably he or she wouldn't have known any thing about it unless he is from arabic word but,nowadays,every one know at lest a thing about Dubai.

back to the story,we spent 8 amazing hours then we took the plane to England.The story had just started when we got to England