TOW #4- Independent Reading Book: Wild by Cheryl Strayed

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed follows a young woman, newly orphaned after mother subdued to cancer, on a quest to self discovery. Strayed writes about her impulse decision to hike the California section of the Pacific Crest Trail, as well as the unfortunate series of events that lead her to this conclusion. Strayed's major in English from the University of Minnesota help her to write a life-defining memoir. Beginning with the news of her mother's impending death, Strayed writes substantially about their relationship and how she spent every last moment of her mother's life by her hospital bed. In a collapsing marriage, once Strayed's mother died, the author felt she needed to do something "wild", that would help her find herself: hike the Pacific Crest Trail. Strayed shows that through the difficulty and accomplishments of physical feats, healed her after her mother's death and divorce. Parallel to this purpose, Strayed aims to reach audiences wishing to be healed or going through situations similar to that of the author's past. Through using imagery, Strayed connects with audience on an empathetic level to achieve her purpose. "Amazed to be free of it's(backpack) weight, I strolled around and accidentally brushed up against one of the Joshua trees and was bayoneted by it's sharp spikes. Blood instantly spurted out of three stab wounds in my arm. The wind blew so fiercely that when I removed my first-ad kit from my backpack and opened it up, all of my band-aids flew away" (Strayed 57). Strayed's perceptive use of imagery allows us to see her struggle on her journey and see what she had to go through in order to achieve self-actualization. The audience is able to connect with her struggles and hardships to better understand Strayed's predicament.