Dean Koontz Essay

Introduction: Throughout the book of Into The Wild Chris McCandless is known to be a wacko reckless idiot, and is also known to be courageous and heroic. However does a courageous person go out into the wilderness knowing that the outcome will be fatal? People viewed him from different perspectives and also have broad range of opinions of this young man. Some deemed him to be incredibly dim-witted or a man that simply just followed his heart. Evidence shows that Chris McCandless is actually a mix of both. The first opinion that described McCandless was brainless, idiotic, and extremely foolish. Many passages from Into The Wild can support this outlook.

     David Berkowitz was one of the most feared killers in New York City in the 1970's. His crimes caused the death of six people, and the injuries to seven others. His crimes became legendary because of the bizarre content in the letters that he wrote to the police and the media and his reasons for committing the attacks. David Berkowitz, better known as Son of Sam, is a man with a troubled childhood and upbringing. From his many “Parental Figures” to believing that dogs were telling him to kill. During his reign of killing the police felt the pressure to catch David. "Operation Omega" was formed, which was comprised of over 200 detectives – all working on finding the Son of Sam before he killed again.

When a man is a product of his environment and the environment is filled with violence and hatred, the possibilities are horrifying. Richard kuklinski is a prime example of just that. His childhood was something no human, let alone a child should go through. His anger built up and his life eventually was overcome by it. He then progressed to a cold-blooded killer, starting small, and then ending with the mob until his capture.

Dean Edwards Smith (born on February 28, 1931) is a retired American head coach of men's college basketball. He is originally from Emporia, Kansas, Smith as been called a "coaching legend" by the Basketball Hall of Fame. Smith is best known for his successful 36-year coaching career at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Smith coached from 1961 to 1997 and retired as the NCAA Division I men's basketball record-holderfor victories (879), a record which was surpassed by Bobby Knightin 2007. Smith has the 9th highest winning percentage of any men's college basketball coach(77.6%). During his career as head coach of North Carolina, the team won two nationsl titles and appeared in 11 Final Fours.

“Brick walls are there for a reason. They’re not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.” This was the mantra Randy Pausch lived by in his terminating life. In his book, which I learned the quote from, he talked about many challenges he overcame throughout his life. The largest obstacle I have had to overcome is the challenge of being a part of many extracurricular activities while maintaining above average grades in my rigorous schedule throughout the years.

Jeff Corwin is a wildlife conservationist from Norwell, Massachusetts in 1967. He is currently 48 years old and he is still living. He went to college at Eastern Nazarene College, in Quincy Massachusetts, and later he attendant he attended Bridgewater State University in Bridgewater. Corwin has a bachelor of science on biology and anthropology. One of Corwin’s major accomplishments is when he served as an expedition naturalist for a documentary program titled “THE JASON PROJECT “led by Bob Ballard who is an oceanographer. As an undergraduate he became active in the conservation of rainforest in central and South America, he also participated in the youth action committee program in the United Nation Environmental Program. And while filming

Bruce Dawe, an Australian known poet, born 1930 is still one of the biggest selling and most highly regarded poets of Australia. His ability to write such influential poems has made an impact on a number of people, as each poem can be related to the ordinary living lives of Australians throughout the years. Bruce Dawe's poems are interesting because they comment on the lives of ordinary people. This statement is agreed on. In relation to the statement, three key poems can be linked being Enter Without So Much as Knocking (1959), Homo Suburbiensis (1964) and Drifters (1968).

Kenny Washington, born Kenneth S. Washington born August 31, 1918,Los Angeles , California, U.S.. He died June 24, 1971. He was the first African American college gridiron football star. He was one of two black players to reintegrate the National Football League (NFL) in 1946.

Chris Van Allsburg has been named one of the most intriguing authors and illustrators of children’s books. He has a unique style that captivates children and adults alike. Often, a person’s background and experiences influence their work. Imagination has many roots into the childhood of an individual.

Sandy Skoglund has been in the forefront of contemporary art in the United States, as well as overseas, for nearly two decades. Her dramatic impact to the art world didn’t begin overnight. After sheer dedication to art education she received her BA degree in Studio Art in 1968 from Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. Upon getting her BA, she pursued further education at the University of Iowa where she received her MD. With her remarkable educational background, Skoglund decided to expand her horizons by teaching. Her teaching career grew at a rapid pace and she found herself teaching at the University of Hartford from 1973 to 1976. In late 1976, she was offered a position at Rutgers University, New Jersey,

Jeff Koons was born in 1955 in York, Pennsylvania. When Koons was 7 years old, his parents put him in art lessons. In 1972 to 1975, he enrolled at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1975, he went to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois where he studied there for only 1 year. Then in 1976, he went back to Maryland College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland where he received his B.F.A. Jeff Koons has 4 sons with his wife Justine Wheeler-Koons, who is also an artist. He had one daughter named Shannon who as an infant was put up for adoption but in the mid-1990s, they reestablished a relationship together. Many of Koons works have sold for millions of

Stephen King is perhaps the most widely known American writer of his generation, yet his distinctions include publishing as two authors at once: Beginning in 1966, he wrote novels that were published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. When twelve, he began submitting stories for sale. At first ignored and then scorned by mainstream critics, by the late 1980’s his novels were reviewed regularly in The New York Times Book Review, with increasing favor. Beginning in 1987, most of his novels were main selections of the Book-of-the-Month Club, which in 1989 created the Stephen King Library, committed to keeping King’s novels “in print in hardcover.” King published more than one hundred short stories (including the collections Night Shift,

Zen, also known as Ch’an Buddhism in China, is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that was established in China about 1500 years ago. Zen is a form of religious practice of mainly concentrating the mind to a single point in which then results in self-realization and/or enlightenment. Zen philosophy is interpreted that all humans are capable of reaching enlightenment, which is generally blocked by ignorance. The idea emphasizes enlightened masters over forms of scriptures, and is the least “academic” of all the Buddhist schools.

Gary (Sherman) Snyder was born in San Francisco on May 8 in 1930 to the parents of Harold Alton and Lois (Wilkie) Snyder. When Gary Snyder was growing up, he lived in west part of the United States surrounded by nature. While he was living there, the destruction of the Pacific Northwestern forests began, even at such a young age it still caused him sorrow (“Gary Snyder”). While growing up in such a rural area, where Snyder had a farm with chickens and cows and even an outhouse as a bathroom; he thought that this was just another way of living. Gary Snyder is okay with living in the city as well, even though he prefers living in a highly rural area (Martin). He started to examine and appreciate the American Indian culture around him.

The Grizzly MC series is a series of novels authored by Jenika Snow, the popular American writer known for writing of erotic, BDSM, sci-fi, and paranormal romances. A very prolific writer known for writing up to 14 novels in a year, it is a testament to the popularity of The Grizzly MC series that it is one with the most number of titles at 12 novels. The first novel in the series was The Outlaw’s Obsession that was first published in 2014 and has gone on to have three editions. Similar to her Sweet Water series the novels are all about shape shifter romance. As is common with the author’s works the novels may be read as freestanding novels, given that each novel comes with different protagonists.