Rhetorical Analysis Of Cheryl Strayed's 'Wild'

Following the death of her mother and divorce of her husband, Cheryl Strayed, seeking redemption, decided to hike over a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest trail by herself with absolutely no backpacking experience. One could argue that this was not a trip of redemption but of escape from a reality that had become too much to bear for Cheryl. However, upon reflecting over the whole process of her trek, the trip was indeed a time of redemption and she does not come back from the trail as the same woman who started the trek. This movie is very intriguing, not only because it of its redemptive values, but because it blends the story, setting, and overall philosophy together in such a way that one without the other would be quite dull.

Most of the time, when we listen to a song, we don’t listen to the words, or what message they are trying to give us. Each song out there has a message in the lyrics somewhere. For this assignment, we were to analyze a song and the lyrics and find the thesis of that song. With thesis, I mean what the message within the song is trying to tell us. The song “I hope you dance” by Lee Ann Womack has a good thesis in some ways, but the thesis could also be argumentative also.

Straying away from life as a whole only to be alone, some may say is the strong way to heal themselves when dealing with extreme grief or a major crisis . In the book Wild, twenty-two year old Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost it all. Dealing with the loss of her mother, her family torn to pieces, and her very own marriage was being destroyed right before her very eyes. Living life with nothing more to lose, lifeless, she made the most life changing decision of her life. Strayed never seems remorseful on her decisions to up and leave everything behind while deciding to flee from it all. This being her way of dealing with life, it shows her as being strong; a woman of great strength and character. She shows personal strength, which is

Many great writers have a way of connecting to their audience and influence the way we analyze their writing strategies. Cheryl Strayed created a biography, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, about her life changing experience that allows us the opportunity to apply aspects of a rhetorical analysis to her writing. Cheryl’s memory of her journey along the Pacific Crest Trail, that extends over 1,000 miles from Mexico to Canada, provides us with explicit details and evidence that tie into her motives and conditions for writing and her intended audience. Cheryl also makes appeals to her knowledge, trustworthiness, and emotions that help us illustrate her insights as she traveled along the trail.

For many, life out on the road is a way for individuals to experience freedom away from society. When experiencing freedom, it brings happiness to some and creates a fascinating appeal towards what life can potentially be on the road. This idealistic venture is seen in Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, narrating the journey of a privileged young adult named Chris McCandless. Krakauer guides the reader through the journey of McCandless of why and how left his old, but very comfortable life for an unpredictable one, by traveling to Alaska and living off its land. While many believe life on the road is a source of finding happiness, it is not an effective way to solve one’s problem; therefore, one should not live life on the road.

Many people would wonder why someone would go into the wild to escape society. Society contains everything a person could ever want: property, friends, and family. However, for Chris McCandless, the subject of Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, it isn’t enough. Chris McCandless is a free-willed person who loves exploration. On his adventures, he discovers his family’s dark secret that had been kept from him and soon leaves his family because of it. He goes off to explore the continent as he meets new people, overcomes life-threatening challenges, and take on the challenge of finding himself. While society has many problems, such as work, school, and family problems, life on the road allows for people to evade these problems; therefore, people should look to life on the road as a way to distance themselves from society.

Or close” (Strayed 290). One accomplishment that she just grasped is that she no longer feels the need for heroin which is a step in the right direction for beating her addiction. By doing this she is being forced to face her difficulties head on with no escape route. With difficult problems comes a bigger reason for people to want to avoid it. Steven Rocker had played the “dad” role in his family since his parents weren't around he wanted to make something with his life but grew up around violence and drugs, he is finally able to make something from his life and said, “When you decide not to yield to life’s punishing blows, that is when you can make a future for yourself” (Rocker 2). by avoiding one's predicament it makes it harder to have pride when finally overcoming their adversity which is vital in discovering one's self worth. Strayed had been avoiding the fact that she has lost herself and in time it became harder for her to create the determination to go on this journey. It is especially important to notice that one must bring what is already inside of them out instead of trying to find strength from somewhere else. Strayed had finally finished the Pacific Crest Trail and went to a coffee

Comparatively, as Cheryl Strayed gets more immersed in the Pacific Crest Trail and spends more time in the wild, she is able to face her issues head on and find peace. Strayed decided to hike this intense wilderness trail in response to the inability to

For seven of our ten days, we hiked through the mountains of Philmont Scout Ranch, where any signal strength was rare. The fact that I wouldn’t be able to communicate with my family for much of the trip had me nervous to go. When I was there, I still couldn’t shake my anxiety. After a few days, I realized that dwelling on my homesickness was doing nothing but hurting me.

In the first few pages of Wild, it describes the present being of strayed but is quickly followed by flashbacks to her past. These flashbacks are a reminder of how the story has reached the point where it opened, on the Pacific Coast Trail (PCT). This book is more than a memoir recounting just her hike up the western coast; it is a story of her life’s journey. It explains how who she presently is directly determined by who she used to be. Each step on the trail is another step forward in her growth. Her challenges in her youth created background to give her strength and independence on the PCT. Her beat the odds mentality instilled in her during her upbringing gave her the will to successfully finish the hike and more importantly find the

It was the steadfast decision to hike the Pacific Crest Trail that saved Cheryl Strade’s life, getting her back to her feet and rising to the strength she once had. It was the start to her new life, as if she was truly born again.

On March 14, 2014 I, had gone to the Buffalo National River for an overnight solo backpacking excursion. I hiked 7.5 miles, from Steel Creek to Kyle’s Landing, and camped out along the way. What is notable, is that I had never been on a backpacking trip. Nor, had I ever camped out by myself before. It was also the first time that I got the chance to sleep in the Hennessey hammock-tent that was bought years before. The reason this matters, is because previously, I had been unemployed for a year and a half, nearly everything I owned was in the trunk of the car, and I really didn’t have a life that I wanted to go back to. I was also 25lbs greater than I am today, had just quit smoking six months earlier, and was ridiculously out of shape. Nevertheless, I knew deep down in my little soul that if I could survive this trip than I’d have a chance of finding what I was looking for.

Strayed evolved through her chapters, from a sad woman that used drugs and slept with many different men, to a woman that wanted to find a way out, to a woman that pushed through even the toughest obstacles by hiking the PCT, to a woman that made the journey as she met her goal and felt accomplished. She felt joy for once in her life after her mother's passing. She rose from the ashes into a wonderful person at the end. She had an enormous change and it was for the

Scrambling to her feet, Autumn darted into the chilly twilight air and felt the human slipping off of her like a snake shedding a skin. At once the smells hit her, the wet dirt, the bird sitting in a tree 200 yards away, the worker laying in one the tiny blue tents of the camp site. She felt empowered with her senses heightened and she stood majestically for a minute in the middle of the tents, taking in the rich forest smells. Then she loped off into the trees, breaking into a gallop. Strength surged through her muscles and she felt as if she could go anywhere and do anything. She closed her eyes for a moment to feel the wind rustling through her fur and the muddy ground race beneath her feet...and then she hit a

In the book, Wild by Cheryl Strayed, a women is lost is her mental aspect. She has been threw so much that has been frowned upon. The death of her mother started the roller coaster for her. Cheryl suffered greatly from her the incident as it caused her much grief. Cheryl is a strong woman as she admits have wrongs yet unashamed of what she has been through to get to that point.