English Portfolio

I think that the strongest paper that I will include in my portfolio would be my research paper, which is about the movie Cinderella. It demonstrates my best work, because I spent a lot of time in researching and backing up my argument with evidence, and tying in that evidence to the purpose. I put the most time into the research paper and used the sources I found to my advantage. The weaknesses within the paper, would be that I need to put more of what I believe about the topic and narrow it down to just one topic. For example, I discussed three different effects of Cinderella on children, like gender roles, self esteem and relationships. To make my paper better I need to focus on just one of those things.

The paper that needs/needed to be edited the most was my close read McCandless essay. I already edited and changed the majority of the paper. What I focused on editing the most was incorporating the epigraphs and McCandless story into an argument and purpose. I think now my best area of the paper would be my argument, and how I used the epigraphs to support it. I still need to edit one more epigraph, the one about truth and sincerity and tie it into my argument, showing its significance not only on McCandless but the rest of society.

If Chris had lived

I think had Chris McCandless made it out of the wild alive, not too many of his actions and thinking about life would have changed. I think he would probably would view the concept of death differently, and probably appreciate life a lot more, similar to such changes Jon Krakauer made in his thinking after making it out alive through his adventure of climbing. I don't think Chris would contact his father, maybe he would have sent a postcard to his sister and mother, but he probably would not return home. If he did make it out alive, I could see him settling somewhere rural, outside of where most of society lives their lives. From the book, you see the places he decided to set up camp and stay for different periods of time, this is where I can see Chris fitting in. I think that McCandless' appreciation and love for nature, would not have changed. He would probably get a job, just considering the fact that if he had lived, he would have been very close to starvation, and probably needed food and new clothes. To find a job, he probably would contact the few people he let into his life on his journey, the ones that he wrote letters to. It is difficult to say exactly, what Chris might have done had he survived because his story already is so unpredictable.

Into the Wild Ch. 17 and 18

My overall view of Chris McCandless has only changed in the way that I feel even stronger about my opinion in the first place that McCandless was unique and not an arrogant, crazy fool for venturing into the wild so unprepared. I think that Krakauer's approach in the last two chapters was particularly effective. By basically addressing the naysayer over and over, and each time creating arguments that effectively, for some people, eliminate this point of view are extremely persuading. Although Krakauer is basically defending Chris repeatedly throughout the last two chapters, I think this is needed, because he really didn't really state his full opinion about Chris until the end. The ending was the portion of the novel, that Krakauer used to give his final opinion about Chris and his reasoning for his journey into the wild. This approach makes these chapters much more important and probably persuaded a lot more readers to adapt to Krakauer's opinion. Maybe even for some these chapters changed their mind's about Chris, which I think overall was Krakauer's purpose for writing this novel.