Into the wild by Jon Krakauer book 2nd response/ review

I continue to enjoy reading this book even though many of my group mates begin to lose interest. After reaching to the second paper clip, I thought that Chris (Alex Supertramp) McCandless lived an abnormal life but it seemed reasonable that happened to him. In the beginning of the section, Krakauer reported on a couple of other people that had also ended up similar to Alex; they arrive in Alaska to start a new life in the wild but ends in death.

I believed that Chris had lived an abnormal life because he didn't want to be successful in college but rather explore nature. He ran away from home. He enjoyed being by himself much more that hanging out with the friends that he makes. He donated all his money instead of using it on his trips. On the other hand, I also thought that it was reasonable because he had many family problems. The parents constantly yelled at each other so only his sister was close to him. If his sister wasn't there, then he would be by himself. He was also influenced by a writer named Jack London that expressed the fantasies of living in Alaska.

In our lit circle discussion, we also discussed about what would have happen if he had survived and was rescued by the Alaska state troopers. We said that he could have been traumatized by the course of events and would not go back into the wild again or at least Alaska. We believe that Chris McCandless would have settled down in Carthage and make a family. He would continue to work for Wayne Westernberg in the mills or become someone popular like his father, Walt. He might have become the veteran's adopted son and live with him for the rest of his life.

Throughout this book, our group thought that Alex actually wanted to come back and that his death was something unexpected to him even though he had entered with very little gear. He had promised many things to other people in his letters to them that he would survive and come back to meet them.

Into the wild by Jon Krakauer book response/ review

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is such an amazing book to read for me. It is about a college graduate named Chris McCandless that drove away from his family from Atlanta. When he leaves he changes his name to Alex Supertramp. He traveled all around the United States and even traveled to parts of Mexico along his adventure. Throughout his journey, he encounters many people and made bonds with them. He kept a diary and camera to take pictures of his journey. He enjoyed reading books especially books by Jack London, a writer from Alaska. These fictional stories written by Jack London inspired Chris to go to Alaska where he ends his life. This book is similar to a news report in which the author travels around to question those that knew McCandless and what they had done together.

Many of these stories were interesting but the last one that I have read so far was inspiring to me. It was about a veteran who had lost his family. He began to drink but was able to control himself. He then met Alex, in which he grew attached to him. It states: "McCandless made an indelible impression on a number of people... Nobody, however, was affected more powerfully by his or her brief contact with the boy than Ronald Franz..."(Krakauer 81). When they both met, Franz treated Chris as if he was his own son. He would drive him everywhere he needed to be and when he was hungry, he would buy him food and provide him with provisions as he traveled. Franz was always there. It seemed as if Franz was waiting by the phone all the time to help him out. This story reminded of my friends and family. Whenever I need help, they always seem to be there where I can reach out to them. Franz was like that to McCandless. What stood out from the other stories was that, he actually wanted to adopt McCandless in the end but Alex had said no. That was shocking but it was not surprising. The story builds up to Franz saying that. McCandless was filling up that hole that Franz had have since his family died. When Alex died, he began drinking once more because even a deeper hole was dug out.

Even though, the main plot of the book has already been given. I still wonder what there is next to come. I want to hear further stories about the adventures. I am amazed that McCandless was able to survive such a long time. I wonder why he left his family in the first place and how that hired investigator was not able to find him since he had exposed himself with a job.

Garcia Girls Book Review

Over my two years of reading books at high school, “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” by Julia Alvarez, was similar to the books read in freshman year. It was a hard and amazing book to read. When I was done with the book, I wondered what had inspired Alvarez to write the book. It turns out that the book was similar to an autobiography. 

According to Julia Alvarez’s website, she was born in New York City and was raised in the Dominican Republic after her parents moved back to their homeland. The family stayed there until they escaped to America in 1960 to get away from the deep trouble when both of her parents were involved with a group of people who were plotting against the dictatorship (juliaalvarez.com). Similar to this, in Garcia Girls they were trying to escape from the secret police in the vignette “The Blood of the Conquistadors” in Part III of the book (Alvarez 195-289). The secret police of the Dominican Republic were suspicious of the four daughter’s father, Carlos Garcia and the family believed that it was best for the family to move out of the country with the help of Vic, a CIA member. 

In Alvarez’s life in America, she first had a hard time learning how to speak and write in English. Many bullies teased her because of hard time with English (juliaalvarez.com). She tried very hard to learn English and speak and write the language. She then “discovered the welcoming world of the imagination of books” (juliaalvarez.com). Like her life in reality, the book also shared a same experience of bullying. In the vignette “Trespass” of Garcia Girls, the Garcia Girls had only come to America for one year. The girls are new to the culture and do not really know what it really is. Here, Carla was bullied by boys because she had just begun to hit puberty. The boys teased her about her flat breasts and her hairy legs (Alvarez 153). Unlike Alvarez, Carla escaped the torment by going to boarding school. On the other hand, Alvarez became inspired to write, because of the American experience when she was in school.

The best character that fits with Julia Alvarez in Garcia Girls is actually the Garcia daughters. Each of the four daughters had a special characteristic that was part of Julia Alvarez. Like Carla, Alvarez was humiliated because of her language skills. Like Sandra, Alvarez wanted to fit into American society. Like Yolanda, Alvarez was a heavy reader and writer; mostly on poems. Like Sofia, Alvarez was active in her life, not necessarily sexual. 

“How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” was the first novel that Alvarez had published in 1991 (juliaalvarez.com). She had also written small magazines and entered in writing contests. She wrote the book because it was her life long dream to become a writer. She wanted to get her story out to the world to read.  She later wrote other novels and even a collection of her poems in two books. 

Compared to other books of the same genre, this book stood out amongst them. There were many more dramatic events compared to other books such as “House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros and “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker. Throughout reading Garcia Girls, I wondered how so many horrific events could happen to them. One terrible event led to another.  Within every vignette of the book, there was at least one plot that marked what the section was about. I constantly felt bad for the daughters that they had to endure all of the traumatizing events while they were in the Dominican Republic and in America. Some of these events were the secret police in front of Fifi, the stalker in the green car that followed Carla, the drunken female stranger that kissed the father of the children in front of Sandi, and the nightmares that Yolanda. While reading Garcia Girls, I wondered whether it was bad luck or it was just that Julia Alvarez wanted readers to believe that there are many people that have worse lives than them. 

Compared to the books with the same genre, “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” contained actually less violent activity. Usually in books with the genre of this kind would include some form of rape and/ or murder. The Garcia Girls is much less graphic compared to the others. It may have sex within the story but it is not as if it was violent. It was more of a form of pleasure and the characters were actually willing to have sex with the men. Besides the smuggling out of the country, none of the other acts in the book were partly or even illegal at all. 

Compared to other books, this book was also much more confusing and unusual on the way that it was written. Alvarez wrote the book in reverse chronological order; a way of organization that is rarely ever seen. I later learned that the reason why she had written that was because she was making a cycle in which the reader can read the book continuously and it would still flow. The syntax in which Julia Alvarez writes in is extremely different compared the syntax in which I typically read every day. It occasionally takes me a long time understand what she is talking about. That style of writing was frustrating. In my past blog posts, I discussed how I was not able to understand until the very end and that I may have to repeat sometimes. It took an average of two to three repeats in order to understand it. The book is also much predictable compared to other books. There is a pattern in which the book shows and it is how there is a plot in every section. Except “Snow,” the vignette shows a scene in which there some form of sexual activity or big plot.