Analysis of Wild by Chery

Rishabh Gupta

English 1B

Prof. Jacqlyn Vetter

29th November, 2015

Critical Literacy Analysis

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

Wild by Cheryl Strayed is a journey that Cheryl Strayed took to define her life and how much it is hers and how much it depend of fate to kick and throw her around. In this journey Strayed found herself alone for the first time. She realized she is tired of being miserable of her habits and sick of the depression caused by her families drifting and her mother’s death. She took the journey of PCT trail to recall that her life is meant to be lived by her with full command and not miseries, and habits. By the end of her journey, she understood the fact of life and started taking things more humbly. Just like in the end she took each mile towards her destination realizing each step of her life. This journey of self-discovery started with grief of her mother followed by a series of mistakes and the ways she and her family broke and drifted apart. Wild is a novel about Cheryl Strayed escaping her regular lifestyle to get over the depression. The main purpose for her going into the wild was to take control of her life and get over the grief of her mother’s death and find herself.

For Strayed, her journey started long before she actually thought of undertaking the trail. According to her, the preparation for this journey started when she was in the Mayo clinic and realized that her mother, Bobbi, has last stage lung cancer and has only one year. That moment she felt that the most unfair thing has happened in the world. Her affection towards her mother took her to great depths of thoughts and judgments about how unfair it is for her mother to die. She recalled that her mother rarely eats non veg by using the term vegetarian-ish. Her mother, who was 45 years old and eats garlic when she has cold. A person who uses flowers instead of insecticides to keep away flies and insects. For Cheryl, her mother having lung cancer didn’t make any sense. She and Bobbi...