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Chris Mccandless Journey

Decent Essays

Struggles - They Come and They Go
The impact both reading and writing have had on me throughout my school years has always been changing. While I have always struggled with reading comprehension, and anxiety in putting my thoughts into words when writing, I have found some relief when I am able to connect to a character in a book, or given freedom to find a topic I am interested in; which makes me excited and passionate about sharing my thoughts through writing.
For some, reading and writing may come easy, but in my case I have always had difficulties. From my earliest years, the ability to read was never a struggle but having the ability to comprehend what I had read when I was finished has always been a weakness of mine. This made it extremely …show more content…

Torbett’s class, the book I most remember reading and having a significant interest in was Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. I believe that this novel caught my attention because the main character, Chris McCandless, was a transcendentalist and I had always been interested in the inner goodness of people, and nature like he was. Sherman Alexie once said, “life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community,” which reminds me of McCandless, in the sense that he was a free-spirited man who did not want to be like the “corrupt” society. Through this character and his journey throughout the book, I was able to really connect to reading in a more personal way, which allowed reading to begin impacting me in a much greater way than before. Another example of finding a more comfortable place in reading through a connection with characters was freshman year when I read the book Hold Still by Nina LaCour. LaCour’s novel was a story about suicide and depression, something my peers and I were experiencing at the time, which made it interesting to read and easier to stay engaged. Therefore, I felt like the author approached suicide and depression with respect and honesty, and that gave me a new insight into mental illness. That new insight had a critical impact on me during the time one of my own family members struggled with mental illness and tragically ended her life. Finding these connections when reading is very important for me and my reading and learning experience. It has helped immensely to find out what it is that makes it easier to not only stay engaged while reading, but to be able to go back and comprehend and discuss what the book was about. During my short high school years, I have found that it is the connection to the character or story that allows reading to impact me in the best way

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