Post 5A

Vocabulary:

[239] gaiety- state of happiness
[233] jaunty- easy and sprightly in manner or bearing

Logical/Emotional Appeals:

1) "What is certain is that Pagluica had just experienced a surface wind speed of 231 miles per hour. Nothing approaching that velocity has ever been recorded elsewhere." (Pg 228) By using such straightforward terms as numbers, Bryson uses logical appeal to make us understand the wind speed on Mount Washington. (logical)

2) "You threw a water bottle? 'It was heavy.' Of course its heavy. Water's always heavy. But it is also kind of vital, wouldn't you say?" (Pg 240). Bryson grabs the reader's emotion and makes one feel helpless as they learn that his friend got rid of his water bottle. (emotional)

3) "Anyway, we did it[...] Another mountain [...] How many do you need to see Bryson?" (Pg 271). As Katz tells Bryson that they did hike the AT although they only hiked about half of it, the reader understands Katz's emotional appeal by realizing that they didn't need to do the whole thing to get something out of it. (emotional)

Quotation:

"We didn't walk 2,200 miles, it's true, but here's the thing: we tried. So Katz was right after all, and I don't care what anybody says. We hiked the Appalachian Trail." (Pg. 274) Bryson explains that he really didn't really need to hike the whole trail to gain respect for the wilderness and for the trail itself.

Emerging Theme:

By the end of Bryson's account of his hike along the AT, the reader comes to the realization, and so does Bill, that he only hiked under half of the whole trail. Bryson ends his story by saying that although he only hiked 800 of the 2,200 miles, he still considers himself as someone who hiked it. This causes the final theme in the memoir, that to learn from an experience or journey, you don't have to do the whole thing to still get something out of it.

Post 5B

After finishing Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, I learned a lot which I did not expect to, and read a very unexpected outcome. While reading the first section of the memoir, I expected that Bryson would be hiking the whole trail. I almost expected it of him since he was writing a book about it. As the story went on, I came to a several places where Bill and Katz just decide to take a taxi or hitchhike to the nearest motel, and then skip a large portion of the trail. I later decided that one really cant expect everyone to finish the whole trail, and realized how amazing and tenacious the people are who do finish the whole trail in one long hike. In the conclusion, Bryson explains how he and Katz only hiked about 870 miles of the A.T, while the whole trail is well over 2200. But, although, he didn't finish the whole thing, he still got a great outcome, and one very similar to someone who did finish. He gained a new respect for the wilderness, and "discovered an America that millions of people scarcely know exists." (Pg. 274)

Post 4A

Vocabulary:

[181] fastidiously- hard to please
[180] anthracite- a mineral coal containing little of the volatile hydrocarbons (hard carbon)

Logical/Emotional Appeals:

1) "[...] not a pleasant experience with 50 pounds of momentum on your back. Lots of people leave Pennsylvania limping and bruised" (pg. 173). This emotional appeal fills the reader with anxiety, apprehension and even pity for what Bryson is preparing to traverse. (emotional)

2) "A single contour line was interrupted by a printed number in microscopic type. The number said either '1800' or '1200'" (pg. 174). By using numbers to show the poor construction of a map, Bryson uses logical objects to tell us how useless the Appalachian maps can be. (logical)

3) "And did they [glaciers] did start to advance again, what exactly would we do? Blast them with TNT or maybe nuclear warheads? [...] The quake devastated 24,000 square miles of wilderness, much of it glaciated. And what effect did this have on Alaska's glaciers? None" (Pg. 197). By saying this, Bryson makes the reader know how unchangeable and inevitably wilderness changes like glacier movement are. (emotional)

Quote:
"the Appalachians were pushed up (like a rucked carpet, as the analogy nearly always has it)" (Pg. 191) This is one of the many analogies Bryson uses in his memoir. He uses analogies a lot, so I decided to point that out.

Emerging Theme:
A new theme has emerged. As Bryson has stated so many times in his memoir, the maps used on the Appalachian Trail are hard to read, and sometimes not useful at all. This leads to a theme that if someone really wants to accomplish something, they may not be able to rely on "maps" left behind from someone else's "journey." They've got to do it themselves instead of used provided information.

Post 4B

I included in my previous post some interpreatations about Americans having sedentary lifestyles. It has become a larger part of the memoir, and I think it needs to be talked about again. Bryson expressed that most Americans walk less in one day than an Appalachian hiker does in twenty minutes. WOW!, with a gaping mouth was my expression when I read this. Obviously Americans rely much on their vehicles, and have remote controls for just about everything, but could their total movement in leg strides be reduced to under a mile? I thought about it for a while and decided that a "blue-collar" worker, like a telemarketer might wake up, walk to the shower, then to the kitchen, and then to their car. After that, they find the closest parking available, sit in a chair for hours on end, only to get back in their car, pick up some fast food, and sit back to watch some TV. After thinking about it, I thought, "Yeah that adds up to about a mile." Although Americans should obviously be more active, making the comparison to an avid hiker is a little to extreme. I think it would be much more feasible and acceptable to run or even walk for twenty minutes in a day. Although I am on the cross-country team, and am a hiker, I don't think many Americans can or want to do such extreme exercise. A little exercise every day is better that none.

Post 3A

Vocabulary-
[pg. 147] flora: the plants of a particular region.
[pg. 147] rakish: having an appearance suggesting speed.

Logical/Emotional Appeals-
1) "Now here's a thought to consider. Every twenty minutes on the Appalachian Trail, Katz and I walked farther than the average american walks in a week. Fir 93 percent of all trips outside home, for whatever distance or whatever purpose, Americans get in a car." (128) This section makes the reader feel shameful in his/her sedentary lifestyle and embarassed by the lazyness of the common American. (emotional appeal)

2) "Look at the map and then look at the part we've walked. [...] Jesus. [...] We've done nothing." (105) This realization made by Bryson fills the reader with a feeling of hopelessness. Bill and Katz learn that their months of hiking had only brought them through an eighth of the trail. (emotional appeal)

3) "Here the business was close and on top of you: gas stations, Wal-marts, Kmarts [...] Even Katz was unnerved by it. 'Jeez, its ugly." (115) As Katz and Bryson emerge from the trail, even the reader realizes that the industrialization and pollution of America has left it very ugly.

Quote-
"As we lay there propped against our packs, a tourist in an unfortunate straw hat, clutching an ice cream, came up and looked us over in a friendly manner. 'So you fellas hiking?' [...] And you carry those packs? [...] Eight miles! Lord." (151) This quote also expresses the sedentary lifestyles of Americans, and how they are amazed at someone who hikes 15-20 miles every day.

Emerging theme-
A new them has emerged in the middle of the memoir. Bryson has begun to talk much more about how Americans don't live active lifestyles and sit around all day. Like the people who were amazed at seeing hikers, most people don't consider running, or even walking a part of their dayly schedule. Bryson is trying to tell the reader this.

Post 3B

In the beginning of Bill Bryson's memoir on hiking the Appalachian Trail, I found many similarities between my encounters on the trail and his. Like his story, many of the shelters were overcrowded and infested with rodents. When I was on the trail, we simply slept in our tents next to the shelter rather than submitting ourselves and our food to the rats. Also, most places on the trail were damp and cold. Clearly we hiked the southern section of the trail at the same. Since I only hiked the Blue Ridge Mountains, the southern most section of the AT, and only for a short period of time, Bryson also has encounters which do not relate to my own. I was lucky enough to never hear a bear rummage through my pack in the middle of the night, while Bill hints that such a thing happened to him, although it was in the middle of the night and he had no way to prove it. Also, I never had the opportunity to hike off the trail to a nearby town. Bill expresses the value of these usually decrepit motels and diners as a haven off the trail to recover for a night. By reading Bill's journal on his expedition through the Appalachian trail, I have discovered a rejuvenated desire to hike the whole trail rather than the small part I did with my Boy Scout Troop.

Post 2B

Dear Bill,
I am fascinated by your writing style. Your mostly cynical explanations and opinions of other people and groups adds to the atmosphere in the memoir. Your sarcasm helps me understand how you feel against certain administrations such as the United States Park service. You express this by saying, "Today the National Park Service employs a more casual approach to endangered wildlife: neglect. It spends almost nothing- less than three percent of its budget- on any research type, [...]" (pp. 92-93) This mood towards the administration also exists in your apparent mood on the trail. Being a hiker, I can understand why someone would be in a "pissy" mood while hiking through inches of mud and slippery rock. Although some would say this mood is pessimistic, I find it optimistic myself. Your expression of the trail while being a relatively untrained and middle aged hiker makes me feel that anyone can do it if they train enough. I think someone who feels too weak to even attempt at such a feat like hiking the AT should read your book to gain some optimism themself.
A Fellow Hiker,
Ken H.

Post 2A

Vocabulary:
indubitably: undeniable, certain (94)
demonstrably: capable of being demonstrated (94)

Appeals:
"Ask a park official what they are doing about it and he will say, 'We are monitoring the situation closely.' For this, read: 'We are waiting for them to die'" (pg. 93). ---- Bryson is grabbing the sympathy and attention of the reader by making them aware of the situation of America's wildlife, and then overexaggerates the problem. (emotional appeal)

"[...] the unusual liveliness of its resident mice and even rats" (pg. 95) ---- By saying resident, Bryson expresses the rodents as if they are human refugees taking a shelter. (emotional appeal)

"[...] a dinner of stew and dumplings, corn bread, and oh, let us say, peach cobbler" (pg. 98) ---- Bryson entices the reader, who has entered the mindset of having to good food on the trail. This makes the reader sympathize for Bryson's lack of good food. (emotional appeal)

Quote:
"I knew with a sinking heart that we were going to talk equipmentI could just see it coming. I hate talking equipment" (pg. 98) ---- This excerpt explains a hiker's desire to see company while on the trail, but when the company is there, they have nothing to talk about.

Emerging Theme:
A theme emerges in Bryson's memoir as the two begin their hike over the AT. The amount of strenuous activity they put into climbing the trail induces irrational behaviors, thoughts, and actions.