# data[].attributes.body
In this book, change has been presented in both good and bad ways. Cheryl's life had changed after her mother's death which was obviously a bad change as she got into drugs and reckless sex and diverse. After a while though, the change became positive as Cheryl started to become more aware of herself, more forgiving and accepting. She forgave herself and her mother, she learned how to move forwards without drugs or sex.

# data[].attributes.body
The more people get away from the feeling of grief the more they push away their process to recovery and learning to live and move past the loss
Extended thought: people look for someone to fill their void or fix them after a traumatic event, when in reality only they can help themselves through self love and hard work on themselves. People have to find love and forgiveness and strength from within to be able to move on from a traumatic event and to feel worthy of moving on. People might feel that they deserve or should feel horrible after a death of a close one and it is important to take care of yourself in order to not forget that your feelings

# data[].attributes.body
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WHSFLl7M8IsDfJj7krTDeVraj5-mTPpzvDKcEx-Urf0/edit

# data[].attributes.body
“Hunching in the upright position”- represents her “monster” backpack. The backpack is representing the emotional baggage that Cheryl was carrying through the hike. Metaphor. Hunching has connotations of being crouched, carrying a great weight. The “remotely upright” here, implies positivity. Cheryl is not fully standing, but she is moving towards a place of standing tall and straight. This quote and chapter title, foreshadows Cheryl’s success and stability that she gains slowly as she progresses through the trail. A further connection can be established between the connotations imbedded in this quote and Cheryl position she states at the very opening of her narrative, using an in medias res structure. “The trees were tall, but I was taller, rising above them on a steep mountain slope…” As the prologue is an in medias res structure, we can ascertain that from Chapter three’s ‘Hunching In A Remotely Upright Position’ to her midway point in her hike, that Cheryl has, even at the midway point in her hike, found a way to stand upright”. Despite the weight of her pack “Monster” and the metaphoric weight of her grief...

# data[].attributes.body
“ I could feel myself disintegrating inside myself like a past-bloom flower…. Everytime I moved a muscle, another petal of me blew away.” - The metaphor ‘disintegrating’, implies how broken and lost Cheryl feels, followed by the simile ‘past-bloom flower’, implying Cheryl’s loss of happiness and identity.

# data[].attributes.body
Big Ideas Analysis WTS

“I was ravenous for love.” - Vivid or graphic language. Extremely significant idea in the text. This quote is the first clear example the reader can absorb of Cheryl’s deep sense of longing for love and healthy, safe, human interaction. Moving into extended abstract thinking, this extract of the text here sets up all other actions of Cheryl. Everything Cheryl does is driven by her deep sense of longing and desire for love and genuine human interaction as it is clear Cheryl believes that fulfilling this deep sense of longing with false love and fleeting human interaction with be enough to fill the void that she feels in the wake of her mother’s death. “Ravenous” in this regard connects to her “wild” actions that she engages with prior to her walking the PCT and during moments on the PCT. (Examples can be found to further evidence this with her heroin addiction and unhealthy, frequent relationships with strangers. On the trail, her desire “ravenous” love reveals itself less frequently as the trail is slowly allowing Cheryl to understand and heal her need for such a type of love. However, there are moments that can be identified. Her ‘pleasant time’ on the beach and the times where her stream of consciousness let’s us in to see her thinking ‘wild’ and ravenous’ thoughts).

PG26 - Extremely significant idea in the text.

“My brother driving our mother’s car too fast while U2’s Joshua Tree blasted out the speakers.”

U2’s Joshua Tree contains the song; ‘I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.’

A joshua tree, in the christian tradition, is a unique tree because of it’s shape. Biblically, it serves as a reminder of the story of Joshua reaching his hands in prayer to the heavens.

Symbolically, the Joshua tree is a symbol of promise and the promised land.

In the final section of this chapter, Cheryl references all of the above, as well as, her ravenous desire for love, her suffering, her nothing, and the ten thousand things (also the name of the chapter - extended metaphor).

When you combine each of these significant ideas and portions of writing, what the reader can ascertain is that Cheryl was ravenous for love upon the death of her mother. She was completely lost to herself and the world around her, despite her belief that she was searching and filling her void with fake notions of love. In other words, she ‘still hadn’t found what she was looking for’. Upon the moment of her mother’s cancer diagnosis, Cheryl prays “to God, any god” two distinctive prayers. The first being; “fuck them”, the second being “a year”. This holds ties to her symbolic Joshua tree reference as she follows Joshua’s actions in looking to the heavens in prayer.

All of these things put together, with Cheryl’s added repetition; “I would suffer, I would suffer.” further emphasise her desire and desperate search for something deeper both in herself and in the world. In the final lines of this opening chapter, Cheryl states; “The wanting was a wilderness and I had to find my own way out of the woods. It took me four years, seven months, and three days to do it. I didn’t know where I was going until I got there. It was a place called the Bridge of the Gods.” This concluding quote, shows Cheryl’s acknowledgement of the ravenous desires she had in herself to find something deeper in her being and in the world. The stating of the time it took for Cheryl to finally and wholly fulfill these desires is written in a reflective tone and has metaphoric connection to the title of this chapter; the ten thousand things. The combination of the chapter title and Cheryl’s reflective tone ensure that a connection is established between Cheryl, her journey prior to, on, and after the PCT as symbolic of her found unconditional love and understanding. All of which is brought to fruition upon Cheryl’s reaching her end journey of her trail; the Bridge of the Gods, linking back to the Joshua tree and the symbolic promise it holds as an answer to prayer, as well as, an answer to U2’s song. Cheryl, in the opening Chapter of Wild, foreshadows her ending through these symbolic and metaphoric connections, implying that upon her reaching the Bridge of the Gods, her desire for love and human connection was fulfilled because Cheryl was finally fulfilled herself. She found what she had been looking for.

# data[].attributes.headline
Narrative Techniques (Bobbi's Death) pg20-27

# data[].attributes.subject
Narrative Techniques (Bobbi's Death) pg20-27

# data[].attributes.body
“I was ravenous for love.” - Vivid or graphic language. Cheryl’s description here is so vivid/graphic that it forces the reader to consider the graphic depiction of ravenous love. The connotations for ravenous being; greedy, starved, devouring. All of which associate with and describe an intense hunger and lust for love.

“Nothing did. Nothing would. Nothing could ever bring my mother back or make it okay that she was gone.” Repetition. Emphasises the true depth of loss, grief, pain, hurt, frustration, heartache that Cheryl experienced with the passing of her mum. The repetition of ‘nothing’ reinforces the sense of loss and nothingness that Cheryl is feeling. It creates a picture of her emptiness for readers and builds on the ‘ravenous’ emptiness, desperation and starvation that is predisposed one page prior in the text.

“I would suffer. I would suffer.” Repetition - again reinforcing the same ideas as above. Connects to ‘ravenous’ in the sense that Cheryl is prepared to starve herself and inflict suffering on herself in her grief and torment.

# data[].attributes.body
self forgiveness was a major outcome from the grieving journey
she needed to forgive herself and stop blaming herself for her past mistakes in order to move on with her grief instead of being stuck in a circle of self blame

# data[].attributes.headline
What the text reveals about human nature

# data[].attributes.subject
What the text reveals about human nature

# data[].attributes.body
The greatest growth comes from hardship, not ease. This reflects one of the most important messages stressed by by Strayed in text - grief is a process of healing and of rediscovering yourself after overcoming devastation.

# data[].attributes.body
“I could feel myself disintegrating inside myself like a past-bloom flower in the wind.” - past bloom flower implies death and loss.

# data[].attributes.body
“I was ravenous for love”- represents her desperation for human connection to fill in the void that her mother’s death had left in her.

# data[].attributes.body
https://padlet.com/holly_watson1/pc0dotce2jfu

# data[].attributes.body
The names of the chapters represent what the chapter is going to be talking about.
E.g: "Splitting" - represents how Cheryl has completely broken apart and at her lowest point, as in order for her to realise that she needs a change in her life she needed to completely fall apart.

# data[].attributes.body
Also include Cheryl's backpack "Monster"
The black feather she gets and keeps throughout her journey

# data[].attributes.body
1. Beauty and brutality
2. Stability
3. Self discovery
4. Acceptance

# data[].attributes.body
Her backpack “monster” is considered to be the emotional baggage Cheryl has taken throughout her hike.

# data[].attributes.body
“I was amazed that what I needed to survive could be carried on my back. And, most surprising of all, that I could carry it.” -Monster , made her realise that she does not need things that she used to need to survive (sex and drugs were not needed for her survival back in the real world).

# data[].attributes.body
Intertextuality
Chapter titles
in medias res

# data[].attributes.body
Also include Cheryl's backpack "Monster"
The black feather she gets and keeps throughout her journey

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Submitting results and awarding qualifications

# data[].attributes.body
"my boot was gone"- represents how abrupt and unexpected her mother's death was
"Ten thouthand things' - represents how much her mother had loved her. Cheryl keeps coming back to the memories of her and her mother which shows that she is still not accepting her mother's death
5 part book structure - the parts of grieving journey