Nature Blog Part Two

Describe specific connections between the text you read and your experiences in the many aspects of MSB.

Honors History Blog

1. Discuss your successes as an honors student this past semester.

I think that being in honors has not only helped me push myself to achieve the best that I can in my favorite subject, but it has also helped me out a lot in a sense of writing essays. I’m better at writing theses and I’m better at evaluating and analyzing an essay promt.

2. Discuss what you might have done differently if you do this past semester of honors over again.

Definitely I would make a better effort to get all of my blog assignments done, and time management with my essays and my reading schedule.

3. Discuss your goals for honors in the second semester.

I really want to get a better grade second semester, because I feel like I’m capable of it, and I can, I just forget to turn things in even though I finished them!

4. If you could choose any parts of literature and history for our honors work, what would you pick and why?

I would choose the Holocaust for History, because I am so interested in it, and since it’s a part of my family’s culture, I think it would be extremely helpful to me. Essentially, I think it would help out the common stereotype that only African Americans suffered in the past, because it’s not true. For literature I would really love to read George Orwell, because I feel like the prompt could be really interesting to write about, like the free and wild thinking.

A Walk in the Woods

Hallie Chavis

A Walk in the Woods

Bryson and Katz's relationship changed throughout the book from tolerating each other to forming a tight bond with each other because of multiple things including Katz’s health problems, the trail itself and their prior experiences together. In the over 2,000 mile trail, there are many different things that could go wrong, including bears, deranged moose’s, getting off trail and all together things that could result in an untimely death. All of those components have the potential to strengthen any relationship.

Prominent from the beginning of his introduction to the book, Stephen Katz has had health problems due to his past addictions. Katz is a former drug and alcohol addict and as an after effect of taking contaminated phenylthiamines, he has to have food in his system at all times, or else he will start seizing. It is apparent that his recent way of life has even taken a toll on his endurance. He falls quickly behind Bill Bryson, the narrator and author, by miles at a time. His appetite and hunger for reality becomes quickly identifiable within the story. Bryson doesn’t particularly know how to approach this situation in the beginning, but does start to recognize his health needs, and turns from hesitant about it to understanding, which is one part of the structure of their friendship.

The Appalachian Trail itself is a test of your endurance and your spirits. Aside from the length and the ever-looming dangers, the terrain is rough and rugged. Maps are hardly detailed and descriptive enough, and leave many places out. So often hikers are left by themselves to figure out the actual trail. Throughout all of the experiences on and off the trail, the hiking duo had gone through Hell and back to continue along the trail. Often stopping in small towns, or at rest shelters, the pair grew a stronger bond. The AT was a challenge for both of them, and even mentioned in the beginning of the book, Bryson cheers that he won’t have to hike alone, throughout the book, he becomes more thankful that he didn’t have to do the massive hike solitarily.

Prior to the Appalachian Trail, Katz and Bryson had traveled to Europe together and ended up not getting along so well. Their relationship was overall tumultuous and dysfunctional but the narrator essentially makes you infer that if it hadn’t been so up and down, it wouldn’t have ended up as good as it had. Their friendship was a direct result of the hardships and struggles they had gone through, and reflects that they can achieve anything together.

Bill Bryson and Stephen Katz are polar opposites in the bigger picture of things. They started out being slightly cordial and finished their trek with a better understanding of one another. A Walk in the Woods is a very good representation of how something difficult can change people. The Appalachian Trail is over 2,000 miles long and crosses over multiple states. It tells the story of two men and their journey through this trail, and to finding out who they really are.

A Walk in the Woods Essay Prompt Q

My ideas for writing this essay on prompt 3, "How does the relationship between Bryson and Katz change and develop over the course of the book?" would be answering first off with the thesis, which would be phrase along the lines of "Bryson and Katz's relationship changed from (list only 2 or 3 moods they went through) because of multiple things including (list only a couple reasons, somewhat broad, elaborate more in body paragraphs). Then I would have a separate paragraph for each of the contributing factors of why their moods changed toward each other. Then I would wrap it all up in the conclusion paraphrasing in a new way how they changed and concluding how feelings can change when you hike the Appalachian Trail.