The setting of into the wild

This book follows the travels of Chris McCandless mostly in the western portion of the United States, as well as in Alaska, Mexico, and Virginia. The events in the book span various years but most important events take place in the 1980s and 1990s.

To know more about Alaska and its location, it is the largest state of the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait.

The info about the location from wikipedia

How is Mccandless's life change ?

The purpose of Jon Krakauer’s book is to address the matter of young Mccandless and his odd seclusion from society and a lifestyle that was all most people could ask for. McCandless always had privileges that few can claim. McCandless was just entering society, having graduated from Emory University, with more than $25,000 in savings and a family that loved him. The question of why he would completely break contact with all that he knew, give away everything he owned, and disappear to the Alaskan wilderness as a homeless man for two years drives Krakauer’s work.

I think the most important event that change the story and change Mccandless’s life is when he decided to leave every things behind him, his family, the comfort and money to be a loan only with himself, and from this point the plot has changed.

Third person narrative technique in into the wild.

Third person narrative technique can show a writer’s mastery of narrative style. It can also be viewed as a more formal style of writing than first person or second person narrative, which makes it a good choice for authors to use in their writing.

If a writer wants to come across as relating to readers, he or she might prefer to use second person narrative, which reads as though the author is speaking directly to the audience. But in fiction writing, most novels adopt first person or third person points of views.

As we read in into the wild Jon Krakauer in some times he uses a third person narrative technique to show the flexibility of using more than kind of narrative(first or second person) without confusing the reader.

Forgiveness is one the many other themes in into the wild

Forgiveness, and the danger inherent in the inability to forgive, are central themes in Into the Wild. Chris Mccandless is shown to be a very kind person, who is won’t to ignore the fact that so many people are starving or hungry around him, and feels a personal responsibility to help them. Yet his actions are ultimately selfish, and do great harm to those who love him most.

There is certainly more behind his along trip than just anger at his parents, but his resentment of them does spread into the rest of his life, and seems to be closely connected to how isolated he becomes at Emory university. This adds to his revulsion against society generally, which is clearly a driving factor in his deciding to go into the wilderness. One is left to wonder if, had Mccandless found a way to forgive his parents for their shortcomings, he would not have felt the need to go to such extreme lengths in his quest for answers.

Mccandless

According to his family and his friends at the university, Mccandless was 22 year old at the time of his disappearance. He was athletic, bright, and a natural born entrepreneur, excelling at so many things that he tended to be overconfident. A double major with above average grades, he led a life of comparable comfort and good fortune. He worked on the student newspaper at Emory University and, like many other people in the same age, thought about injustice in the world around him. He seemed to take life more seriously than many friends. However, refusing to join a fraternity and declaring that, according to his principles, he would no longer give or accept gifts. He appeared, on balance, to be an affable and intense friend according to all who met him. While appearing to be content with his home life, Mccandless revealed to a few trusted people a fierce disdain and bitterness toward his parents, whom he saw as unfairly tyrannical.

Leo Tolstoy

Novels and Fictional Works

Tolstoy is one of the giants of Russian literature. His most famous works include the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina and novellas such as Hadji Murad and The Death of Ivan Ilyich.


His contemporaries paid him lofty tributes. Dostoevsky thought him the greatest of all living novelists, while Flaubert exclaimed, "What an artist and what a psychologist!". Chekhov, who often visited Tolstoy at his country estate, wrote, "When literature possesses a Tolstoy, it is easy and pleasant to be a writer; even when you know you have achieved nothing yourself and are still achieving nothing, this is not as terrible as it might otherwise be, because Tolstoy achieves for everyone. What he does serves to justify all the hopes and aspirations invested in literature."


Later critics and novelists continue to bear testament to Tolstoy's art. Virginia Woolf declared him the greatest of all novelists. James Joyce noted that, "He is never dull, never stupid, never tired, never pedantic, never theatrical!". Thomas Mann wrote of Tolstoy's seemingly guileless artistry: "Seldom did art work so much like nature". Such sentiments were shared by the likes of Proust, Faulkner and Nabokov. The latter heaped superlatives upon The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Anna Karenina; he questioned, however, the reputation of War and Peace, and sharply criticized Resurrection and The Kreutzer Sonata.





Tolstoy's earliest works, the autobiographical novels Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth (1852–1856), tell of a rich landowner's son and his slow realization of the chasm between himself and his peasants. Though he later rejected them as sentimental, a great deal of Tolstoy's own life is revealed. They retain their relevance as accounts of the universal story of growing up.


Tolstoy served as a second lieutenant in an artillery regiment during the Crimean War, recounted in his Sevastapol Sketches. His experiences in battle helped stir his subsequent pacifism and gave him material for realistic depiction of war's horrors in his later work.

His fiction consistently attempts to convey realistically the Russian society in which he lived.The Cossacks (1863) describes the Cossack life and people through a story of a Russian aristocrat in love with a Cossack girl. Anna Karenina (1877) tells parallel stories of an adulterous woman trapped by the conventions and falsities of society and of a philosophical landowner (much like Tolstoy), who works alongside the peasants in the fields and seeks to reform their lives.


Tolstoy not only drew from his experience of life but created characters in his own image, such as Pierre Bezukhov and Prince Andrei in War and Peace, Levin in Anna Karenina and to some extent, Prince Nekhlyudov in Resurrection.



War and Peace is generally thought to be one of the greatest novels ever written, remarkable for its breadth and unity. Its vast canvas includes 580 characters, many historical, others fictional. The story moves from family life to the headquarters of Napoleon, from the court of Alexander I of Russia to the battlefields of Austerlitz and Borodino. Tolstoy's original idea for the novel was to investigate the causes of the Decembrist revolt, to which it refers only in the last chapters, from which can be deduced that Andrei Bolkonski's son will become one of the Decembrists. The novel explores Tolstoy's theory of history, and in particular the insignificance of individuals such as Napoleon and Alexander. Somewhat surprisingly, Tolstoy did not consider War and Peace to be a novel (nor did he consider many of the great Russian fictions written at that time to be novels). This view becomes less surprising if one considers that Tolstoy was a novelist of the realist school who considered the novel to be a framework for the examination of social and political issues in nineteenth-century life.War and Peace (which is to Tolstoy really an epic in prose) therefore did not qualify. Tolstoy thought that Anna Karenina was his first true novel.


After Anna Karenina, Tolstoy concentrated on Christian themes, and his later novels such as The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886) and What Is to Be Done? develop a radical anarcho-pacifist Christian philosophy which led to his excommunication from the Russian Orthodox Church in 1901.





For all the praise showered on Anna Karenina and War and Peace, Tolstoy rejected the two works later in his life as something not as true of reality. Such an argument is supported in The Death of Ivan Ilyich, whose main character continually battles with his family and servants, demanding honesty above the water and food needed to sustain him.

Wikipedia.org

Ahmed and Raed Families....

This is a short story about two families, one of them applied that advices and the other didn’t.

Ahmed and his family have just come from his journey and they are happy and excited, because their trip was awesome.

When Raed's fiancée knew what Ahmed and his family and how they spent a great time in the weekend, she asked Raed to go somewhere next weekend.

Then Raed decide to go to where Ahmed went but he didn't tell her wife where Ahmed went because if she knows that she won't go there, she want to be better than them.

When they arrived to Brighton and start looking for a hotel, they couldn't find a good place to live in, because they didn't do that before they came. Also, Raed missed his ID and he faced many problems with the hotel and other places they tried to visit.

Finally, they got back to their house and they wouldn't do it again. They can avoid all of that just by preparing themselves and what are they going to.

White Fang by Jack London (summary)

The novel opens as two men, Bill and Henry, carry the dead body of Lord Albert south to be buried. Over the course of the journey, their dog sled is pursued by a hungry pack of wolves. The sled dogs are picked off one by one as they try to join the pack. The dogs are lured by the she-wolf running with the pack, who is part dog herself and knows how to communicate with them. Soon, Bill is eaten by the pack. Just as Henry is about to be eaten by the wolves, he is rescued by soldiers who are looking for Lord Albert.

The wolf pack runs away and travels together. The she-wolf is courted by several other members of the pack. A wolf named One Eye finally succeeds, and they go off to hunt together. The she-wolf becomes pregnant, and they find a cave where she bears her young. There is a famine, and all of her litter die of starvation except for one cub, a little gray wolf. One Eye does not return from his hunting.

One day the cub and she-wolf encounter Indians. One of them calls to the she-wolf by a strange name: Kiche. They name the cub White Fang. Kiche and White Fang become the dogs of one Indian named Gray Beaver. When they reach the Indian camp, White Fang is tormented by an older puppy named Lip-lip. White Fang learns that Gray Beaver is his master, and that he can never bite Gray Beaver. He is abused by all the dogs in the Indian camp, and becomes vicious and ferocious.

White Fang is put on the sled team of Gray Beaver's son, Mit-sah. After they return to the camp, famine strikes again, and White Fang goes into the Wild to live. When the famine passes, he returns to Gray Beaver and travels with him to Fort Yukon, where Gray Beaver becomes addicted to whiskey. He sells White Fang to Beauty Smith, who keeps him caged and forces him to fight other dogs. He becomes a killer. He wins every fight until he comes up against Cherokee, a mastiff. Cherokee's jaws clamp down on his throat and he can't escape. Weedon Scott, a stranger visiting the area, rescues him.

Weedon Scott and his friend Matt realize how intelligent White Fang is and try to tame him, but are unsuccessful at first. Scott shows White Fang that he will not be cruel. White Fang begins to love Scott, and when Scott has to go back to his home in California, White Fang forces Scott to take him along.

White Fang is out of place in California, and is not entirely trusted by the Scott family. One of Scott's dogs, Collie, particularly distrusts him. However, White Fang dramatically proves himself. First, White Fang saves Scott by getting help when Scott falls off his horse and breaks his leg. Then, he earns the title "Blessed Wolf" by killing an escaped convict who was intent on murdering Weedon Scott's father.

In this Post I am going to share with you some advice that I read on many web sites a bout the trips, how to make it easier and safer. Some times a silly mistake can make our nice journey very bad, and we wouldn't do it again.

Here are some advice about what you should do Before you go, and I hope later I can collect more and post them here.

Safety begins when you pack. To help avoid becoming a target, do not dress in a way that could mark you as an affluent tourist. Expensive-looking jewelry, for instance, can draw the wrong attention.

Always try to travel light. You can move more quickly and will be more likely to have a free hand. You will also be less tired and less likely to set your luggage down, leaving it unattended.

Carry the minimum number of valuables, and plan places to conceal them. Your passport, cash and credit cards are most secure when locked in a hotel safe. When you have to carry them on your person, you may wish to put them each in a different place rather than all in one wallet or pouch. Avoid handbags, fanny packs and outside pockets that are easy targets for thieves. Inside pockets and a sturdy shoulder bag with the strap worn across your chest are somewhat safer. One of the safest places to carry valuables is in a pouch or money belt worn under your clothing.

If you wear glasses, pack an extra pair. Pack them and any medicines you need in your carry-on luggage.

To avoid problems when passing through customs, keep medicines in their original, labeled containers. Bring copies of your prescriptions and the generic names for the drugs. If a medication is unusual or contains narcotics, carry a letter from your doctor attesting to your need to take the drug. If you have any doubt about the legality of carrying a certain drug into a country, consult the embassy or consulate of that country before you travel.

Bring travelers’ checks and one or two major credit cards instead of cash.

Pack an extra set of passport photos along with a photocopy of your passport’s information page to make replacement of your passport easier in the event it is lost or stolen.

Put your name, address and telephone numbers inside and outside of each piece of luggage. Use covered luggage tags to avoid casual observation of your identity or nationality. If possible, lock your luggage.

For more advises :
http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/safety/safety_1747.html

A day In Birmingham

It was a Saturday morning, and we have to catch the train at 10:30 as we decided(me and my friends). actually, I went their to buy Iphone from Apple store but told me there is a long queue for the Iphone, and they advised me to go early.

The train 10:30 we lost it, and my friends still at home, the next train will be at 11:00 so no chance to lose it. Finally, we caught it.

When we arrived Birmingham I went to Apple store and the queue wasn't too long, 5 people

in front of me left the queue (I hope all of them leave the queue ) I said.

that day, I was very lucky, no long queue (my friends spent about 5 hours )and it was the first time to wait in the queue and you can take the mobile with you, so before that it was you to wait just to book your Iphone .

After I bought my lovely mobile we visited the Birmingham castle, there was a debate between Muslims and christians. Unfortunately, at the end of the debate, some guys didn't like what he said about Islam , so they started fighting with the audiences .

We are hungry, tired, pleas we need a food...... we said that.

some one told us about Yemeni restaurant near to us . let's go their ......

In the restaurant I felt like I'm in my country people , food, decoration, every thing.

That was our trip to Birmingham I hope you like what I wrote about it.

Into The Wild ...

In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild.

Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir. In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his cash. He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and , unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented. Craving a blank spot on the map, McCandless simply threw the maps away. Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished into the wild.

Jon Krakauer constructs a clarifying prism through which he reassembles the disquieting facts of McCandless's short life. Admitting an interest that borders on obsession, he searches for the clues to the dries and desires that propelled McCandless. Digging deeply, he takes an inherently compelling mystery and unravels the larger riddles it holds: the profound pull of the American wilderness on our imagination; the allure of high-risk activities to young men of a certain cast of mind; the complex, charged bond between fathers and sons.

When McCandless's innocent mistakes turn out to be irreversible and fatal, he becomes the stuff of tabloid headlines and is dismissed for his naiveté, pretensions, and hubris. He is said to have had a death wish but wanting to die is a very different thing from being compelled to look over the edge. Krakauer brings McCandless's uncompromising pilgrimage out of the shadows, and the peril, adversity , and renunciation sought by this enigmatic young man are illuminated with a rare understanding--and not an ounce of sentimentality. Mesmerizing, heartbreaking, Into the Wild is a tour de force. The power and luminosity of Jon Krakauer's storytelling blaze through every page.

Changes In Ramadan

In this post I am going to write about how people change their life style in Ramadan, particularly in Saudi Arabia. If any one live their he/she will notes that changes and how people were before Ramadan, and how are they in Ramadan.

There are many things now become such customs or traditions for example:

- Shopping malls open at 5pm -2am and in the last 10 days of Ramadan until 4am!

- The malls and shops, start to change their decoration, red, white, and green and other traditional colours.

- People start working and students also go to schools quite late with shorter days, usually 10am to 3pm

- Restaurants close during the whole day and start working after al Asr prayer (late afternoon).

- Mosques, make a free Iftar meal every night for 30 days, sponsored by volunteers and home-made food and drinks. People usually bring lots of food at Magrib prayer to have their breakfast (first meal after fasting) together.

- Mosques do Taraweeh prayer after Isha (the usual evening prayer)at 9 pm -10:30pm. In the last 10 days, there will be another prayer which is Tahajud usually starts at 12:30am until 3am.

- People prepare special food and drinks only for Ramadan, including Sambosa, Dates and Dairy, Cereal soup, Foul, and lots of desserts like Toromba, basboosa and mehallabiyya and sobia .

Foul.....

Sobia >>> I miss u

Toromba (Bla7 alsham)

For people they think about diet or losing their wight, I don't think Ramadan will be a good month to do that .

Ramadan Kareem

It is more than a book

in the outback of Australia, Robyn travels with four camels and a dog, she wants to experience the wilderness there and show us the beauty of the desert.

But it is a desert!!!!

I know you would say that, but if you read the book, you will see that Robyn describes the landscape there in a creative way.

Moreover, Robyn meets the aborigines there and some of them accompany her for short period of time. So you will see how they traveled together, coping with the harsh environment there

I have seen many comments on the internet saying that why would I read a book about a woman traveling alone in a desert?!

So, I wanted to show you it is not like that. There is something more than that, which I mentioned some of it above.

Road Trips

Last class, we had list of themes to research about them. I chose road trips theme for many reasons, for example you dont't have to worry about the time or when you must go like traveling by plain, also you can cry whatever you want don't care about how many luggage you should take with you. some times road trips can be more enjoyable especially for a long trip , because during your trip you will cross many villages, cities, and some times countries, so all of these considered like different cultures, for me this better than travelling by plains for example .

Here are some books about Raod Trips theme if you are intrested in this kind of traveling, these books will be very helpful for you :

1-Through Painted Deserts, by Donald Miller. This is one I actually found in the "Christian Non-Fiction" section, which can be unfair. There's no question Miller is a Christian, but he's a writer first and foremost, he's not preachy, and his questioning of his own faith, of reasons for existence, of who and what he is or is becoming is reminiscent of the fantastic soul searching that came from the travel writing of the Beat generation. Miller's account of his trip is great, going through the moments of beauty, the necessity of good road trip music, and admitting his moments of embarrassment and fear as freely as any other part of his journey.

2- A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins. This is one of the all time modern classics in travel literature, as Peter Jenkins recalls the story of his 1973-1975 walk from New York to New Orleans. For many readers, this remains a rare travel book that grips you and keeps you. Known as a travel writer who will walk anywhere, including Alaska and China, Peter Jenkins says, "I started out searching for myself and my country and found both." That sums up what travel writing should be all about.

3-Wanderlust: Real-Life Tales of Adventures and Romance by Pico Iyer. Probably one of the best travel writing collections released in recent memory, this collection is under the name Pico Iyer, who helped to edit this collection. These stories come from the "Wanderlust" section of Salon.com and create a varied tapestry of travel writing that will keep the reader flipping from one writer to another.

4-The Lost Continent, by Bill Bryson. There are tons of fantastic Bill Bryson books out there, and any one of them could hold this spot here. "The Lost Continent" is Bryson's trip across America, visiting some common places (the grand canyon), but also exploring the back roads and looking for that familiarity that helps him remember home.

If you want more books about Road Trips you can visit this web site: http://www.squidoo.com/travel-writing-novels

Public Transport

I like the public transport system in the UK, and how it makes a life very easy, you can go where ever you want.. actually, we face very big problems with traffic jam, so if we apply this system in our country, every thing will be more than OK J.



Some times I say if I have my owen car I can go any time and I don't need to wait for a bus or train, but when I ask people here which they prefer? They told me using the public transport is better because the petrol here is very expensive and also taxes for roads, they can't use their private cars.





I have faced many problems with using buss e.g. when I was in GE1 and 2 I always came late the bus come after the time I have never seen how the the time can stop? just with bus 30 you can see that, to explain that, the screen in the bus stop show the bus is coming after 3 mins and I waited more than 7 mins, (3 mins still in the screen L ).







Now I will tell you some stories about me or my friends with buss.
When we came here for a first time and we wanted to go to the school in city center, then my friend asked the driver to stop in front of the CELE, he thought the bus can stop any where he wants, but the driver told him he can't stop here.



Have you tried to fall in the bus? I hope no, but this happened for many of us, especially when the wether is raining. I saw a lady crying many bags when she want to get off she fell and her stuff scattered, and passengers started to collect her things.

I am here.......!!

Jeddah at night

Before I got the scholarship from the university I was thinking of studying in the UK during the summer holiday but actually it's very expensive and the benefit that I would get would not be what I aspire for.

London

My father's friend living in London with his family and when my dad talked about him I was always amazed! how can he live their ? He must have a good language to be able to live in that country and many questions crossed my mind. I never thought I will be here and live one year.

King Abdul aziz university

When I saw the ad in the department about the scholarship to study in the UK I gave them the all documents they needed and I waited for the acceptance, I said I know I'm unlucky this is not for me, but actually it was my name.

After that, I started asking the students who are studying in the UK to get their experiences but they made me worried because many of them were pessimistic.

Last night before coming here.....

I felt bad and there was something wrong with me, my dad said don't worry that because you are thinking about your traveling, but in the morning I got worst and I went to the hospital they gave me the medicines that i needed, it was less than 2 hours before the departure .

Actually it was the most difficult moment that when i travelled and I didn't see my family because I went from the hospital to the airport directly.

Finally …….here I am ......

Homesickness .....

in this post I would like to write about my feeling after I have spent about 9 months in the UK and now I am preparing my self to go back to my home, to be honest I hope to go back to my country right now.

Now i will tell you about how was my feeling when I came to the UK for the first time. I was very excited; I think because it's a new experience and it's a new place for me so I feel that.

After three months in the Uk ...

I started thinking about my family , friends , home and every thing else .It was the first time to be homesick. I have read a lot about that feeling but I never felt it before. So, I decided to go back in Christmas holiday. I know it's early, it had been just 3 months but I couldn't spend anymore time here.

After I got back here I felt better, then I knew it was a good decision.

Now, after about 8 months ...

I don't know how can I tell you about my feelings. Sometimes I want to leave and go to my country, but when I remember my friends , people I have met, also that places I spent a lot of time in.

It's hard to leave it or forget it. When I said I want to go back home not because I hate this country or I don't like it but actually I miss my family and friends and now Ramadan is coming so I couldn't imagine I will fast outside of my country, I will be very sad and I will miss what what muslims usually do in this month not just religious activities also some nice customs we usually do it in Ramadan .

I am tring to control my self ..

Do you know what I'm thinking about right now ?

I want to go back home and spend 2 weeks there .

Is it OK Samantha??

Hi i'm Mohammed and i'm 22 .

i love to travel and and explore other culture, for me it is like an adventure. I also like to meet new friends during the trip, it is a nice experience.
i believe that we are going to live once so let us live it happy and to the extreme.

Jeddah skyline

i am going to write about where i live and my best city which is Jeddah. Although, I was born in Makkah and I spent about 10 years before we moved to live in jeddah but I always think Jeddah is my hometown and I will spend hall my life in it. Now I will try to give some information about Jeddah .

first of all lets see where is it...

Jeddah is located on the coast of the Red Sea . It is the largest sea port on the Red Sea, and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital city, Riyadh. The population of the city is about 5 million. It is considered the commercial capital of Saudi Arabia.

The location of Jeddah on the map

Now .. lets have a look on why Jeddah attracts people ?

1- Jeddah Fountain : (wikipedia.com) King Fahd's Fountain, also known as the Jeddah Fountain, is the tallest water fountain in the world. located in the coast of Jeddah, west coast of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The fountain jets water 312 metres (1,024 ft) above the Red Sea. . The fountain is visible throughout the entire vicinity of Jeddah. The water it ejects can reach a speed of 375 kilometres (233 mi) per hour with a weight exceeding 18 tons. . It was constructed between 1980 and 1983 and began operating in 1985. The fountain uses saltwater taken from the Red Sea instead of freshwater. It uses over 500 spotlights to illuminate the fountain at night.

Jeddah Fountain at sunset

At night

2- Al Balad: it is a historical area of Jeddah and also it is the historic center of Jeddah. Al-Balad had insufficient parking space for large cars. Its stores did not sell expensive designer clothing. Also, foreign people like to go there to take some photos for the old buildings .

Mashrabiya Jeddah

Naseef House

Traditional House

2- Al Tahliah steet: is the place for who is looking and for famous brands , also it's best place to meet your friends and have a lot of fun there because there are many coffee shops and entertainment places .

Red sea mall

mall of Arabia