Blog post #4: Into the Wild, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and the Psychological Approach.

In both Fantastic Mr. Fox and Into the Wild, main characters are driven to a more adventurous lifestyle by issues stemming from their families, more specifically: their fathers. While Ash is consistently looking for attention and approval from his father, Chris is avoiding his at all costs. Ash would practically do anything in a desperate attempt to gain his father's praise. Chris, however, does the opposite. His father will say one thing, and purposefully and knowingly, Chris will do another.

Ash feels like his father fails to recognize him. He tries to impress him on a consistent basis but he does not take notice. When his cousin, Kristofferson, arrives, the hypothetical distance between Ash and his father is greater. Ash feels resentful and jealous of Kristofferson because Mr. Fox praises him and takes more interest in his accomplishments than his own son. Ash feels inferior to Kristofferson because he seems to be good at everything he's not, or rather better than him. People pay more attention to him and like him. He seems to have all the qualities he desires to have. Ash is hurt when his dad will not let him go to steal chickens with him. Ash and his father's relationship gets increasingly strained but he never gives up on trying to gain his approval and have a father-son bond. This leads Ash to more adventure and he begins to be what his father claims they truly are, wild animals.

Chris McCandless is driven to his adventurous lifestyle by his strained relationship with his father. Though their relationship is strained in a different way than that of Ash and Mr. Fox's. Chris struggles with accepting his father's past and infidelity, which leads him to resent his father and completely detatch from him and the rest of his family. Chris would not accept critiquing of any form from his father, it only made him pull away more. "Chris had so much natural talent, but if you tried to coach him, polish his skill, to bring out that final ten percent, a wall went up. He resisted instruction of any kind." (111). Walt proceeds to tell us that Chris refused to listen to him. Chris knew the stress his adventures put on his parents and continued to let them feel that way. That just goes to show how much resentment he really had towards them.

Overall, Ash and Chris had contrasting family issues that lead them to their adventurous lifestyles, but are similar in the way that family is what drove them there. It was Chris's resentment for his father that fueled his adventurous spirit, and Ash's need for approval from his father to fuel his adventures.

Blog #5: the lottery

I think Jackson wrote this story because she wanted to illustrate how all societies can conform and go along with whats happening because its the popular vote. The characters in this story act as if the lottery is necessary, although most of them dont even realize why they are doing it. They all seem to agree with the idea until they themselves are chosen. For example Tessie Hutchinson completely conforms to the idea of the Lottery because no one dare challenge it. However when it is her that is chosen, she says it's unfair. 
Old man warner expresses that it is important to stick with tradition. When people were talking about how some people were stopping the lottery, he claimed it was just a bunch of young idiots. These people's morals compared the morals of our society are much different. We would never find it just or right to stone somebody to death. I think this story expresses an importance of sticking with tradition, but traditions can be changed, evolved, adapted. Our society would not be so dedicated to keeping with tradition at the expense of a life. These ideas presented in this story represent conformity and keeping with tradition at an expensive cost.

Into the wild #3

My understanding of Chris has not really changed, I think learning more of his background just reinforced how i already perceived him. I think Chris is motivated to complete his adventure by his passion and intensity to feel like the world is good and right. Chris is also driven by his resentment toward his parents. The more they expressed their concerns, the more he pulled away and did whatever he wanted. Chris has the desire to find meaning behind things. He questions things and ideas that a lot of people don't even think about. Chris's personality is complex yet intriguing. He is one of those people who don't fit into society well because he questions it, has the desire to make a difference in some way. His adventurous yet stubborn personality aspects give him determination to complete his adventure. An illustration of Chris's adventurous side from an early age is in chapter 11 when Walt describes their mountain climbing. Chris was twelve and wanted to keep going, whereas Walt said it seemed dangerous and they needed to stop. Walt says, "If he'd been fourteen or fifteen, he would have simply gone on without me." This shows that the older Chris got, the more independent he got and did what he wanted to do. An example of Chris's desire to make a change in the world is when his friend from highschool talks about him. He says, "McCandless took life's inequities to heart. During his senior year at Woodson, he became obsessed with racial oppression in South Africa. He spoke seriously to his friends about smuggling weapons into that country and joining the struggle to end apartheid." This concludes that Chris cares about bettering the world and cares about national issues, and these are some of the things that drive him throughout his adventures.