For Thursday: Haile, "We Go It Alone" (BATW, pp.134-142)

Photo from Outside Magazine Online 

REMEMBER: Conversation Paper #2 is due by 5pm on Tuesday: no class! 

NOTE: This is our LAST reading for Comp 1! We have a little more work (not much), but hang in there--it's almost over. 

Here are some things to consider for the essay; we'll have a quiz over it on Thursday.

* Why does race change the experience of the "wild"? How might Strayed's experience been different if she was also of another ethnicity?

* The author says that "you don't talk politics on the trail" (137), but why does she find it impossible not to? Why can some people not avoid talking about politics when talking about the great outdoors?

* Haile says that "perspective is everything," and also notes, "the ease with which a person becomes a "them" in the woods" (138). How can perspective change even quicker outdoors?

* What does she mean by "every day I eat the mountains, and the mountains, they eat me" (139)? Does she have a similar transformative experience as Strayed?

* Why does she say that for people of color, "the wilderness is everywhere they look" (140)? 

* Finally, who does the "wilderness" belong to? A  people ? A nation? A belief system? Can anyone own the mountains and the forests?