In my portfolio, I'm going to be using my McCandless essay, my personal analysis, and my research paper. The weakest paper right now I think is my Research paper and my McCandless essay. I'm really good at knowing what I want to say but sometimes I have hard time bringing it across as I want. With research papers, I also have a hard time knowing how to make it interesting and focused without repeating myslef over and over again. I have a hard time finding the ability to make a research paper come across as interesting so that other would want to read it. With my McCandless essay the weakest part is in the sources. I need to find better sources that engage attention of the reader and make them want to finish reading the essay. I need to find better sources that prove what im trying to argue. My strongest paper I believe is my personal analysis. Even though I need to add parts to the story that show more instead of just telling, my analysis paper was the easiest paper to write. In this paper, you are essentially the source because you experienced these things in your life and then you also have a real live person that people have seen and heard of which also gives a better chance for people to understand and relate to your essay

my topic for my research paper is the show called The Brady Bunch. The most important aspect of the show that you see in American culture today and in the past is that families are getting divorced or a single parent remarries and these large complex social families have to learn to meld together as a single unit. The large amount of personalities makes the show real to those who watch it because they have to learn to live together as a single family. Media manipulates many people in different ways from what you look like to how you act or dress. People are easily influenced by the different aspects of media and this show gives what I believe is a very positive atmosphere. The show shows the good things and the bad things but shows that everything can be overcome and be alright. The show just seems to bring a sense of how life should be lived and viewed.The main cultural issue that I will be expressing about in my paper is the aspect of family. Families have shaped the history of our country and is one of the most important things to have in your life. They help you with the good things and the bad things and pick you up when you fall down.

I think that the man reason that Chris cut himself off from society is because of all the hurt, betrayal, and pain that he felt from people; especially his family. This would be a reason for anyone to want to be isolated and alone. His role models, London,Thoreau, and Haines, were only human too and maybe if things in their life affected them as much as Chris then I could see them probably doing the same thing. The first thing people do when the world hurts them is to pull away and go to a place inside yourself as a way of protecting yourself. I have done this numerous times when bad things or hurtful things have happened to me. This is the one way your brain has of protecting yourself from the horribleness of things in life. I pretty much think that maybe his heroes had more to live for then Chris. Although I do not think that Chris meant to die, he was all alone with little food and he could have gotten out. I think that in a way maybe he did not have much to want to live for.

When things do not go the way you want in life, most people tend to withdraw or wish for a way to escape from the world. I think that these men just had very difficult issues with their family. I know even with my family that there are sometimes I just wish I could go away and not have to worry about any of it. The only thing is life is life and it gives you hard times. Sometimes life and family knock you down but you have to keep on going anyway. If I decided to give up on life every time that someone hurt me or made me upset well then I would have given up LONG ago. Living life through the hard times is what makes you a strong and independent person. I think that these men just were not strong enough to face that they had problems in their life and families. They wanted to just go on with life as if nothing was wrong but its not possible. When problems in your life are not dealt with, you tend to spiral downward and do crazy things that you would not normally do. Sometimes problems arise with family like insecurity or not feeling approval from parents, especially dads, but there should be no obstacle big enough to separate family.

Krakauer did a good job writing this book; however, I feel that he is kind of biased in his writings. Instead of staying objective and using a the same level of pathos,logos, and ethos, krakauer uses a majority of pathos. Do not get me wrong, pathos is a very effective rhetoric to use; however, instead of being object he writes very biased about Chris McCandless. His opinion is fine but he seems to develop the book mainly based on his own opinion and feelings rather then solid facts that you can see. So i guess if I was going go write a book like this, I would dedicate myself to massive research and then write from an objective viewpoint instead of just spewing out what I thought or felt about the character.

I think that in a sense it would be nice to have someone who cared about your well being especially if I was on the odds with my parents. My parents and I are very much alike and we are all stubborn and like to be right. Because of this alikeness, my parents and I sometimes clash on things especially when its things about my life in general. My best friend's mom is in a sense my second mom and its nice when I can go and talk to her about issues I have with my family and I know that she wont judge me but give me good advice because she cares about me. So having someone care about me would be nice ; however, I do not think that I would want them to necessarily adopt me. My family is my family regardless and I would not want to change that. I think Chris McCandless did not want to let anyone adopt him or take care of him because he seemed to have a somewhat fear of emotional entanglement. He did not want to care about people because of issues that he had with his own personal issues. Until he dealt with these issues, I dont think that anything could have kept him from going to Alaska. He seemed to think that an adventure into the cold Alaskan wilderness would help fix things but Chris needed to find a different way of dealing with his problems.

well to be honest I didnt really even like any of the campaigners for the last election. I just kind of voted for McCain because of my beliefs, views, and morals. I voted for him even though I knew he was gonna lose but I felt that I should stand for what I believed. The main thing I hate about the election campaigns is that everybody trashes every one. I know that they all want to win but I feel that there are better ways to go about it. I hate when I'm watching T.V and every commercial between my show , there are these people I dont even know going on about how horrible the other people are. Personally for me, those campaigns are a turnoff for me. I have just never really understood or liked to watch, hear, or see anything political. I just vote because if I dont vote then technically I can't complain about our nation.