AP Language & Composition

Ms. Olson

Into the Wild – Analysis Assignment

Dialectic Journals

Directions: For this assignment, you will complete a continuous journal/reflection and critical analysis of the novel Into the Wild.

As you read, you will keep a dialectical journal. (If you have never seen one of these before, never fear! I have included a basic example from Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried as well as a definition! Look below to see both the definition and the example.)

What is a dialectical journal?

Simply put, “dialectical” means “the art or practice of arriving at the truth by the exchange of logical arguments.” A dialectical journal, then, is used to arrive at the “truth” of a written work through the written response to quotations from that work.

Dialectical Journal Example:

Passages from the text / Pg#s / Comments & Questions
“-they carried like freight trains; they carried it on their backs and shoulders-and for all the ambiguities of Vietnam, all the mysteries and unknowns, there was at least the single abiding certainty that they would never be at a loss for things to carry.” / Pg 2 / (R) O’brien chooses to end the first section of the novel with this sentence. He creates a figurative and hyperbolic comparison of what a soldier “would carry” physically and mentally from Vietnam. The “freight train” of weight and “all the ambiguities” made survival an uncertainty. When you combine the emotional weight of loved ones at home, the fear of death, and the responsibility for the men you fight with, with this physical weight of your weapon and soldier’s pack, you start to understand what soldiers in Vietnam dealt with every day. This quote sums up the confusion that the men felt about the reasons they were fighting the war and the “unknowns” of the Vietnam terrain, and how they clung to the only certainty - things they had to carry - in a confusing world where normal rules were suspended.

Your journal, however, will trace different concepts than the ones laid out in the example above. You will trace certain concepts and ideas according to certain chapters. In your journal, you will need to document the quote and page number on which the concept occurs and provide an analysis of the importance/purpose/effect of this concept to the chapter and to the novel as a whole.

The concepts you will trace are the ideas found spotting the use of anecdote, specific diction, syntax, symbolism, allusion, metaphor, paradox, irony, etc or the classical appeals found in the rhetorical triangle because these are ever-present as well. More simply, you will find evidence of the major concepts and document them in your journal as well as analyzing their importance in the chapter, in the novel, or to Christopher McCandless’ life as a whole. There are countless examples throughout the text, so I expect at least a total of 15 rich entries with text support and discussion of purpose, effect, and significance (think short answer discussion). While I want you to focus on tracing these devices and their effect/purposes, do not totally disregard tracing the movements of American Romanticism, American Transcendentalism, American Realism, American Naturalism, American Regionalism, author’s presence within the text, and Chris’ psyche in your journal entries!

THIS ASSIGNMENT MUST BE TYPED!