Picture 1: an old man lost in thought.<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/littleboyfound\/121066646\/in\/set-715335\/<\/a><\/p>\n Uploaded on March 31, 2006<\/a><\/p>\n by Littleboyfound<\/a><\/p>\n “When Alex left for Alaska, I prayed.\u00c2\u00a0 I asked God to keep his finger on the shoulder of that one; I told him that boy was special.\u00c2\u00a0 But he let Alex die.\u00c2\u00a0 So on December 26, when I learned what happened, I renounced the Lord.\u00c2\u00a0 I withdrew my church membership and became an atheist.\u00c2\u00a0 I decided I couldn’t believe in a God who would let something that terrible happen to a boy like Alex.”\u00c2\u00a0 (p60)<\/p>\n This photograph shows an older gentlemen deep in contemplation.\u00c2\u00a0 The quote that the picture matches was so vivid and tragic to me that I had to find a picture to go along with it.\u00c2\u00a0 Franz, the old man, wound up being such a sad figure of hope in the novel to me: he had nothing for so long, then found Alex, whom he considered like a son.\u00c2\u00a0 When Alex sent him his last letter imploring him to abandon his life and go out on the road, Franz, so enamored with Alex’s personality, chose to actually do so.\u00c2\u00a0 The picture depicts the thoughts that Franz may have had when deciding to leave the church: if you look closely, you can actually see prayer beads in the old man’s hands. Ultimately, Alex and Franz are alike in several ways.\u00c2\u00a0 They both can be impulsive and rash, and make irrational decisions, and make huge changes in their lives without thinking about the consequences. http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/stoneth\/117109413\/<\/a><\/p>\n Uploaded on March 24, 2006<\/a><\/p>\n by Stoneth<\/a><\/p>\n “Can this be the same Alex that set out in July, 1990?\u00c2\u00a0 Malnutrition and the road have taken their toll on his body.\u00c2\u00a0 Over 25 pounds lost.\u00c2\u00a0 But his spirit is soaring<\/u>.” (p37)<\/p>\n This quote simply jumps off the page when I read it.\u00c2\u00a0 It seems to capture Alex’s state of mind perfectly and lets the reader know that despite his ailments, at least at this point, he is still finding all his troubles worthwhile.\u00c2\u00a0 The reality, of course, is that he was found dead in his sleeping bag, starved to death.\u00c2\u00a0 I feel that this picture embodies the ironic truth of Alex’s condition: despite his philosophical ruminations and the transcendental state he felt he was in, he couldn’t transcend the fact of hunger and the ravages of the wild. The man’s face (who happens to be homeless) is simply trashed by his existence, and the grimace on his face might denote happiness or madness. http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ichor\/129760324\/<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n Uploaded April 16, 2006<\/a><\/p>\n by Ichor<\/a><\/p>\n “When his camera was ruined and McCandless stopped taking photographs, he also stopped keeping a journal, a practice he didn’t resume until he went to Alaska the next year.\u00c2\u00a0 Not a great deal is known, therefore, about where he traveled after departing Las Vegas in May 1991.”\u00c2\u00a0 (p38)<\/p>\n Despite all that we know about McCandless through his letters, the people he met, and the speculation of professional mountain climbers \/ writers, there is so much that we do not.\u00c2\u00a0 He is still a mystery to me at least, and when the assistance that he provides us from beyond the grave is gone (namely, his journal and pictures), we are left at a loss.\u00c2\u00a0 He seemed so free and unencumbered by life that he literally could have done anything in that period and not have been out of character.\u00c2\u00a0 I chose this photo because it both embodies the mystery of this missing time from our McCandless timeline and it metaphorically represents the hazy, aimless goals that Alex may or may not have had for himself.<\/p>\n Picture 4: One fat happy baby and his family.<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/lilli\/100700873\/\u00c2\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Uploaded February 16, 2006<\/a><\/p>\n by Spinderella1000<\/a><\/p>\n “It’s somewhat surprising that Chris ceded to pressure from Walt and Billie about attending college when he refused to listen to them about so many other things.\u00c2\u00a0 But there was never a shortage of apparent contradictions in the relationship between Chris and his parents.”\u00c2\u00a0 (p115)<\/p>\n Chris McCandless had a terrible relationship with his parents, and he did the unthinkable: he completely deserted them without warning or consideration.\u00c2\u00a0 He may have hated his parents, but he also abandoned his beloved sister.\u00c2\u00a0 The photo, by contrast, shows a happy homely couple with their laughing baby.\u00c2\u00a0 This is ironic in part because of the testy relationship that developed between McCandless and his parents, but it may in part be appropriate because it recalls a time when the family was happy together.\u00c2\u00a0 I can only assume Chris didn’t hate his folks from the womb and that he learned his distaste later on in his life.\u00c2\u00a0 Lastly, the fat baby in the photo stands in direct contrast to Chris’ characterization of “hungry” throughout the entirety of the book.<\/p>\n Synthesis: I really enjoyed exploring the two different worlds of photography and creative writing.\u00c2\u00a0 The most interesting thing was being able to explore and find new interpretations of text which I would have never attempted or thought of without this assignment.\u00c2\u00a0 Oftentimes when reading, I develop a mental image in my mind of the subject at hand: oftentimes I am severely disappointed by an adaptation of a book to another form (say, a movie or a play), because I had such a strong idea of what it should be like.\u00c2\u00a0 By finding photos that aren’t attempting to replicate exactly the original idea, however, the similarities are more readily noticed and the differences (from where their photos diverge from the text or from my ideas of the text) are not as important.<\/p>\n In terms of quotes, I didn’t really knock myself out thinking of captions, but the quotes themselves do a wonderful job of describing the photos (not only mine, but all of these).\u00c2\u00a0 By taking the quote out of context, we run the risk of deceiving the reader which will in turn alienate them, but this may be worth it to the novelist to make the story more exciting or attract more readers to his story.\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Picture 1: an old man lost in thought. http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/littleboyfound\/121066646\/in\/set-715335\/ Uploaded on March 31, 2006 by Littleboyfound “When Alex left for Alaska, I prayed.\u00c2\u00a0 I asked God to keep his finger on the shoulder of that one; I told him that boy was special.\u00c2\u00a0 But he let Alex die.\u00c2\u00a0 So on December 26, when I learned … Continue reading A Picture’s Worth: Response #4<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nPicture 2: Beat up.<\/p>\n
\nPicture 3: A post in the sea, surrounded by fog.<\/p>\n