Similes and Metaphors for My Sister's Keeper

Similes:
1) Trailing her spine, like a line of blue jewels, are a string of bruises.
2) it will bounce us back like a rubber bumper.
3) gave me a maid that smelled like fresh sheets.
4) They come in like a hurricane.
5) Her mind is running in circles, like a gerbil on a wheel, the same way mine is.

Metaphors:
1) My cheeks are on fire.
2)  The information is endless, a series of darts thrown so fast I cannot fell them sting anymore.
3) Brian and I watched the doctors hover over Kate's feverish body, bees over a field of flowers, drawing what they can from her.
4)
5)

I am a Keeper of my Brother

I feel like I am the keeper of my little brother. I feel this way because whenever he is about to do something stupid, or is debating about doing something stupid, I try to convince him not to. I also try to help him out whenever he needs it and I teach him how to do different things, like skim boarding. Another thing that makes me think that I am his keeper is that I am older than him so I just feel like that I have to teach and protect him from different things. That is why I think that I am the keeper of my little brother Ryan.

Into The Wild Editoral

Chris McCandless: A Nut Job’s Journey to Alaska

By: Jason Drager

            Would you leave a good life with a promising future to go to Alaska on foot unprepared? Chris McCandless was a different guy. He couldn’t stand the modern civilization and he gave it all up on his journey to Alaska. He gave up a life of good grades, a caring family, and a promising future. “During his course of travels, Chris had acquired a machete and a .30-06 rifle…” (Krakauer, 119). Chris McCandless was an unprepared fool that didn’t know what he was getting himself into.

            I think that McCandless was a crazy guy. He walked on foot to Alaska and he acquired the majority of his materials on his way there, and yet he didn’t have a map for the area that he wanted to stay in when he was in Alaska. He was just an unprepared idiot that thought he knew everything, but he didn’t! “Alex admitted that the only food in his pack was a ten pound bag of rice. Alex’s cheap leather hiking boots were neither waterproof nor well insulated. His rifle was only .22 caliber… He had no ax, no bug dope, no snowshoes, no compass. The only navigational aid in his possession was a tattered state road map he’d scrounged at a gas station” (Gallien, 5).  If he would have been prepared for his journey, rather than acquiring his materials throughout it, maybe he wouldn’t have died.

            McCandless also didn’t take very well of himself while on his journey, such that he didn’t bathe, and even when he was working at a place on his journey, he wouldn’t bathe, but yet he would brush his teeth. Now this makes me wonder how the heck you could brush your teeth and not take a bath in the wild. Is it easier to brush your teeth in a river of waterfall than take a bath in them; that just doesn’t make sense: idiot. And when people told him that he smelled bad, he would take it too offensively and he would get mad. “When he first started working, he was homeless and he’d show up for work smelling bad. It wasn’t up to McDonald’s standards to come in smelling the way he did. So finally they delegated me to tell him that he needed to take a bath more often. Ever since I told him, there was a clash between us” (,41). He just didn’t like people giving him advice of what to do to make himself healthier. As a matter of fact he just didn’t like people telling him that he was wrong.

            One more thing that proves that McCandless was crazy was that he never wanted to have a good relationship with anyone and he had a hard time forgiving people such as his dad. Chris and his dad always got into big fights only because of what he did in the past and Chris couldn’t forgive him. Chris was mad at his dad because he had an affair with another woman while he was married. The only time Chris actually came out and opened up to his dad was when Chris got drunk. “He got real emotional. He was almost crying, fighting back the tears, telling Dad that even though they’d had their differences over the years, he was grateful for all the things Dad had done for him” (Carine,118). This is one of the only times that Chris ever came out to forgive his Dad for what he had done which shows how stubborn and stupid he was, which in the end killed him.

Some people say that he was a hero and the people that were criticizing him for his stupidity were actually the stupid ones because they were saying that he was stupid. Does that sound right? I do agree that he went on an epic adventure, but he went unprepared and he died because of it. What is even worse about his case of stupidity is that he was killed from a plant; not a bear, not the weather nor a wild boar, but a plant. The thing that is even worse is that he had a plant book with him with pictures of all of these different plants that said if the plants were edible or inedible right under the picture of the plant. How much more dumb can you get when you can’t look and pictures of read words like EDIBLE or INEDIBLE. The journey must of made him illiterate, I mean because he was a straight a student in college. “He had begun to eat large quantities of the wild potato seeds” (194) which than killed him. What was even worse was that if he had walked up a mile or so up the river, when it flooded over so that he couldn’t cross, there would have been a place to cross. You can see how stupid and ignorant Chris McCandless was.

As you can see how crazy this guy was. His foolishness and his unpreparedness utterly killed him in the wild. If he had prepared and brought all of his goods on the trip and to the goods that the people gave to him while he was on it, he probably would still be alive now. If I were you I would not feel bad for this guy because he was an unprepared fool that went into the wild. I would like it if you took my side for this fools trip into the wild. I also hope I taught you guys a few things about this guy.

Chris McCandless character chart

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/09/23/usa-pilgrimage-into-the-wild/

Chapter and page #	Description/quote from novel	What impression you get about Chris with this character trait or description?
Chapter 1, page 4	“Five feet seven or eight with a wiry build, he claimed to be 24 years old and said he was from South Dakota.  He explained that he wanted a ride as far as the edge of Denali National Park, where he intended to walk deep into the bush and ‘live off the land for a few month.’”	Chris is not physically fit for walking into such a dangerous environment.  He seems a little crazy.
Chapter 2, p. 14, p. 12	“Virtually no fat remained on the body… At the time of the autopsy, McCandless’s remains weighed sixty seven pounds.” “S.O.S I need your help I am injured, near death, and too weak to hike out of here I am all alone, this is no joke, in the name of God, plese remain to save me. I am out collecting berries close by and shall return this evening. Thank you, Chris McCandless.	He died of starvation and starvation only. He was very desperate and was on the verge of death so he was asking for help.
Chapter 3, p. 16, p. 16	“He was small with the hard, stringy physique of an itinerant laborer. There was something strange about the youngster’s eyes. Dark and emotive… and conveyed vulnerability…” “Wayne Westerberg… remembering the odd young man he knew as Alex.”	He has been traveling for a while and has been in need of food too. He was probably very cold and anxious to get some real food and water and rest for a little while before continuing on his journey. He was probably just returning from one of his adventures and he was probably a little weird because of his lack of communication with people.
Chapter 4, p.37, p. 27	“Malnutrition and the road have taken their toll on his body. Over 25 pounds lost. But his spirit is soaring.” “McCandless steered the Datsun off the pavement where it crossed a broad sandy was. He drove two miles down the riverbed to the south shore of the lake.”	He has been traveling for a while but he was persistent and never gave up and so he still had a lot of hope and life in him because of his personality. He probably drove so far because down the riverbed so it would be hard to find it and continue to track him on his journey.
Chapter 5, p.41, p. 38	“When he first started working, he was homeless, and he’d show up for work smelling bad.” “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.”	He does so much travelling around that he doesn’t care about the way that he smells. He found it unnecessary to keep a journal until he was all alone by himself in Alaska.
Chapter 6, p. 50, p. 48	“He was polite, friendly, and well groomed.” “McCandless made an indelible impression on a number of people during the course of his hegri.”	He took good care of himself throughout his trip and he also kept his kind and out-going personality too. He was a really nice kid and he left a good impression on all of the people he met through his journey.
Chapter 7, p.62, p. 62	“And in walks Alex with a big old backpack slung over his shoulder.” “During those four weeks in Carthage, McCandless worked hard, doing dirty, tedious jobs that nobody else wanted to tackle…”	He had been traveling for a while and he probably was in need for some money to get more supplies so he was looking for a job at Westberg’s business. He was used to all of the dirty things that he had to do on his journey around the country.
Chapter 10, p. 99, p. 98	“When Alex died, McCandless was wearing a blue sweat shirt printed with the logo of a Santa Barbara towing company.” “Last Sunday a young hiker, stranded by an injury, was found dead at a remote camp in the Alaskan interior.”	He probably wore out all of his other clothes and that is what he was left with to wear before he died. He probably just died and did not have his body identified so no one knew who he was.
Chapter 11, p. 107, p. 104	“He wasn’t antisocial – he always had friends, and everybody liked him – but he could go off and entertain himself for hours.” “Chris as a rapt eight year old in a yellow rain slicker on his first backpacking trip…”	He was really easy to get along with and he make do with what he had and still had fun even though he loved his friends. It was his first time going on a vacation that he needed to pack a backpack for.
Chapter 12, p. 118, p.119	“He got really emotional. He was almost crying, fighting back the tears, telling dad that even though they’d had their differences over the years, he was grateful for all the things Dad had done for him.” “During his course of his travels, Chris had acquired a machete and a .30-06 rifle…”	He was a very emotional guy and he loved his parents very much. He felt a bad because he never expressed how much he loved his dad so he just let it all out. He was very unprepared for his trip to Alaska and he needed to gather the supplies on his way there because he packed so poorly.
Chapter 13, p. 127, p. 128	“Chris as a seven year old in a pint size suit and crooked tie, standing beside Carine who is wearing a frilly dress and a new Easter hat.” “Standing five feet eight inches tall, Carine McCandless is the same height as her brother was, maybe an inch taller, and looks enough like him that people frequently asked if they were twins.”	He is very little and is most likely celebrating Easter. Chris was a short guy and he and Carine were a lot alike. This could also explain why they were able to get along so well because of their indifferences.
Chapter 16, p. 158, p. 159	“He was surprised, therefore, to find someone already in the steaming water, a young man who introduced himself as Alex.” “McCandless was candid with Stuckey about his intent to spend the summer alone in the bush, living off the land.”	He was trying to stay out of the cold and try to stay warm. He felt comfortable talking to the guy and the guy respected his plans.
Chapter 17, p. 174, p. 177	“McCandless mistakenly thought that it was impossible to reach the other side of the river.” “It’s an appealing setting, open and filled with light. It’s easy to see why McCandless decided to make this his base camp.”	He didn’t come prepared with a map so he was too lazy and tired to walk down the river to try to find a crossing that he would have found. This was the home in which McCandless had while he was in the wild.
Chapter 18, p. 188, p. 191	“After subsisting for three months on an exceedingly marginal diet, anced on a precarious edge.” “Extremely week. Fault of pot seed…”	He was struggling to find food in order to survive. He was so anxious to get food that he mistakenly ate the pot seed which than killed him.