How Does Bill Maryson Use Humor In A Walk In The Woods

In “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson, a story is developed as a man begins to hike the Appalachian Trail. He begins his journey and as he does this creates many scenes and introduce many characters that add humor and thoughtful laughter to the story. He uses characters like Maryellen, Katz to make the audience laugh as well as the exaggerated short tales.
Maryellen is introduced to the story a few chapters in. She’s known as the “weak link” between Bill and Katz. Bill and Katz decide one day they are going to hike as far as they could until the next town and leave Maryellen behind. “Her name was Maryellen. She was from Florida, and she was, as Katz forever termed her in a special tone of awe, a piece of work.” (Bryson 73). After the boys had

He uses stories like this,” Black bears rarely attack. But here's the thing. Sometimes they do. All bears are agile, cunning and immensely strong, and they are always hungry. If they want to kill you and eat you, they can, and pretty much whenever they want. That doesn't happen often, but - and here is the absolutely salient point - once would be enough”(Bryson 16) The humor in this is that Bryson is telling the reader a situation where something could go wrong but makes a joke about it and continues the story. Another example is, “”Nearly everyone [...] had some gruesome story involving a guileless acquaintance who had gone off hiking the trail [...] and come stumbling back with [...] a bobcat attached to his head”(Bryson 5). This demonstrates the same style as the last one did. In essence, Bryson exaggerates certain stories to grab the reader’s attention and create some thoughtful laughter. In conclusion Bryson uses humor throughout the story to capture the reader’s attention and develop characters. Through the use of Maryellen, Katz, and comical stories and scenes Bryson enhances the book through the use of thoughtful