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Jack London's Short Story 'All Gold Canyon'

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A story of such intensity. Jack London short story “All Gold Canyon” is a story of nature, death, money, discovery, and greed. The meaning behind the story, the imagery of the canyon and the tragic ending of the greedy man represent Jack London's view of nature and life. The meaning behind the story but comes clear once the background of Jack wanted is understood. John Griffith London (1876-1916) was born in San Francisco of an unmarried mother of wealthy background, Flora Wellman. His father may have been William Chaney, a journalist, lawyer, and major figure in the development of American astrology. This would explain London's vivid imagery in the short story. Because Flora was ill, Jack was raised through infancy by an ex-slave, Virginia …show more content…

The miner comes to the canyon in search of wealth and prosperity as he mines the hills for gold. The two main characters in the story revisit human nature and the destruction mankind brings into the world. Humans bring chaos into this amazing place with their actions by littering, cutting down trees and building companies that pollute the atmosphere, and many more harmful actions. Just as the miner wanders in and destroys the canyons hillside is the search for gold, man destroys God’s creation due to selfishness. To continue, the stranger at the end is willing to commit murder for the gold. He watches him for days, letting the miner do all the work and do suddenly when the man finds “Mr. Pocket”, the useless stranger tries to kill him to take the gold for himself. “ Mr. Pocket” prevails at the end of this journey. After the gold is found, the failed murder results in the killing of the stranger. This situation proves the world's love of people and the world. People out for themselves with the passion of more greed soon fail. The power of money motivates people to do the unthinkable. London uses his past experience to give a straight how a wandering man out for themselves and the world brings on

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John Krakauer’s account of the journey of Chris McCandless has inspired many other people to seek out the beauty of nature. Why would a story with such a tragic ending cause others to do exactly what in the end killed McCandless? Perhaps it’s because Krakauer depicts Chris as a hardworking honest young man, who throughout his journey uncovered many truths about life. Maybe it’s because Krakauer includes so many passages talking about the beauty and simplicity of nature. Possibly this inspiration is contributed to because Krakauer chalks the death of McCandless up to chance.

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Jack London had been an American novelist and is known for works such as The Call of the Wild, which McCandless greatly admired. Chris McCandless had greatly admired Jack London, going as far as carving “Jack London is King” at what came to be the site of his death. The Jack London quote used in the epigraph describes a scene in the forest but uses bitter imagery- yet somehow still romanticises it. “Alex” was unable to ever see past the facade London had built- given that London had hardly ever spent time in the wild himself and most definitely nowhere near as intense as Alaska. This chapter had described how he had been found and this quote leads back to that because though Chris was intelligent, he did not understand that London had to make nature sound beautiful.

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London did not live up to John’s high expectations, leaving him to believe that he would never be inside a community, even within his dreams. The behavior of the civilized people ran counter to all of his philosophies and morals. John articulated his frustration with this difference in one telling conversation, “’ But you always came before, John.’ ‘That’s precisely why I don’t want to come again.’”

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In this novel, Lewis creatively writes an intriguing story involving Ransom, the brilliant philologist, who studied at Cambridge College. At the beginning of the novel, Ransom is a free traveler walking by foot, or as Lewis called him a “Pedestrian”. Upon Ransom’s journey, he attempts to find a place to rest his head for the night. However, to his great surprise, he is denied a place to stay in Nadderby. The British innkeeper of

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Christopher McCandless, the protagonist of the novel and film Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer, is not your average guy. Driven by his minimalist ideals and hate for society, he challenged the status quo and embarked on a journey that eventually lead to his unforeseen demise. A tragic hero, defined by esteemed writer, Arthur Miller, is a literary character who makes an error of judgment or has a fatal flaw that, combined with fate and external forces, brings on tragedy. Christopher McCandless fulfills the role of Miller’s tragic hero due to the fact that his tragic flaw of minimalism and aversion towards society had lead him to his death.

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In the Toni Morrison’s critically-claimed novel, Song of Solomon, the protagonist, Milkman, goes on a journey to uncover his “people.” Macon, Milkman, Dead III has no identity, ambition, or passion for he is lost and has no idea who he is or what he wants. As Milkman discovers his family’s mysterious and largely unknown past, Milkman discovers something much more: himself. Only through his investigation into his father’s family does Milkman finally find his lost identity.

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In the non-fiction book Into the wild by Jon Krakauer and the short story “to build a fire” by Jack London, two authors describe “similar” lives “in the wild” with the worst ending. However,same process could lead to various answers, through comparing and contrasting the Into the Wild and To build a fire, readers could comprehend the homologous but different views for the nature lives from two authors. First of all, Chris McCandless in Into the wild and The man in “to build a fire” have similar but different motives for being out “in the wild”. McCandless is a talented young man who born in a relatively wealthy family, he never need to worries about money and life. But because of his desires for nature and some conflicts with his parents,McCandless

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He wrote this story during the Klondike gold rush. This is why this story has the setting and the plot line it has. In this time thieves were a problem for miners. London probably focused more on the human vs. nature due to the fact that this shows the resolve of the miner over the land and not over the thief. This is a more difficult battle due to the fact that it takes more resolve and determination to overcome nature.

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The Purpose of Psychopaths in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” In the short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” a family of six meets their demise on the side of the road in Georgia after a gang of convicts lead by The Misfit brutally murders each member of the family. The story starts off in an upbeat tone and sets up a seemingly happy plot about a family going on vacation to Florida. However, the grandmother does not listen to her son about taking her cat on the trip and her disobedience ultimately leads to all of their deaths. The author changes the tone of the story at the end when the family gets into a wreck and faces a gruesome death by a crazed armed killer on the loose (O’Connor#).

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The thrilling novel “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy is a story about a post apocalyptic world following the lives of a man and a boy as they head south to escape the cold winter that is headed their way. Along with the cold of winter approaching they also have to deal with the new dangers of the land while traveling such as cannibals, robbers, and many more dangers. This is a tale of a unnamed man and a boy who must not only learn how to survive but find a inner “fire”, establish a code of ethic, and continue in finding reasons to live in this “new world”. With McCarthy’s unique approach to the characters of the book having no names or the cause of destruction of the world unknown it helps the reader feel the confusion and whats really important

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He rightly identified that money - both its presence and its absence - does something to people” (1). These ideals reflect what can be seen in all of his literary

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Bloody, vicious, and gut wrenching deaths occur frequently across the world. Human often contribute to the demise of various living things in order to ensure their own survival. People capture and execute animals for nourishment and protection. In the short story “The Rattler,” a man must decide whether or not to spare the life of a rattlesnake that he encounters during a walk in the desert. He chooses to slaughter the snake, resulting in the snake’s gory death.

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His story warns that the pursuit of wealth—even as a means to an end—causes loss, despite the seeming gain. In order to achieve fulfillment, we must abandon that pursuit in favour of the direct pursuit of the things that would do

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Jack London 's writing is harsh poetry. He describes scenes in such detail. Reading his work makes you picture how the scenes look in your head. He shows a deeper meaning in the events of his stories(Napierkowski). The point of view of the story is third person limited omniscient.

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This is a story about a man named Christopher McCandless, who graduated from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He informed his parents that he is going to spend the summer traveling in his yellow Datsun to “live off the land”. Throughout the story, it showed him going through the struggles of the harsh nature. He eventually died at the end of the book from apparent starvation and his body was found by hikers and hunters in a bus (Into the Wild Book). This book refers to Jack London’s story because it shows them both living off the land, one in a harsh cold, and with very little resources to stay alive.

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