I several suggestions for you to think about doing while reading chapter 14.
You've been presented with many allusions within this text, something that should have meaning for you if you understand the allusions, a skill also needed in AP English Lit. Do you know where "siren song" comes from or its meaning? (You probably came across it in 9th grade.) The definition given in the free dictionary site online fits how it is used here. Here are a couple others mentioned:
To better understand the challenge Krakauer was facing climbing Devil's Thumb, try this link. Scroll down toward the bottom of the page. Or you can do a search in Google images. Be sure to include "Alaska" in your search.
Create a T-chart to compare/contrast Krakauer in this chapter with what you know about Chris McCandless.
Respond to the following quote: "I was surprised, as always, by how easy the act of leaving was, and good it felt. The world was suddenly rich with possibility" (136). Do you think McCandless may have had these thoughts when he began his odyssey? Explain.
Or be daring and look closely at the following paragraph from chapter 14. Read it carefully. What do you notice here? How would you describe this mode of writing? How would you describe its tone?
"I devoted most of my waking hours to fantasizing about, and then undertaking, ascents of remote mountains in mountains in Alaska and Canada--obscure spires, steep and frightening, that nobody in the world beyond a handful of climbing geeks had ever heard of. Some good actually came of this. By fixing my sights on one summit after another. I managed to keep my bearings through some thick postadolescent fog. Climbing mattered. The danger bathed the world in a halogen glow that caused everything-the sweep of the rock, the orange and yellow lichens, the texture of the clouds--to stand out in brilliant relief. Life thrummed at a higher pitch. The world was made real" (134).
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