Alex Gionis -- "Third Paper Assignment" (not the catchiest title, but OK ... )

   Almost all of what you say is right on target here.  But, in a way, you're mostly 
   just stating your own good interpretation of the overall meaning of the passage
   without backing it up with a close reading and explanation of exactly what 
   Cheryl Strayed says.  For instance,  *why* does she say "I didn't feel sad or happy. 
   I didn't feel proud or ashamed."  What does she mean by "I only felt that in spite 
   of all the things I'd done wrong, in getting myself here, I'd done right."  What's 
   the "in getting myself here?"  Why does she feel that she had done right?  You 
   are presenting answers to some of those questions in indirect ways, but it's not
   coming out in your writing as the  "delv[ing] in detail into a particular passage
   in the book" that the assignment was asking for.  

   For instance, the "I didn’t feel sad or happy. I didn’t feel proud or ashamed"  seems 
   to me to be mostly numbness from emotional exhaustion at the end of a struggle, or a 
   realization that she has turned a corner and is now on a different path.  She knows 
   that she did the right thing now by undertaking the hike, that going on the hike has     
   started to pull her out of the self-destructive spiral she was in before.  But those 
   problems are still too close and there's still too much for her to do for her to feel 
   happy or proud of what she has done.   The "in getting myself here, I had done right"    
   is the real point of the whole passage, I think.  
   
   Your writing is generally very good here.  I think the less formal tone suits you 
   better.

   Technical point:  Be more careful about identifying the sources of direct quotations.
   You use the quotation "I'm a free spirit who never had the balls to be free" but you
   don't say where it comes from and I couldn't track it down without essentially going
   through the whole book because I don't remember exactly where it comes from.  That
   might seem like a small thing, but it's important for a careful reader of your work 
   who wants to understand the context of the quotation you use.  

   Content/Evidence -- B

   Structure/Mechanics -- A-