Michael Marlett -- No title

  There are a lot of good things in your paper on the assigned passage from Wild and 
  I think you understand almost all of what she was trying to say there very well.  
  However, there is one aspect that you might not be interpreting correctly.  On 
  your page 2, in discussing the last few sentences of the assigned passage, you 
  say "This quote reinforces that she was aware of the wrong she had done, that 
  she needed to change, and that telling Paul the truth was the right thing to do 
  and was necessary for her to move on."  I agree with all of that, but then
  it also sounds as though you think the "in getting myself here, I'd done
  right" is referring mostly to the decision to leave her marriage.  I think it's pretty
  clear, though, that the ``in getting myself here'' is more general -- it means
  the whole larger process of deciding to confess to Paul, deciding to make the hike
  on the PCT, and then finding the inner strength to keep going and get to that 
  picnic bench in Old Station, California.  All of those steps were necessary. Stopping
  or giving up anywhere along the way would probably not have been enough to get her
  to the point she is here.  She is thinking back to the confession because she has
  just talked to Paul again on the phone.  But it's the combination of all of those 
  other intermediate steps together that have made it possible for her to begin to
  heal and grow up into the adult she needs to be.  So I think it's much more likely
  that she means all of that by saying "in getting myself here."

  On page 3, your choice of the quotation from page 260 is an interesting one, and
  I think you do a good job of showing how that experience fits in with the assigned 
  passage and the full journey that Cheryl Strayed is engaged in.  This is from the 
  description of her "last fling" with Jonathan after Cheryl has completed the California 
  stage of her hike, of course.  If the passage on page 189 shows that the hike is starting 
  to change Cheryl, the passage from page 260 shows that the transformation is not entirely 
  complete.  She can still impulsively reach for a casual sexual relationship.  But
  notice that she realizes how little it has satisfied her and she's essentially 
  saying she thinks this is the last time she will do something like this.
  
  A few more or less minor writing slips/issues: 

  On page 1 -- In "to full understand," "full" should be "fully."  Also on page 1 -- The 
  sentence "Cheryl's early life was rather tumultuous, her mother divorced when she was 
  six years old due to an abusive husband, the next few years were a continual economic 
  struggle, then her mother dies when she is twenty-two, and this then leads to the entire 
  family falling apart" is actually a run-on sentence several times over.  For instance, 
  everything up to the first comma is a complete sentence itself, so you don't want to 
  put a comma at that point.  Either put a period there and start a new sentence, or
  else use a semicolon.  The same issue happens after the second clause (after "abusive
  husband").  

  Finally, the topic sentence from the last paragraph on page 1:  "With the full 
  perspective of Cheryl's life leading up to the hike, it makes it clear why she went 
  on this hike" is a somewhat questionable for two reasons.  First, I don't think the 
  decision to make the hike was any sort of natural consequence of her previous life.  
  She still had to choose to do it and it was a spur of the moment thing to pick 
  up the PCT guidebook and start thinking about making the trip.  The other thing is
  that the sentence itself is awkward.  You could state the same idea more effectively
  this way:   "The full perspective of Cheryl's life leading up to the hike 
  makes it clear why she chose to do it."  But I still don't agree with
  that statement.   

  Content/Evidence -- A-

  Structure/Mechanics -- A-