Frank Sommers -- How Cheryl Strayed Strayed

  You have done a very good job of analyzing the assigned passage from Wild and I 
  think you clearly understand a lot of what Cheryl Strayed was trying to say there.
  You are right on target about the metaphorical meanings of the weight of her 
  backpack.  You also make a very interesting and insightful point about the 
  role of the other hikers like Albert that she meets on the trip.  I agree that she
  actually relies on them a lot (in a certain way) to help her change.  The unpacking 
  of the unnecessary items is another metaphor for the way her interactions with other 
  fellow-hikers help her find new ways to relate to men and stand up for herself without 
  falling back on the "girliness" she used so often in the past.  
  
  The connections you draw with the CHQ theme are also very good.  I think you 
  are right when you say, "It would not have mattered if she would have veered 
  off at that point and gone to the highway just off the trail and hitchhiked her way 
  to the nearest diner" because the important changes had already started.  I also 
  hope you see that our purpose in making that our theme for the year was not to 
  provide you, our students, with any "easy" answers to those questions.  Instead, 
  we want to encourage you to undertake journeys of your own, ask those questions too,
  and perhaps to start to find answers for yourselves.   

  Your writing is generally very good here.  A few nit-picky comments:  in your 
  second sentence in the first paragraph the tenses of "did not consist" (past) and 
  "grows" (present) don't match.  In last sentence of first paragraph you probably
  want "she had made the right decision."  On last page "over night" should be 
  one word.  

    Content/Evidence -- A

    Structure/Mechanics -- A