Jovany Garcia

Period: 3/4
english
Power Essay
In the book Wild, Cheryl talks about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail and takes a book with
her that she treat as if it were a bible called, Pacific Crest Trail: Volume i. California. This book
has a lot of influence and value to Cheryl because the book has kept her motivated and gives tips
on how to hike the trail. She not only read it during the hike but before the hike it was the only
book she read. " I had only The Pacific Crest Trail: Volume I, California. It was my bible. My
timeline. The only book I'd read about hiking on the PCT, or anywhere else for that matter" (pg.
58). In one part of the book Cheryl also mentions a poem she read in the book, Pacific Crest
Trail: Volume I, California, called Power written by Adrienne Rich. When she had read it her
motivation to finish the trail grew. She loved it so much that she read it more than once. It's like
has her and Marie Curie, the woman that the poem is written about had something common.
Marie Curie was born 1867 and died 1934. Marie was a passionate French physicist and
chemist that researched radioactivity. She discovered the radioactive metals radium and
polonium. Marie died doing what she loved. After being exposed to radiation for so long, and
eventually got sick. But that didn't stop Marie to quit her job. She was determined to not quit on
her work until she was incapable of holding a test tube. Marie denied her wounds and denied the
fact that what she loved doing was slowly killing her.
Cheryl was inspired and kept striving to complete the Pacific Crest Trails. During the
hike she not only wants to achieve something but she believes that walking it on her own it will
help her reflect on herself and go back to the old her, I had to change. I had to change was the
thought that drove me in those months of planning. Not into a different person, but back to the
person I used to be--strong and responsible (pg.56-57). Cheryl realizes that they both have a lot
similar situations. These both women went through a lot of pain. Cheryl goes through the pain of
losing her mother.The main thing that was keeping her in one piece and after her death she fell
apart, walking the trail caused her much more pain carrying all the bags, her feet hurt everything
hurt. Marie went through the pain of being sick for a while because of radiation that later on
killed her.

Cheryl really felt connected to them poem, Power. I opened it up and read the first poem
out loud, my voice rising above the sound of the wind battering the walls of my tent. I read it
again and again and again. It was a poem called Power (pg.60). This quote shows how she
really liked the poem, and encouraged her to want to finish the trail. She was influenced to never
quit on your goals and the good outcome of finishing something that was already started.
During the Pacific Crest Trail Cheryl had taken with her a book called Pacific Crest
Trail: Volume I, California. This book has a lot of meaning to her, she calls it her bible. In a part
of the book there is a poem written by Adrienne Rich called Power, the poem talks about a
woman named Marie Curie and how prideful and how passionate she was for her job. She died
doing what she loved. It motivated and inspired Cheryl to want to finish the hike. She believed
that them two were very much alike. They both had been through a lot of pain and had a goal to
pursue. Maries strength was very motivating that it helped Cheryl through out the way and
might have taught her not to give up.