RELATING TO A CHARACTER

Edwin Rodriguez
English 16
Professor McCormick
Journal Entry

Relating

One person that I feel I can most relate to is Chris's McCandless sister Carine McCandless. Carine's situations at her stand point remind me of myself, and certain issues that I and my family faced in my life. I see that she was in the same predicament as me. Chris reminds me of my sister in that they both have their rebellious ways. I was always the one watching or overlooking what was going on just like Carine did.
Krakauer talks how Carine and Chris are similar in some ways but there are very different also, just like the relationship between my sister Crystal and I.Carine seems to relate to her brother to a certain degree, like clashing with her parents. Krakauer writes, "Like Chris, Carine is energetic and self-assured, a high achiever, quick to state an opinion. Also like Chris, she clashed fiercely with Walt and Billie as an adolescent. But the differences between the siblings were greater than their similarities."
My sister Crystal was always the one that had the most drama with my parents. Even though I had my drama it wasn’t like to my sister’s extreme. She was always the rebellion for any little thing. One incident, out of many, that I remember was when my sister left the house just like Chris did. They both did it out of rebellious actions. One morning my mom and my sister were arguing. They were hollering at each other in the stairway like no other. I was listening, of course, downstairs in the living room. That's when a pivotal change happened in our lives. Shortly after, there argument my sister had left the house, for good. She eventually came back to get her stuff and move out but she wanted to be gone for good. My mother didn’t want anything but greatness to come out of her, but Crystal couldn’t see that.
Another way there are similarities between myself and Carine and Chris and Crystal is when Krakauer writes about the photographs. Chris is more relluctant to take a pic while Carin is smiling away. Krakauer writes in his essay:
She's right: In both photos Chris stares at the lens with the same pensive, recalcitrant squint, as if he'd been interrupted in the middle of an improtant thought and was annoyed to be wasting his time in front of the camera. His expression is most striking in the Easter photo because it contrasts so strongly with the exuberant grin Carine wears in the same frame. 128
We have an almost exact picture that mathces the description of Carine's and Chris's. My family was in Virgina Beach, Virgina for summer vacation. While we were down there we had taken a lot of pictures together. The one that reminds me most of their Easter photo was when we were leaving on our last day. My aunt had taken a picture of us; you see me smiling like it was for a Colgate commercial. But as you scan your eyes to the right you can see my sister giving a squint and uncomfortable look as if she was bother by my aunt.
Reading this story help me to justify the connections between myself and Carine who is the passive aggessive type. Then to find my sister like Chris, the rebelious child was really errie. I didn't think the similarities would be as close as they were.