Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Wild, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Loss and Grief
Healing vs. Redemption
The Kindness of Strangers
Nature and Humanity
Summary
Analysis
As Cheryl sets out once more, she starts to realize that though her boots are new, they are not much better than her old ones—her feet still feel raw and painful, and the strenuous up-and-down of the PCT means Cheryl’s feet are constantly working hard. On her second day out from Castle Crags, Cheryl spends so much time lost in thoughts about how hard the trek is and how much her feet hurt that she gets distracted and nearly steps on two rattlesnakes. Cheryl stops to rest once she’s far enough away from the snakes and briefly falls asleep on her tarp. She has a strange, upsetting dream—the same dream she had the night before while camping with Rex and Stacy. In the dream, Cheryl encounters Bigfoot, only to realize it is a man in a Bigfoot suit. Cheryl wonders if the dream is a kind of omen.
Cheryl’s boots teach her a valuable lesson as she sets off on this new leg of her hike. She is beginning to realize that even when she releases her stubborn nature and stops engaging in self-destructive patterns, things might not necessarily be easier—but she has to trek on anyway and make do with what she has.
Themes
That night, Cheryl once again camps with Rex and Stacy. Rex brings up the Rainbow Gathering on Toad Lake and says they should all go—Cheryl excitedly tells them about the hippy-dippy nature of the gathering, which she attended the year before, and mentions that there’s a ton of free food. The three of them excitedly decide to hike towards the gathering and rest there for a while the following day. The next day, however, when the three of them arrive at the Rainbow Gathering they find that it is a bust. There are just a few weirdos spread out around the lake. Cheryl is disappointed but tries to mask how upset she is from Stacy and Rex. That night, the three of them camp with some other PCT hikers, and Cheryl has another Bigfoot dream.
Cheryl is disturbed by a series of bizarre, unsettling anxiety dreams. Things on the trail are still difficult in spite of the strides she’s made, and neither her boots nor her plans for the Rainbow Gathering are working out for her. Cheryl is learning that even in the idyllic, natural wilderness of the PCT, there are still commonplace disappointments to be found.
Themes
The next day, hiking alone, Cheryl runs into a bear. It is just as scared of her as she is of it, and once it runs away, Cheryl breathes a sigh of relief that the thing her Bigfoot dreams portended has come and gone. Later on the trail that afternoon, Cheryl runs into a llama and its owner—she has never seen a llama before, and the encounter is a delight. As she pushes forward, she comes across a picnic table—there is a peach on top of it as well as a note addressed to her from Sam and Helen, some other PCT hikers, explaining that they’ve left it for her. Cheryl hungrily wolfs the peach, and as she is tossing the pit, she spots a deer. She is reminded of her encounter with the fox—the deer has the same amount of disinterest in her as the other animal had.
Cheryl’s encounters with a series of three very different animals is symbolic of her learning to tame the wild, animalistic parts of her soul. Cheryl has been facing down the “animals” within her psyche—the things that disturb, worry, and paw at her—and conquering each one. As she successfully navigates run-ins with everything from a dangerous bear to a domesticated llama, she realizes that there is hardly anything she can’t face down anymore.
Themes
Cheryl hikes on her own over the course of the next few days, enjoying the natural world around her and taking in the sunrises and sunsets each day. She passes the midpoint of her hike and finds herself filled with a strange melancholy. She thinks about all the strange and wonderful people she’s met on the trail, and how they’ve helped her to realize how many “amazing things” there are in the world. Cheryl feels something open inside of her, and she begins crying—not out of happiness or sadness, but out of sheer overwhelm. Cheryl is just days from Oregon, and feels, for the first time in a long time, “safe in this world.”
Cheryl has hiked a long way—but she’s only halfway to the Bridge of the Gods. The lessons she’s been learning along the way, however, are beginning to penetrate her consciousness more deeply and affect her in new, surprising ways. Cheryl at last has the moment of catharsis she’d assumed she’d have many of along the way—but even in the midst of her tears, she realizes that there’s no huge reckoning to be had. She is alright and at home in the world, even though she’s thousands of miles away from the life she once knew.
Themes
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