Pietrzykowski
Rebels, Outcasts, Adventurers, Social and Environmental Warriors
After he ditches his car and gives away his trust fund, Chris McCandless steps off the road into the Alaskan wilderness carrying only what will fit in his backpack. In doing so, he joined a small but committed group of individuals who in some way reject the ideals and lifestyle of modern America (or their culture). Who are these individuals? What are they looking for? Why are they dissatisfied with their lives or the way others live?
For this project, you'll choose one rebel, outcast, extreme adventurer, or social/environmental warrior to research and write about. Using our school's databases, you will locate several articles about the individual you have chosen to research. After reading them, be prepared to answer the following questions:
- Who steps out of the traditional bounds of society and why?
- What do they hope to accomplish?
- What do they find?
- How does society respond to them?
1. Choose an individual from the list below.
- Henry David Thoreau
- Edward Abbey
- Jack Kerouac
- Captain Paul Watson
- Cheryl Strayed
- Anne LaBastille
- Beryl Markham
- Ayaan Hirsi Ali
- Edward Snowden
- John Muir
- Timothy Treadwell
- Ted Kaczynski
- Paul Gauguin
- Allen Ginsberg
- George Carlin
- Bill Hicks * (William Melvin Hicks? comedian/satirist?)
- Daniel Ellsberg
- Mahatma Gandhi
- Thomas Morton (see Hawthorne's "The Maypole of Merry Mount") *
- St. Francis
- Herman Hesse (see Siddhartha)
- John Brown
- Che Guevara
- Nelson Mandela
- Ho Chi Minh
- Galileo Galilei
- Sitting Bull
- Crazy Horse
- Martin Luther
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
- William Wallace
- George Washington
2. Write your essay
Once you have a comprehensive understanding of the person you have chosen to research, write a well-developed essay (approx. 6 paragraphs) about him or her. In your essay you should analyze this individual's choice to live or operate outside the usual bounds of society. Your thesis should address at least one of the following:
- Did this individual find success on his or her quest?
- What stumbling blocks did this person encounter along the way?
- What did this individual learn?
- What did others learn from this individual?
Be sure to support your argument with specific and relevant evidence from the researched information you found, citing the material accordingly. Your essay must cite at least three scholarly, credible sources.
3. Present your findings to the class
Create a short digital presentation to share with the class (6-10 slides).
Sources
Access any of these databases for accurate and high quality articles that can be exported directly to your GoogleDrive, and all articles include an MLA-formatted citation!
Biographies of 600,000 individuals, with 50,000 added each year. Includes additional information through full-text access to reference books, newspapers, and journals. Articles may be bookmarked, printed or emailed, or sent directly to your GoogleDrive and all articles include formatted citations.
Includes full-text access to a variety of reference publications, such as American Decades, Civil Rights in the United States, and the Dictionary of American History. Includes primary source material, 6.9 million full-text articles from magazines and journals, image galleries, 6,700 video clips and 84,000 audio files. Clearly identifies and sorts results into "reference," "primary source," "news," etc. Articles may be bookmarked, printed or emailed, or sent directly to your GoogleDrive and all articles include formatted citations.
Includes full-text access to a variety of reference publications, such as Encyclopedia of World History, Arts and Humanities through the Eras, and the Renaissance and Reformation Reference Library. Includes primary source material, 12.4 million full-text articles from magazines and journals, image galleries, 6,200 video clips and 83,000 audio files.Clearly identifies and sorts results into "reference," "primary source," "news," etc. Articles may be bookmarked, printed or emailed, or sent directly to your GoogleDrive and all articles include formatted citations.
Includes full-text access to 7,500 peer-reviewed journals, in topics such as physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, theology, education and literature. Includes full-text of the New York Times from 1985-present, and London Times from 1985-present. Articles may be bookmarked, printed or emailed, or sent directly to your GoogleDrive and all articles include formatted citations.