A Walk in the Woods

The overarching theme running throughout A Walk in the Woods is the interplay and contrasts between wilderness and civilization. This thematic element, as Bryson explores it, isn’t one of comparison but rather how both exist as the recurring worlds that Bill Bryson and Stephen Katz alternately inhabit as they attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail. The exploration focuses on how Bryson and Katz transition from one world to the other. This is the case primarily because they hike and camp portions of the trail, sometimes for weeks at a time in the wilderness, but at various intervals throughout their adventure always return to civilization, sometimes only for a single night. Hiking and camping day after day until reaching civilization in the form of a nearby town with a motel, restaurant, and laundry facilities is a process that repeats itself over and over throughout the first half of the book. Part 2, however, takes on a different type of examination because Bryson is now hiking alone and typically does so by driving to various AT locations to hike and then moving on to another or, when he’s near his home, by doing a series of day hikes and returning home every day.