Matthew Guzdial, Post One

In Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods, the author and narrator, Bryson, hikes along the Appalachian Trail with his old friend Steven Katz. Originally just desperate for anyone to accompany him, Bryson does not think to question Katz’s motivation, but later, when it becomes clear that Katz is neither physically or mentally prepared for the hike, Bryson begins to question his hiking partner’s reasons. In any human experience, there are a plethora of reasons behind any decision. However, in Katz’s case, there is one large decision, which sends him on his way along the Appalachian Trail. This reason is the lack of direction within Katz’s life. 

During Katz’s drug-addled past; Katz’s goals were all oriented on his next fix, or on the next party. During Katz’s jail time his goal was freedom, and his job gave him another goal. However, now free and between jobs, Katz has no goals or direction. And so when Bryson asks, even pleads, for a hiking buddy, Katz, in his usual unthinking way, jumps at the chance. Katz’s lack of direction is most clearly expressed in the scene in chapter three with the waitress, Rayette. Despite the woman’s obvious homeliness, Katz makes moves towards her. His later line indicating that he is willing to take any sort of woman again shows his directionless, because he has nothing, he is willing to take anything.