A Color

A hue that can be as intense as malachite extracted from the earth, as muted as the flesh of a honeydew, or as alive as the chlorophyll encased in the leaves of a plant, green is a highly emotive and versatile color. Cheryl Strayed’s Wild is full of imagery centered around green, and the plot is inexplicably tied to the symbolic meanings of it.

The Oxford English Dictionary contains a slew of meanings attributed to the word “green.” Sometimes, “green” simply refers to the “color intermediate between blue and yellow in the spectrum” (Oxford English Dictionary). It is the most ubiquitous color found in nature, a commonality shared by almost every biome and every niche. Cheryl Strayed is introduced to the reader in an entirely green getup, which her mother had sewn for her. The color of life is the color of Cheryl Strayed when she finds out her mother is terminally ill. This could be ironic, but it could also be a hint that the tragedy of her mother’s death would be the very thing that launched Cheryl into a new beginning. Since green signifies health and vivacity in nature, it can be energizing. Similarly, hiking the Pacific Crest Trail was Cheryl’s self-prescribed remedy in her journey to re-energize and reinvigorate a stagnant life.

Green, the dominant color of the outdoors, is pervasive throughout Wild. Though it is largely used synonymously with the natural world, it can also represent artificiality. Two specific appearances of the color are associated with some form of home Cheryl temporarily occupied-the car and the tent. She remembers “sleeping and waking to the alien green lights of the dashboard” of a car, as her mother drove her and her siblings away from a life of abuse and neglect with her father (133). She also recalls the “green nylon and mesh walls” of the tent that kept her safe in the midst of the untamed green of the wilderness (216). This juxtaposition of synthetic green within genuine green finds a relative in Cheryl’s life. She felt as if she were living a fake life within the greater actual world.

In other instances, “green” signifies rawness. Green is the shade of immaturity (think of unripe fruit). Cheryl’s reckless behaviour that characterized her young adulthood is a years-long display of immaturity. Whereas a fruit requires time to reach a state where it can be enjoyed, Cheryl’s life required experience. When it is describing a wound, “green” means unhealed, recent, fresh. If we return to the beginning of the book where Cheryl is waiting for the diagnosis in the hospital dressed in a green pantsuit, Cheryl has been colored by the freshness of the wound of her mother’s sickness. As she presses on through the PCT, the greenness of her wound transforms into a different tint. “Green in earth” signifies something that has just been buried. Cheryl’s physical and emotional limits, once tested in the unadulterated expanse of the trail, force her to confront her pain honestly. It becomes manageable and green in the earth.  

When applying the term “green” to a person, it has a multitude of meanings that can all be found in Cheryl’s story. Of a person, it can mean someone who has recently recovered from an illness. Of a mother, it means one that has recently delivered a child. “Green” also means inexperienced. A man Cheryl meets on the trail encourages her to continue, despite her obvious inexperience, saying “you’re green, but you’re tough” (89). This comment was intended to reflect her status as an amateur long-distance hiking, but it could be interpreted to betray a degree of newness in her own upturned life. As Cheryl adjusts to the demands of the PCT, she also adjusts to the weight of her losses.

Once Cheryl reaches Oregon, she stumbles upon a large group of people taking part in what’s called the Rainbow Gathering. Her time at the Rainbow Gathering leads her to a number of brief exchanges with people who do not hurt or heal her. In an encounter Cheryl has with an attractive man named Jonathan, she sets the scene by describing the colors other than green she adorns herself in, in an effort to appear less unruly. Her “bronze skin,” “blue eyes made even bluer by the Plum Haze lipstick,” and even the “red ink” that stained her hands stand out in her illustration of the scene (249-248). They appear in the forefront of the green backdrop Cheryl has provided throughout her trip along the PCT. The colors that are memorable in this chapter do not correspond with anyone or any experience that contributes to Cheryl’s growth and journey to self-actualization. In Wild, the greatest changes happen in green tones.

Cheryl Strayed halts her quickly downward-spiraling life in its tracks by making the decision to go on a very long hike. When her life got to be more chaotic than she ever imagined it could get, she impulsively uprooted herself from the hectic technicolor world and carved out a space for herself in the sweeping green of the PCT. Removed from the self-inflicted agonies of her careless lifestyle, she had to surrender herself to the forces of nature. Cheryl was no longer the arbiter of her own suffering—the wild took on that role, supplying her with challenge after challenge. Green, and greenness, compelled Cheryl to action, and it was the green of the PCT that precipitated a process of healing. The restoration she underwent was captured in the nuanced greens of many different settings.