Near the beginning of Cheryl Strayed’s adventure on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), two of her trail mates quickly became bedridden with a waterborne parasite and have to be taken to the hospital (Strayed 114). This scene reminds us the dangers of drinking water when among nature. Here are experienced hikers that spent weeks finding the perfect water filters, only to end their adventure early, crippled by a waterborne disease. Without the safety of society, simple things like safe drinking water, staying warm, eating enough food, and not getting lost are trivial tasks. Why exposure oneself to these dangers? As seen on the adventures of both Cheryl and Chris, they travel away from society in order to deal with their own, personal inner-conflicts. …show more content…
She is faced with dangers never seen when she was safely tucked away in civilization. She witnesses, possibly for the first time, how trivial tasks like drinking clean water, staying warm, eating enough food, and not getting lost are in the wild. In society, grocery stores, filtration systems, heaters, and GPS easily solve human needs. Cheryl believes that through removing herself from society and its luxury she will begin to solve her inner conflicts. For the three years after her mother’s death, Cheryl stayed within society, and the open wound she carried did not heal. Over that time, Cheryl digressed into drug addiction and divorce. Cheryl, realizing the problem, then removes herself from society, and alone struggles on the PCT. In the extended amount of time Cheryl spends alone in the wilderness, she is able to truly think. She becomes tougher and gains confidence, needing to focus on her many physical ailments such as the many “bruises that ranged in color from yellow to black lined [her] arms and legs” (129), she comes to terms with her mother’s death and vanquishes the problems she created within herself. While Cheryl did walk through the wilderness, she never truly left society. She followed a man-made trail through nature, which meandered through towns where she was able to restock on supplies. If she had left society completely, her survival would have …show more content…
They both become immersed in nature to some extent, traveling alone for the majority of the adventure but meeting many people along the way. Cheryl’s inner pain is much different from McCandless’. Cheryl’s conflict was caused by the death of her mother and the separation of the family that was her support system. McCandless’ conflict is caused by his realization that society is not the most just and moral thing, and that causes his to feel unrest with in it. He also felt that “humans had devolved into progressively inferior beings". (74) Even though both these characters had very different inner conflicts, they both turned to the same solution: extracting themselves from society for a period of time. Another main difference between the two stories is the outcome. Cheryl returned to society after her problem was solved while McCandless died of starvation before he could return. Cheryl chose a less treacherous way to connect with nature and disconnect herself from society for at least the majority of the hike. She over packed her backpack, and made sure she had all the items she needed before beginning the PCT. She also mailed herself packages filled with more supplies to each town she would be passing through so she would not run out of items. McCandless on the other
While she might think that her plans are working, they only lead her down a path of destruction. She lands in a boarding house, when child services find her, she goes to jail, becomes pregnant by a man who she believed was rich. Also she becomes sentenced to 15 years in prison, over a street fight with a former friend she double crossed. In the end, she is still serving time and was freed by the warden to go to her mother’s funeral. To only discover that her two sisters were adopted by the man she once loved, her sister is with the man who impregnated her, and the younger sister has become just like her. She wants to warn her sister, but she realizes if she is just like her there is no use in giving her advice. She just decides that her sister must figure it out by
...inds love along the way. She makes rash decisions in bad situations, faces the truth that she has been avoiding, and finds her place in the world. While her journey takes some unexpected twists, Lily learns to make the best of what she has, and go for what she wants. She learns to move on from the past, and make a brighter future. But most importantly, Lily learns to accept that life is unpredictable and that by doing her best Lily is living life the way she wants to.
McCandless was different to other people, Westerburg saw this, explaining how McCandless ”tried too hard to make sense of the world. To figure out why people were bad to each other so often”(18). When McCandless originally left, he had felt betrayed by his parents and in college he slowly started pushing his friends away. He was disgusted by all the lies and began to shut down and came the plan to leave in his Datsun. Anybody else in his place would have decided to take charge and take a decisive turn turn in their life, hoping it would be for the better. Many don 't realize that although the beginning he was escaping, he later preferred living in nature and didn 't want to stop. He said it himself in a letter “ The freedom and simple beauty of it is just too good to pass up”(33). Also, in McCandless story you’re able to see the evolution of McCandless mentality. At first, he is alone trying to cope with the setbacks he encounters, in which he almost dies from. Then, needing to recharge, he makes friends like Franz and the Westerburg that allow him to see the positives of having someone there for you. However, he still was not convinced that human relationships were necessary, he keeps a safe distance sending them postcards when he can. It is not until at Alaska that McCandless discovers what happiness consists of, he writes in bold letters, “Happiness only
Her realization that she is not alone in her oppression brings her a sense of freedom. It validates her emerging thoughts of wanting to rise up and shine a light on injustice. Her worries about not wanting to grow up because of the harsh life that awaits her is a common thought among others besides the people in her community. As she makes friends with other Indians in other communities she realizes the common bonds they share, even down to the most basic such as what they eat, which comforts her and allows her to empathize with them.
To begin with, McCandless’s decision to walk into the wild was acceptable because he wanted to become an inspiration and an individual. Emerson states, “There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance: that imitation is suicide” (Emerson). Chris McCandless left to shun the conformist society that he could feel changing him. Chris wanted the chains that bound him to be broken. Society takes the individual and locks it up and destroys it. According to Emerson, “It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion: it is easy to in solitude to live after our own: but the great man is he who in the midst of the crow keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude” (Emerson). McCandless left his materialistic family to be his own person ad to be unique. The world’s opinion does not make the man wh...
she relates the story of her survival in the wilderness for a period of three
Chris McCandless, the main character of “Into the wild” was angered by his father’s infidelity and bigamy. As a result, Chris McCandless wanted to separate himself from his family and he begins a spiritual adventure to search for his identity. Chris McCandless isolates himself physically and emotionally to find freedom and peace by adventuring into the wild. Therefore, McCandless escapes from Emory University and immediately flees his dull and predictable life, heading west without a word to his family. Although, McCandless journey ends in a tragic ending, he fulfilled his ambition by pursuing his ambition and inner peace. In conclusion, McCandless journey was both a search for inner peace and transition to maturity.
Straying away from life as a whole only to be alone, some may say is the strong way to heal themselves when dealing with extreme grief or a major crisis . In the book Wild, twenty-two year old Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost it all. Dealing with the loss of her mother, her family torn to pieces, and her very own marriage was being destroyed right before her very eyes. Living life with nothing more to lose, lifeless, she made the most life changing decision of her life. Strayed never seems remorseful on her decisions to up and leave everything behind while deciding to flee from it all. This being her way of dealing with life, it shows her as being strong; a woman of great strength and character. She shows personal strength, which is more than just a physical word. It is a word of very high value and can only be defined by searching deep within your very own soul.
Strayed uses a unique writing style and figurative language in Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail to give a picture of how one can use the past to create a healthy and bright present. Throughout the entire memoir, Strayed uses flashbacks and flash-forwards during her hike. Strayed starts off with her hike when she says, “My solo three-month hike on the Pacific Crest Trail had many beginnings” (1), and then she switches to “I accompanied my mother and stepfather, Eddie, from floor to floor of the Mayo Clinic” (10). With the constant back and forth where chronological time has no place, Strayed uses this repeatedly to clearly show her improvement by using the past as lessons to learn from. Strayed relies on her rare style to show that the past does help forge a better present. Likewise, the tone of the beginning and the end begin to shift. At the beginning, Strayed says that “I’ve never gone backpacking” (32), but at the end, she says, “Thank you. Not just for the long walk, but for everything I could feel finally gathered up inside
In the film “Into the Wild” it shows Chris, a young adult, trying to make his way to Alaska. His beliefs in freedom and isolation from the modern world would drive him to go to Alaska in hope that he finds the so simple goal, happiness. He struggle sand faces obstacles that hinder him to his destination. Odd people, intelligent people, elderly people, young people; he met all these unique individuals on his journey. Each one had a small impact on his thoughts and adventure. One person in particular, a young girl hidden as subplot, is the final point of why his decisions of leaving not only the modern world but the people around him was not the way of reaching the goal that seems ever so far. Happiness. This girl lived in a trailer park where free spirited individuals had the will to slow down their lives and enjoy it. One aspect that made it this type of living different from any regular neighborhood was that the habitants were always sharing with one another. This vital aspect of these people was never noticed by Chris. This proved detrimental in his short time in Alaska till his heart aching death.
The story recaps a troubled woman’s 1,000-mile backpacking journey through the Pacific Crest Trail. After her mother’s death, Cheryl Strayed found herself in a concerning drug addiction, a less than perfect marriage, and immersed in sexual promiscuity. Revaluating her decisions into self-ruin, Strayed made an impulse decision to hike the Western edge of the United States, from the Mexican border to the Canadian Border. She then recorded her journey from mid-life crisis to self-awareness.
Sometimes a character may be pushed over the edge by our materialistic society to discover his/her true roots, which can only be found by going back to nature where monetary status was not important. Chris McCandless leaves all his possessions and begins a trek across the Western United States, which eventually brings him to the place of his demise-Alaska. Jon Krakauer makes you feel like you are with Chris on his journey and uses exerts from various authors such as Thoreau, London, and Tolstoy, as well as flashbacks and narrative pace and even is able to parallel the adventures of Chris to his own life as a young man in his novel Into the Wild. Krakauer educates himself of McCandless’ story by talking to the people that knew Chris the best. These people were not only his family but the people he met on the roads of his travels- they are the ones who became his road family.
Into the Wild, written by John Krakauer tells of a young man named Chris McCandless who 1deserted his college degree and all his worldly possessions in favor of a primitive transient life in the wilderness. Krakauer first told the story of Chris in an article in Outside Magazine, but went on to write a thorough book, which encompasses his life in the hopes to explain what caused him to venture off alone into the wild. McCandless’ story soon became a national phenomenon, and had many people questioning why a “young man from a well-to-do East Coast family [would] hitchhike to Alaska” (Krakauer i). Chris comes from an affluent household and has parents that strived to create a desirable life for him and his sister. As Chris grows up, he becomes more and more disturbed by society’s ideals and the control they have on everyday life. He made a point of spiting his parents and the lifestyle they lived. This sense of unhappiness continues to build until after Chris has graduated college and decided to leave everything behind for the Alaskan wilderness. Knowing very little about how to survive in the wild, Chris ventures off on his adventure in a state of naïveté. It is obvious that he possessed monumental potential that was wasted on romanticized ideals and a lack of wisdom. Christopher McCandless is a unique and talented young man, but his selfish and ultimately complacent attitude towards life and his successes led to his demise.
Into the wild is a non-fiction book which expanded from the nine-thousand-word article by Jon Krakauer. This article ran in the January 1993 issue of the magazine Outside. Jon Krakauer was very much drawn toward the tale of McCandless and decided to write his story. He spent more than a year tracking down the details of the boy’s tramp. Then he used matter-of-fact tones to narrate what he chased on the path about the boy. The framework presented in this book can be separated into three parts: (1) retracing, including the interview with most of the important people who once kept company with Chris; (2) wildness, presenting mails generated from readers and several idealists that were in the similar situation with Chris; (3) affection, including the memory of parents, sister and friends.
Her spry, Timberland-clad foot planted itself upon a jagged boulder, motionless, until her calf muscles tightened and catapulted her small frame into the next stride. Then Sara's dance continued, her feet playing effortlessly with the difficult terrain. As her foot lifted from the ground, compressed mint-colored lichen would spring back into position, only to be crushed by my immense boot, struggling to step where hers had been. My eyes fixated on the forest floor, as fallen trees, swollen roots, and unsteady rocks posed constant threats for my exhausted body. Without glancing up I knew what was ahead: the same dense, impenetrable green that had surrounded us for hours. My throat prickled with unfathomable thirst, as my long-empty Nalgene bottle slapped mockingly at my side. Gnarled branches snared at my clothes and tore at my hair, and I blindly hurled myself after Sara. The portage had become a battle, and the ominously darkening sky raised the potential for casualties. Gritting my teeth with gumption, I refused to stop; I would march on until I could no longer stand.