Chris Kyle, a name that comes with a lot of recognition; some good, and some bad. The most substantial title comes with being named as the most lethal sniper in United States’ history, with over one hundred, and sixty confirmed kills. Christopher Scott Kyle was born April 8, 1974 in Odessa, Texas to two loving parents Deby Lynn Mercer Kyle, and Wayne Kenneth Kyle (Kyle 8). Chris was raised in north-central Texas, in the many small towns around the familiar area (Kyle 9). However, Chris was not raised here alone, four years after Chris’s birth on January 25, 1978 his parents were blessed with another bundle of joy, Jeff Kyle ("Chris Kyle"). Both boys grew up as average farm boys, and were raised by their caring parents the best way they could …show more content…
raise two rowdy boys. Chris said “I learned the importance of family and traditional values like patriotism, self-reliance, and watching out for your family and neighbors. I’m proud to say that I still try to live according to those values.” (Kyle 8). With Chris’s beliefs he was raised properly with a healthy home life. Chris spent most of his time riding horses, hunting, talking guns, having a wonderful relationship with his father, going to church, and quarreling with his brother.
Chris often got into fights, however, he never started them. Chris claimed this about his father “ My dad made it clear I’d get a whuppin’ if he ever found out I started a fight. We were supposed to be above that. Defending myself was a different story.” Also Chris made sure to protect Jeff even if they did not always get along “ Protecting my brother was even better- if someone tried to pick on him, I’d lay them out. I was the only one allowed to whip him.” (Kyle 11). Chris growing up also consisted of him claiming he was cowboy from a young age, that turned into a mature rancher. “You’re not a cowboy until you can break a horse. I started learning in high school; at first, I didn’t know a whole heck of a lot. I learned much more as I got older.” Even though Chris claimed he learned more, he still did not know much until he acquired a job as a ranch hand. “ I went to work for David Landrum, in Hood County, Texas, and quickly found out I wasn’t near as much of a cowboy as I thought I was. David took care of that. He taught me everything about working a ranch, and then some.” (Kyle 16). Chris loved working for David and ranching in general, in his words “working on a ranch is pure heaven.” (Kyle
16).
Before going to Alaska, Chris McCandless had failed to communicate with his family while on his journey; I believe this was Chris’s biggest mistake. Chris spent time with people in different parts of the nation while hitchhiking, most of them whom figured out that McCandless kept a part of him “hidden”. In chapter three, it was stated that Chris stayed with a man named Wayne Westerberg in South Dakota. Although Westerberg was not seen too often throughout the story, nevertheless he was an important character. Introducing himself as Alex, McCandless was in Westerberg’s company for quite some time: sometimes for a few days, other times for several weeks. Westerberg first realized the truth about Chris when he discovered his tax papers, which stated that “McCandless’s real name was Chris, not Alex.” Wayne further on claims that it was obvious that “something wasn’t right between him and his family” (Krakauer 18). Further in the book, Westerberg concluded with the fact that Chris had not spoken to his family “for all that time, treating them like dirt” (Krakauer 64). Westerberg concluded with the fact that during the time he spent with Chris, McCandless neither mentioned his
He left and “walked into the wild”, as he said, to escape his problems (Krakauer, 69). He never confronted his dad about his feelings. Carine McCandless talks about this personality trait in Chris saying, “Chris was the sort of person who brooded on things. If something bothered him; he wouldn’t come right out and say it” (Krakauer, 122). He changed his name, He wasn’t trying to take pride in his “adventure”. It was an extra and unnecessary precaution to ensure that his problems would not affect his escape. Chris McCandless changed his name and then continued his life ignoring all of the problems he had ever
After reading chapter 1 of Into the Wild, I have the impression that while he seems friendly, he possess a number of negative qualities. Chris seems to be very stubborn, and most of all overconfident. While Chris seems excited to go to Alaska, but is dangerously unprepared, and seems to overplay his experience, while refusing any help. “Im absolutely positive,” he assured Gallien, “I won’t run into anything I can’t deal with on my own” Page 6 Chapter 1. This example perfectly shows his arrogance. By saying this Chris shows how he believes he can take anything on, and is ready for the wilderness, he thinks he is invincible, and is incredibly confident in his survival skills. “Gallien
Although Chris McCandless' life at home growing up was hounded by his so called "ignorant" father or his "bigot" parents, made the best out of his life whenever he could. He was on the cross country team when he was younger, and they all ran out into the wild almost, purposely getting lost. Being on that team and experiencing that made him happier and started his interest and passion for embracing nature. Chris even found solace and was content with providing food, such as hamburgers, stated by his cross country teammate Eric Hathway, providing company to people less fortunate than him. Taking hikes with his grandfather and doing things as mentioned previously (cross country), eventually influenced him to make his greatest adventure and unbeknownst
According to the book Into The Wild and Chris’s parents “there was always a little wanderlust in the family, and it was clear early on that Chris had inherited it” (108). Billie’s dad Loren Johnson and Chris both loved the wildlife, Loren was charmed by Chris and Chris adored his grandfather When Chris was eight Walt took him on a mountain climbing trip where he carried his own backpack, hiking the mountains became a father-son tradition. While on his trip to Alaska many people that he meet offered him stuff so he could survive there but he would always deny their offer. One person that had offered him rice did not accept a “no” so Chris was forced to take it. The last person to see Chris on his journey was a union electrician called Jim Gallien. Jim was on his way to Anchorage, Jim thought Chris was crazy to think he could survive in the forests of Alaska, but Chris’s love for nature and his adventurous spirit were too strong to fear all the warnings people kept telling him. From just these few things that Chris was introduced to made him love the wild and he became
One thing that most people struggle to do in this modern society is to blaze their own path, or to be a pioneer. This was in Chris’s nature, this isn’t something that was force upon him, he himself was born with this trait and this became a part of his legacy. His desire and will to explore the Alaskan wilderness with little gear and no communication with the outside world can only be defined as crazy. (On pg. 69), Chris states, “Please return all mail I receive to the sender. It might be a very long time before I return south. If this adventure proves fatal and you don’t ever hear from me again, I want you...
“Don’t judge a book by it’s cover, it’s what’s inside counts” This quote reminds people about how they should not judge other people from the outside but look deep into their true personalities. Looking from the appearance and how Chris lives, everyone would assume that Chris is a crazy, foolish person and does everything without thinking. If people try to know more about Chris, they would have different perspective. Chris is intelligent, determined, independent and follows what he believes. He went into the wilderness to escape from the society that tries to suppress him and look for the meaning of life.
According to others, Chris McCandless was inherently selfish. Please, let’s beg to differ, for goodness sake, he was a grown man! It was his life and he was living it the way he wanted to. Chris gave his sister fair warning. He bid to her, “Since they won’t ever take me seriously, for a few months after graduation I’m going to let them think they are right, I’m going to let them think that I’m “coming around to see their sides of things” and that our relationship is stabilizing. And then, once the time is right, with one abrupt, swift action I’m going to completely knock them out of my life...” (Krakauer 64) He knew what he had to do. He had to show his parents how they had made him feel his whole life. As a graduation present they offered him a new car, his old Datsun apparently was to their standards. Chris became infuriated. That was his pride and joy, how dare them try and take that away! They ignored what he was saying, as he did many times before, he o...
Excerpt #3→ Carine McCandless specified an unique detail about Chris when she said, “Chris would never, ever, intentionally burn down a forest, not even to save his life. Anybody who would suggest otherwise doesn't understand the first thing about my brother (198).”
Was he a reckless idiot? That is the big question. This is what people always seem to talk about when they talk about Chris McCandless. There are many people who think that Chris McCandless was a reckless idiot who was mentally ill, or something else was wrong with Chris. It seems that almost everybody that met Chris thought maybe Chris was crazy or had problems. Here are just a few things that people said about Chris and his state of mind. Pg 40 Zarza admits saying, "he was always going on about trees and nature and weird stuff like that. We all thought he was missing a few screws. Pg 42 Charlie said, "seemed like a kid who was looking for something." Pg 45 Burres said "I thought Alex had lost his mind when he told us about his 'great Alaskan odyssey, ' as he called it."
Chris McCandless was a very bright young man yet he was very ignorant at the same time. I do agree with Shaun Callarman with his argument about how Chris McCandless was a very ignorant man. Chris had such a bright future ahead of him by graduating from Wilbert Tucker High School and being a college graduate from Emory University with a bachelor 's degree in history and anthropology and yet he just let all of that go to waste. He was ignorant to the fact that he wanted to find happiness since he couldn 't find it within his household since his parents got into fights all of the time, and so he chose to leave that life, not tell his parents where he was going (which was stupid of him to not tell them), also it was completely stupid and dumb of
Chris was intelligent; he had a college education. The people that Chris met along his journey had good things to say about him. Westerberg gave Alex a job, "He was the hardest worker I've ever seen. Didn't matter what it was, he'd do it..." (18). Alex was a hard-working kid who constantly tried proving to himself that he could do the impossible. Chris didn't like how people desperately tried to help him, however. "After an extended argument Burres also got McCandless to accept some long underwear and other warm clothing
Having over 500 confirmed kills is quite the feat, especially when you do it with only a sniper rifle. Simo Hayha, one of the few snipers who have over 500 confirmed kills, is full of skill and talent. His skill is what makes him one of the single most deadly people to ever live. A person with his skill is revered by many to this day.
Patrick Manning evaluates Jerry Bentley’s proposal for periodizing world history in his essay, “The Problem of Interactions in World History.” Manning finds the focus on cross-cultural interaction to be an interesting approach to world history, but he believes it is only “the beginning of the work” and provides suggestions on how historians can expand on what is meant by cross-cultural interaction to improve it as a criterion for periodizing world history (Manning 782). His main critique of using cross-cultural interaction to periodize history is that it involves a degree of simplification. Ultimately, Manning describes Bentley’s proposal as “elegant and comprehensive” and says he is “inclined to accept cross-cultural interaction as an appropriate
Chris Van Allsburg was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on June 18, 1949, the second child of Doris Christiansen and Richard Allsburg (Thomson, 2006). His sister Karen was born in 1947 (Houghton Mifflin, 2011).Chris and his family lived in an old farm-house when he was growing up from he was born until was three years old, then his family relocated to a brand new and better looking farm-house and he lived there