Chris McCandless and Ted Kaczynski

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Throughout time, many people have given up their normal lives in order to live simply. Whether it’s going out and living in the wild alone or giving up electricity and running water. “Sometimes the weight of civilization can be overwhelming. The fast pace ... the burdens of relationships ... the political strife ... the technological complexity — it's enough to make you dream of escaping to a simpler life more in touch with nature.” (Nelson) Some just can’t handle it, but some have too. Whether it’s criminal, religious, research reasons, or the world is just too much to handle living out in the wild happens for a reason and there are certain things that influence it.

Christopher McCandless was a well educated high class adult who always dreamed about the Alaskan Odyssey. This was living off the land far from all types of civilization. Basically just living out in the wild all alone with no electricity or running water. Growing up Christopher was a very privileged child. He wasn't the type of person you would think would just leave everything behind them to go out and live by them self in the wild. No one in his family really saw it coming. McCandless had great academic success, but what influenced him to do what he did was he hated seeing how materialistic this world could be. He wanted to just escape. McCandless made his way up to Alaska and got rid of all of his possessions. He made it to Alaska and from there started hitchhiking towards the wilderness. After that McCandless started his adventure of attempting to live off the land the rest of his life. No running water, no electricity, no real source of food, no money, and no people there to help him. "two years he walks the earth. no phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. ul...

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...e only reason. There are so many reasons for people to just let go and escape. It normally ends terribly, but to some people it is worth it " Which brings me to the most unforeseeable necessity of giving up on society: temperament. What you need to stay sane in the woods might be shocking, embarrassing and downright unpatriotic. After four weeks in shared solitude, an assortment of items I regarded as necessities became the basis of my immediate identity. Currently, the building blocks of my sanity are a handful of teeth-destroying candy, lots of herbal tea, a crunchy snack food option (when I ran out of cucumber I resorted to air-popped popcorn), daily banter with someone other than my partner (thank you, internet) and cartoons (I studied animation until the recession hit). Could I train myself to live without these things? I imagine so, but do I want to try?

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