Chris McCandless of Into The Wild and Aron Ralston of Between a Rock and a Hard Place

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People make bad choices in life every day, some may be recovered from whereas others have fatal consequences. A reporter named Jon Krakauer wrote a biography called Into The Wild which is about a young man named Chris McCandless who makes a fatal decision which lead to his demise in Alaska. Aron Ralton's book called Between a Rock and a Hard Place is about his near death experience from making a bad choice. His perseverance and problem solving skills become his salvation in the hot and dry terrain of Utah. Chris and Aron were both eager for adventure and both had a love for nature and the outdoors. Chris died because he lacked Aron's prior knowledge of survival tactics, making Chris ill prepared for his journey.
Aron and Chris each prepared for their journeys in many different ways. Chris only brought with him the clothes on his back, a book for identifying plants, a sack of rice, some water, and a gun. For a trip that was going to be much longer then average Chris did not plan out his journey in Alaska wisely. He also unwisely refused to accept advice from locals regarding what he would need to be prepared for Alaskan wilderness. Walt McCandless said "Chris was good at almost everything he ever tried... which made him supremely overconfident". (Krakauer 118) Aron Ralston on the other hand was quite well acquainted with the rugged regions of Utah where his journey took place. Ralston took the ordinary day to day things he thought he would need for a day trip; a gallon sized CamelBak, another gallon of water in a canteen, a muffin, two burritos, and five chocolate bars. In some other ways Ralston was well prepared by bringing along climbing gear, a head lamp, a camera, batteries, and a Lea...

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...tep. ...". (Martin, G05)

Some mistakes can be recovered from and some are deemed fatal. Aron recovered from his with a huge price to pay, his arm. Chris made several simple mistakes that lead up to his death. One of Chris' mistakes was taking all his information to survive from one source, his plant identification book. On July 30 McCandless wrote in his journal "EXTREMELY WEAK. FAULT OF POT. SEED". (Krakauer 190) Krakauer went on to show that McCandless probably died from eating not poisonous but contaminated potato seeds. Therefore Chris did not intentionally cause his demise.

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