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Defining self and self concept
Defining self and self concept
Defining self and self concept
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Michael Jasman Ms. Arencibia World Literature Period: 5 16 April 2014 McCandles Ultimate Freedom Through Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer demonstrates that young men raised in society want to define themselves. Defining oneself is something that is a common existential precept. Trying to define your life and be able to accept life for what it is and then continue to use the potential to become and define yourself is what Chris McCandles did in Into the Wild. An existentialist is one who is preoccupied only with the moment of awareness, a greater mindfulness, with only his senses at his disposal. According to Satre, human existence precedes essence, which leads to purpose, identity, and meaning. It was these three traits that Chris was in search for when he fled into the wild. Chris is in the existential mindset when he separates himself from everything, society and even his family to reach a level of nothingness in order to truly become a being. Chris never pondered on his future or wondered where this life would take him, which showed that had he had actually attained true presence in his state of mind. Chris, the tragic hero, in Into the Wild has come to the realization that existence is already being dead and accepting the fact that life is absurd, but also marvelous. An existentialist is one who has accepted that death is imminent and therefore to relish what you do have by living in the present. Life for an existentialist is purely lived in the moment and not in hopes or delusions. Understanding that life is bare and that there should not be foolery added to it as well as make a person envision that there is more to life. McCandles purely exists as a being with nothing else. Another existential principle that ... ... middle of paper ... ...ctually able to go out into the wild and experienced true happiness with his newly acquired ultimate freedom. His search for his purpose, meaning, and identity was getting more and more clear. Chris was actually able to have control over the wild, and not allow himself to be oppressed by society. McCandles was able to learn from the experiences of every person he met on his journey. He would try to tell anyone who would listen his views on life as well as listen to anyone else's views. Chris was developing his morals and ethics and was able to actually define himself as a human. He rid himself of the “false-being within” and reached a higher consciousness. Chris truly reached a level of nothingness when he gave up his scholarship, and was able to reach his full potential. Chris McCandles will always be a great inspiration of a existentialist and an extremist.
...elligence to help him last an extended period of time in the Alaskan wilderness. In truth, McCandless was someone who wanted to find himself. He wanted to get away from a life in which he could not find fulfilment, which is something many others would be able to relate to. Although most people would not go to such extremes to find fulfilment, everyone has a different way of finding happiness and going after what their heart truly desires. For McCandless, his desire was to live out in the wild. Unfortunately, this man of great character did not succeed in getting out alive. However, that does not change the fact that he tried. McCandless knew what he wanted for himself and he persisted, regardless of the obstacles he faced. He put an incredible amount of effort into accomplishing his goals and never gave up, and that is why Christopher McCandless is someone to admire.
In one the passage was highlighted in the book “Family Happiness” that Chris brought with, the author Leo Tolstoy talked about how a person's life should be. “I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. … which found no outlet in our quiet life.” (p.15) Tolstoy explained how a life should be excited and interesting not just living day by day without any enjoyment. Chris followed his beliefs. He believes that he should live a life that he would not regret later on. That could be one of his reason he was going into the wild to make an excited life. Another passage was also found with McCandless’s belongings is from Henry David Thoreau’ “Walden”. “All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. … a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched.” (p.47) This passage explains the fact that happiness can found in nature. McCandless wanted to found his purpose of his life and Thoreau stated about the importance of the nature. And McCandless believed Thoreau. If Chris McCandless had believed some authors, he would follows that in his whole
... every aspect of his life whether it be his education, physical endurance, or making it through the Alaskan wilderness with nothing more than a rifle, a backpack, and a road map. Chris was aware of his differences and that he did not fit into society. He fully embraced that and and chose to lead his own path. Chris led a happy life according to one of his last journal entries he wrote, “I have had a happy life and thank the lord. Goodbye and may God bless all!” (Krakauer 199). Chris was willing to risk everything to gain that happiness. His ambition to enter the wilderness, in the end, took his life but that did not stop him. He would have rather died a happy man than lived a miserable one. Chris ventured out into the wilderness and found himself; a tragic story for a tragic hero.
In 1990, when he was 22 years old, Christopher McCandless ventured out into the Alaska wilderness in search for true happiness, and 2 years later he suffered a tragic death. An aspiring writer, Jon Krakauer, found McCandless’ story fascinating and chose to dedicate 3 years of his life to write a novel about him. The book entitled “Into the Wild” tells the tale of Christopher McCandless, an ill prepared transcendentalist longing for philosophical enrichment, who naïvely, failed to consider the dangers of isolating himself from human society for such a long period of time. Though Christopher McCandless made a courageous attempt to separate himself from society, in order to achieve self-fulfillment, the stubborn nature of this reckless greenhorn led him to his unfortunate demise.
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, written by Jon Krakauer, is the story of a young man named Christopher Johnson McCandless who ventured off to Alaska and tried to survive in the wild. McCandless grew up in Annandale, Virginia where he attended school and made very good grades, rarely bringing home anything below an A. His father, Walt worked for NASA for a little while, before starting his own business with Chris’s mother, Billie, out of their own home. They worked hard and for long hours to get the business up and running and it finally paid off. The McCandless family was wealthy, but had many emotional problems. After graduating from Emory University in 1990, Chris McCandless donated twenty-four thousand dollars from his savings account to charity, changed his name to Alexander Supertramp, and then disappeared. This book tells the story of his life and travels. Some critics say that Chris McCandless was a very admirable person. He was a brave man that followed his dreams. However, given all of his flaws, attitudes, and actions, he is un-admirable. McCandless walked into the wild very unprepared and stubborn. He also treated his family poorly as well as anyone who got emotionally close to him. Chris was additionally too impressionable in a way that he admired authors along with the books they wrote, and tried to imitate them. He was very rebellious in his actions as well, and did not try to change the world or help others.
In review McCandless was a man with boyish and romantic ambitions or maybe he was a boy with an intellectual mind stuck in the body of a man, because that theory would certainly exist as plausible in describing his foolish ways. Let us not forget that Chris did have a truly unique idea with good intention and maybe he did accomplish what he set out for, true inner peace with himself and the world around him maybe he did find himself in this whole ordeal. Yes McCandless was a bright soul but, in the end his foolishness or maybe even it was his bravery lead him to his demise, his lonely death in starvation. With all of this said was McCandless brave or was he foolish and stupid, well, for certain he never acted in any stupid way, but he did act in both foolishness and bravery because in many ways it takes quite some foolishness to be brave.
Groundhog Day is a film starring Bill Murray who plays Phil Connor’s, a news anchorman, who gets stuck on the repeating Groundhog Day every day. He is a man who does not appreciate things around him but he expects others to look up to him. He lives the same day while time goes on; he does not make an effort to reach out to others. Phil follows the same daily routines and does not attempt to change anything and accepts his life as it is, even though he doesn’t like it. Phil doesn’t understand the idea of the man creating his own being by experiencing life.
Into the Wild, a novel written by Jon Krakauer, as well as a film directed by Sean Penn, talks about Chris McCandless, a young individual who sets out on a journey throughout the Western United States, isolating himself from society, and more importantly, his family. During his travels, he meets a lot of different people, that in a way, change his ways about how he sees the world. There are many characteristics to describe McCandless, such as “nave”, “adventurous”, and “independent”. In the book, Krakauer described McCandless as “intelligent”, using parts in his book that show McCandless being “intelligent”. While Krakauer thinks of McCandless as being “intelligent”, Penn thinks of McCandless as a more “saint” type of person.
In Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer explores the human fascination with the purpose of life and nature. Krakauer documents the life and death of Chris McCandless, a young man that embarked on an Odyssey in the Alaskan wilderness. Like many people, McCandless believed that he could give his life meaning by pursuing a relationship with nature. He also believed that rejecting human relationships, abandoning his materialistic ways, and purchasing a book about wildlife would strengthen his relationship with nature. However, after spending several months enduring the extreme conditions of the Alaskan wilderness, McCandless’ beliefs begin to work against him. He then accepts that he needs humans, cannot escape materialism, and can never fully understand how nature functions. Most importantly, he realizes that human relationships are more valuable than infinite solitude. McCandless’ gradual change of heart demonstrates that exploring the wilderness is a transformative experience. Krakauer uses the life and death of Chris McCandless to convey that humans need to explore nature in order to discover the meaning of life.
Existentialism as a distinct philosophical and literary movement belongs to the 19th and 20th centuries. Although existentialism is impossible to define, some of its common themes can be identified. One of the major theme is the stress on concrete individual existence and, consequently, on subjectivity, individual freedom, and choice. 19th century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, was the first writer to call himself existential. He wrote in his journal, "I must find a truth that is true for me . . . the idea for which I can live or die.
Existentialism is defined as a philosophical movement that human beings are completely free and responsible for their own actions. Existentialists will try not to cause waves and remain completely uninvolved with anyone because they do not want to hurt anybody. There is absolutely no such thing as an existentialist because he would have to be so uninvolved to the point where he would not be able to live at all. Although the two stories: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and The Stranger by Albert Camus are very different in approach, their endings are similar in that they both support the basics of existentialism.
Existentialism is a phiosophy which revolves around the central belief that we create ourselves. External factors are not important. It is the way that we let external factors affect us that determines who we are. As individuals we all have the freedom to choose our own path and that is what life is all about. Along with the freedom of choice comes the responsibilty of one's actions which can make some people anxious but give others meaning to their lives. To overcome this anxiousness and accept responsibilty is to meet the challenges of life and to truly live it. I can adopt the existentialist approach which states that to live life is to experience happiness and absurdness and to appreciate both as a part of life.
...hs are heroic beings often with great abilities and strengths, almost god like and often depicted deriving from gods while those in existentialist theories are simple folk; the common man and vulnerable product of the earth.
Existential philosophy is subject to a single, seemingly debilitating criticism: it comprises a frame of mind rather than a theory. As Mary Warnock argues in her book Existentialist Ethics, "It seems that to be attracted by Existentialism is to be attracted by a mood. When it comes to serious thought, one may find . . . that it is necessary to cast off the mood and start again" (57). The focus of the existentialist is on the individual, existing being. By nature, the subject of existentialism appears incommunicable. It demands that each individual come to an understanding of the inwardness of self independently. This inwardness is not a state which can be achieved, but a process of constantly coming to be. The argument against the existence of an existential ideology seems valid. Without generalization, how can existentialist philosophy construct a theory that offers ethical direction?