The novel, Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer tells the story of a notable traveler named Chris McCandless. The novel, oddly begins with his death, but one can learn new information about his life and all the adventures he has had. Despite the fact that almost everyone believes Chris is crazy, he is able to help us determine what it takes to survive: resiliency. Resiliency is the ability to recover readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like (dictionary.com).
After analyzing Into The Wild, it is simple to see how Chris displays resiliency. Chris was always able to recover from challenging situations. If he ended up stuck somewhere, there was no way he was about to give up. He would merely hitchhike to the next town. No matter what
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it took, he was determined to travel to Alaska. In fact, the author of Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer, even stated, “It is easy, when you are young, to believe that what you desire is no less than what you deserve, to assume that if you want something badly enough, it is your God-given right to have it.” (Krakauer) Krakauer effortlessly explains what might have been Chris’ motivation to travel to Alaska. Chris was “energetic and self assured, a high achiever, quick to state an opinion.” (Krakauer) In conclusion, it is qualities like these that build upon the idea that resiliency is what it takes to survive. Furthermore, in a short story titled, To Build A Fire, by Jack London, the reader is exposed to another ‘crazy’ young man: deep in the woods, during the winter, struggling to survive.
After analyzing what this character chooses to do, it is easy to detect characteristics of resiliency. These characteristics resemble Chris from Into the Wild. For example, the ability to recover from challenging situations is shown in the following quote: “Placing it on the foundation, he fed the young flame with wisps of dry grass and with the tiniest dry twigs. He worked slowly and carefully, keenly aware of his danger. Gradually, as the flame grew stronger, he increased the size of the twigs with which he fed it.” (London) This quote also reveals that the character possesses the ability to act independently, another characteristic of resilient people. The character, after falling through ice, must build a fire to ensure survival. The fact that he is capable of building the fire at all shows that he can willingly recover from demanding situations. Despite the taxing situations the character has been through, he continues on to attempt to meet up with his friends, “At half past twelve, to the minute, he arrived at the forks of the creek. He was pleased at the speed he had made. If he kept it up, he would certainly be with the boys by six.” (London) This shows that he can readily recover from adversity, and that he possesses resilient
qualities. In addition to the other literary works, in a short story by Stephen King titled Survivor Type, the reader meets another character, Richard Pine, who displays resilient qualities. This character is stranded on an island and he begins by narrating what he thinks it takes to survive: “You get to know people, you listen, you make connections. You have to, when you’re hustling the street. Any asshole knows how to die.” (King) This quote divulges that Richard Pine has a sense of his identity. He understands and takes pride in his roots. He knows where he came from and he applied it to his situation in order to survive. The following quote shows how Pine is able to overcome adversity. He is struggling to survive with no food or water so he does what it takes to get some substance in his body. He spies a possible source of food and he recounts: “I threw the rock as hard as I could and hit it broadside. It let out a loud squawk and tried to fly away, but I’d broken it’s right wing. I scrambled up after it and it hopped away. I could see the blood trickling over its white feathers...I got my foot caught in a hole between two rocks and nearly fractured my ankle.” (King) Despite the fact that he nearly injured himself, he overcame his hunger and was able to survive. Likewise, in a piece titled Deep Survival the reader is able to learn the twelve steps determined by Laurence Gonzales it takes to survive. In the 4th step the author declares that people who survive “see opportunity, even good, in their situation.” (Gonzales) This is exactly what resilient people do, the see the good so they work to recover from adversity. Furthermore, the last step relates back to the traits of resilient people. The author states, “In the aftermath, survivors learn from and are grateful for the experiences they’ve had.” (Gonzales) This information is able to demonstrate the fact that survivors have to work to recover from demanding situations, precisely like resilient people. This establishes that resiliency is what it takes to survive.
...ng a fire, and purifying water. He may not have mastered the skills, but he was experienced enough to get by. In order to see that Chris was prepared, you have to look past the gear that he packed. You have to go through his mental process and you also have to look at what he learned in order to live off the land. Had he not been prepared, he would have most likely died after he ran out of rice.
Although living this life is not always easy for Chris, he embarks on this adventure to achieve what truly matters to him in life.
Now a major motion picture, this novel contained the true story of a man named Louie
... 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.
Chris did what he wanted to do hence him traveling the United States to end his journey at Alaska. The unstoppable determination with selfishness added on top made it the determining aspect in the fall of Chris. To go into the wilderness and write in a journal in third person about his time there takes some massive resolve. It seems that “There was just no talking the guy out of it. He was determined.” stated Gallien (someone who knew
Due to Chris’s unknown knowledge of the wilderness was the probable cause he ended up dead. Peter Christian believes that because of Chris’s stubbornness and lack of knowledge it caused him to fail. In the book Into
While he stays at Shallow Creek, his conversation with Vanessa about his views of God shows his perception of the life: he questions how such a brutal God could exist, because Chris has a lot of pain and the world in his mind is not as bright as he appears. As his responses to adversities shape his perceptions, he no longer sees the world as a place full of hopes and he cannot hide his feeling of helplessness anymore, but although he shows his emotions to Vanessa, a thirteen-year-old girl like her cannot give him much help. Chris once again tries to solve his adversities with an unreal solution because he has no one else to talk with. Later in the story he joins the war to seek for other opportunities, however this time he does not only try to escape from the reality, but he also escapes from his nature, because his nature is never a solider: as he reveals on his letter, “[He does not] live inside [his body] anymore”. One day he is sent home from the battlefield because of a mental breakdown; this event marks his total lose of perceptions: insane people do not have perceptions. Since Chris always tries to escape from the reality and never really looks for a real solution to the problems, his perception becomes irreparably
Resilience is having the motive to go through hard times and ‘bounce back’ from them and learnt how to deal with certain situations. To be resilient you must have a positive point of view on life. Anh’s book ‘The happiest refugee’ He was born into a 1970’s Vietnam, He and his family were forced to leave their country due to seeking safety and freedom from war. Anh uses resilience through his comedic, selfless actions. Resilience has allowed Anh to improve the quality of his life, and the lives of those around him.
All in all, it is interesting how the trials of life can lead a person into an awakening that inspires millions. Many people believe that walking “into the wild” to live off the land and find himself alone in nature was arrogant, foolish and irresponsible. Chris lacks of knowledge about the wild was a major factor in his death. Chris did not plan how he will survive in the wilderness without proper equipments. He misunderstood that he would have no problem in setting in the wild. Chris immature manner and decisions lead him to starvation and ultimately death. If he planned it out in the beginning he would have saved his life.
Chris is able to implementing certain events from the present and past to explain his problems. He was able to identify the origin of his behavioral problems, by working through his current story to re-author a new story (Murdock 2013).
His main objective is to make it to a camp where all of his friends are waiting for him. His only companion is a scared dog. Although the guy was not from the area, he had the right mindset of always staying positive when times got rough. “The man was shocked. It was as though he had just heard his own death sentence. For a moment he sat and stared at the spot where the fire had been. Then he grew very calm.” (London IL10) He knew that he would most likely not get another fire started and might die, but by staying positive and calm, he had given himself a little bit of hope. To break down, the mental strength he had kept during that hardship helped him physically and emotionally because he made a good effort to start a fire again and he kept himself from facing death with fear. Although, the mental strength did not help him spiritually because the whole journey he kept asking himself why he didn’t bring a human companion to help him with the problems he faced. He never got this mistake out of his mind and it most likely led him to giving
The book Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, was a very interesting story about a young man going to live out in the wild of Alaska. This young mans name is Chris McCandless also known as Alex Supertramp. He had a lot of courage to go out this trip facing the wild. He has set high hopes for how young he is. Graduating college than leaving directly after graduating and burned all of his money and left his car and most possessions behind. His bravery definitely had a big impact on the story. With his bravery, it seemed like he has done this before and has no weariness. Chris was very independent on his trip. He received little help from people. He got work a few times to buy gear for his trip to Alaska, other than that he was either hitch hiking or walking.
When the narrator introduced the main character of the story, the man, he made it clear that the man was in a perilous situation involving the elements. The man was faced with weather that was 75 degrees below zero and he was not physically or mentally prepared for survival. London wrote that the cold "did not lead him to meditate upon his frailty as a creature of temperature, and upon man's frailty in general, able only to live within certain narrow limits of heat and cold."(p.1745) At first when the man started his journey to the camp, he felt certain that he could make it back to camp before dinner. As the trip progressed, the man made mistake after mistake that sealed his fate. The man's first mistake was to step into a pool of water and soak his legs to the knees. This blunder forced the man to build a fire to dry his wet socks and shoes so his feet would not freeze and become frostbitten. When the man began to build a fire he failed to notice that he was doing so under a large, snow laden spruce tree where he was getting his firewood. When the man had a small fire that was beginning to smolder the disturbance to the tree caused the snow to tumble to the ground and extinguish the fire. "It was his own fault or, rather, his mistake. He should not have built the fire under the spruce tree. He should have built it in the open."(1750).
Chris had suffered from his childhood from poverty, violence, alcoholism also having illiteracy family didn't help Chris to have positive role models to look up to beside that being Chris also his mother and his siblings abuse by his stepfather placed him and his sibling in foster house twice. However he managed to finish high school at age 18 and joined the navy. After that he worked as a medic in North Carolina then left to work at a hospital in San Francisco. On the other hand Chris was struggling to keep his marriage together, but he failed moreover w...
The resilient firm designs and implements give effective actions to advance the firm, thereby increasing the profitability of its own survival. Also, employees of the resilient firm share decision making power, which leads to timely and effective response.