Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, Jon Krakauer’s Into The Wild, and Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man all tell the stories of a real-life character that makes the decision to venture out into the wilderness on his own. On one hand, Chris McCandless (Into The Wild), Timothy Treadwell (Grizzly Man), and Thoreau are similar in several ways. All three men record some kind of documentation about their journey; McCandless and Thoreau keep journals while Treadwell keeps a video log. Also, all three forced themselves to really live off the land using only the bare minimum of essentials. On the other hand, the men had several differences. In two of the stories, Into The Wild and Grizzly Man, the main character perishes as a result of his choice to live this way, while in Walden, Thoreau survives all the way through his experience. However, the most prominent differences between the characters were their reasons for venturing into the wild in the first place. Henry David Thoreau went into the woods “because [he] wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if [he] could learn what it had to teach, and not, when [he] came to die, discover that [he] had not lived” (Thoreau, Chapter II). His goal was to live his life simply yet richly in the wilderness. Chris McCandless went into the woods for a similar yet different reason. McCandless was opposed to living life the traditional way. He went into the wild to escape society and the traditional way of life. He wanted to prove to himself that he could survive out in the wild away from everything and everyone else. Finally, Timothy Treadwell makes his journey into the Alaskan wild for what he says is the protection of the bear population. His goal is to protect the bears fr...
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... taking extreme measures. Henry David Thoreau, Chris McCandless, and Timothy Treadwell were three men who made the decision to go into the wild because they were unsatisfied with their current way of life. This was a huge risk and two of the men paid the ultimate price with their lives. There were better options for all three that did not involve putting their lives in danger. Not everybody has to go into the wild for months at a time to go over-the-top. It is unnecessary to do anything but what most people in the world do on a daily basis because that is what has kept society progressing for centuries. Professional athletes and Presidents of the United States have all followed the same formula for success and ended up at their destination just fine. The traditional way of living is tried and true, and there is nothing that people cannot accomplish by following it.
Many individuals decide to live their life in solitary; though, only a few choose to live in the wild. The book, Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer vividly paints the adventurous trek Chris McCandless went on. From the friends he made, to the hardships he went through, McCandless is portrayed as a friendly, sociable person despite the fact that he was a vagabond. Other than McCandless, there are even more individuals that have taken the risks to live in the wilderness such as, Jon Krakauer and Everett Ruess. All three of them had both similarities and differences between their own qualities as a person and their journey.
“I have had a happy life and thank the Lord. Goodbye and may God bless all!”(199), these were the last words of Chris McCandless in a picture with him smiling and waving good-bye. Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer is an extension of an article first published in Outside magazine. In the book, Krakauer further explains the journey of Chris McCandless, while providing his own insight to provide the reader a better understanding of the McCandless reasoning. McCandless lived a nomadic life after he graduated from college, traveling from South Dakota to Mexico. However, his two year journey proved fatal when he took a trip to Alaska, his greatest undertaking. Among his remains several books were discovered, including a copy of Walden by Henry D. Thoreau
The epigraphs presented by Krakauer before each chapter of the memoir Into the Wild dive deep into the life of Chris McCandless before and after his journey into the Alaskan wilderness. They compare him to famous “coming of age characters” and specific ideas written by some of his favorite philosophers. These give the reader a stronger sense of who Chris was and why he made the decision to ultimately walk alone into the wild.
In Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It, the author recounts the story of his early life growing up in Montana. The narrative revolves around his family and the art of fly fishing. Through the novel, Maclean begins to understand the wisdom of his father, the fierce independence and downfall of his brother, and the divinity and beauty of nature. A similar theme regarding divinity in nature is found in Henry David Thoreau's Walden. Building his own cabin and supplying his own food, Thoreau spends two years living alone beside Walden Pond. Thoreau recognizes nature as the "highest reality"(265) and the intrinsic work of "the Builder of the universe"(348). Thoreau also provides insights into human life and expresses these in indirect metaphors with his natural surroundings. The narratives differ most in their changes in mood and plot progression. In Walden, Thoreau displays a change from beginning to end, expressing pessimism and depression at first and then happiness and fulfillment in the end. A River Runs Through It is largely opposite of this change. Thus, both authors relate similar themes and experiences while significant differences exist in the mood and progression.
Both Thoreau and McCandless had a deep appreciation for solitude in nature. In Walden, Thoreau explains how he’d “... love to see Nature that is so rife with life that myriads can be afforded to be sacrificed and suffered to prey on one another; that tender organizations can be so serenely squashed out of existence..” (Thoreau, Walden 238). While being on his “adventure”, Thoreau was able to observe all of the little things in nature, and appreciate all of the little things. While in civilization, one would not be able to notice such things because there are much too many people around to notice. While on his journey, McCandless “No longer.
Life is a form of progress- from one stage to another, from one responsibility to another. Studying, getting good grades, and starting the family are common expectations of human life. In the novel Into the Wild, author Jon Krakauer introduced the tragic story of Christopher Johnson McCandless. After graduating from Emory University, McCandless sold of his possessions and ultimately became a wanderer. He hitchhiked to Alaska and walked into the wilderness for nearly 4 months. This journey to the 49th state proved fatal for him, and he lost his life while fulfilling his dream. After reading this novel, some readers admired the boy for his courage and noble ideas, while others fulminated that he was an idiot who perished out of arrogance and
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.
Jon Krakauer, fascinated by a young man in April 1992 who hitchhiked to Alaska and lived alone in the wild for four months before his decomposed body was discovered, writes the story of Christopher McCandless, in his national bestseller: Into the Wild. McCandless was always a unique and intelligent boy who saw the world differently. Into the Wild explores all aspects of McCandless’s life in order to better understand the reason why a smart, social boy, from an upper class family would put himself in extraordinary peril by living off the land in the Alaskan Bush. McCandless represents the true tragic hero that Aristotle defined. Krakauer depicts McCandless as a tragic hero by detailing his unique and perhaps flawed views on society, his final demise in the Alaskan Bush, and his recognition of the truth, to reveal that pure happiness requires sharing it with others.
“The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.” (Chris McCandless) This was said by McCandless because he could not find happiness from his family so he went out to go find happiness. The book Into the Wild, by John Krakauer, was a book about a person named Chris McCandless, who could not find happiness from his family because they always provided him with all the materials he needed. This caused him to go out for an adventure or to the wild in Alaska. While on his journey, he had read books finding self- definition and so he used the authors from the book as literary heroes to get him past the journey. He was really inspired by the writers. With the inspiration he was set out to find happiness, and so he went into the wild. It is where he spent the rest of his days until he died because of poisoning. Many of his literary heroes inspired him to do what he did, but one stands out the most. Leo Tolstoy, who is considered to be one of the best novelists, Leo really inspired Chris because they had a life that they could relate. He also appreciated him because he had realistic views of the life. Chris McCandless needed inspiration for his adventure, so he looked up to the literary heroes as his guidance to the wild.
In the novel, A Hero’s Journey, Joseph Campbell, an American mythologist, writer, and lecturer, states that “every decision made by a young person is life decisive. What seems to be a small problem is really a large one. So everything that is done early in life is functionally related to a life trajectory” (Campbell). In mythic criticism, the critic sees mythic archetypes and imagery connecting and contrasting it with other similar works. Certain patterns emerge, such as a traditional hero on a journey towards self actualization. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer portrays this hero’s journey. The protagonist of the novel, Chris McCandless, hitchhikes to Alaska and walks alone into the wilderness, north of Mt. McKinley. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. He thought that the reality of the modern world was corrupt and uncompassionate, so he went on this journey in order to find a life of solitude and innocence that could only be expressed through his encounters with the wild. During this ambitious journey to find the true meaning of life, Chris McCandless exhibits a pattern like the type explained above. In Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, Chris McCandless follows this mythic pattern, seeking to be the traditional hero who spurns civilization, yet he discovers that modern heroes cannot escape their reality.
An obsession can begin with the smallest of events. Ideas, real or fancied, of what one’s life could be like without the ties that bind them, positive or negative, consume the mind and create visions of freedom from the demands of family, government, or even society as a whole. McCandless’s discovery of his parent’s indiscretions was the onset of his obsession; an obsession which grew exponentially over a short period of time that fettered him to the notion that to be truly happy and free, he must rid himself of everyone he had ever known and everything he had ever owned. McCandless became enslaved to his conception of real freedom. His notion of freedom was extreme, to say the least. It involved an elaborate plan to abandon his parents; separate himself from society; erase himself from the governmental grid; to ultimately arrive at the realization that to experience real freedom in happiness it, must be shared. The discovery of McCandless’s parent’s indiscretions set in motion the first step in his plan: freedom from them both.
In today’s world, we live in a society where we are subjected to follow rules, which are placed upon us by the society. Many people are faced with the dilemma of whether or not to follow the ideals of other people, or pursue their ideals and go against the prevailing conventions. In “Selections from Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer, the author talks about a man named McCandless who went into the Alaskan wilderness in order to find his true self. His journey was also to escape from the societal norms of society. A person who goes into the wilderness believes that they can live their life with brute simplicity. This gives them little to no time with the complicated problems of modern society. Likewise, in “Waiting for a Jew” by Jonathan Boyarin, the author talks about one’s aspiration to find their identity and purpose in the community. He conveys that religious places, like shul, allow an individual to develop a cross- cultural self. The desires and expectations placed upon us by the society shape our strategies of personal identity; therefore, instilling fears that cause us to identify in opposition to our prevailing conventions.
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.
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.
Krakauer said “McCandless change his name, gave the entire balance of a 24 thousand-dollar saving account to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his pocket” (Author’s note). Family is an important factor in everyone’s life; apparently that was not enough for Christopher McCandless. I have been fortunate to live with my family my whole life.