Timothy Treadwell spent his summers in Alaska living with and documenting bears. He believed that by doing that he was protecting the bears from potential harm, but maybe he wasn’t helping the bears, maybe he was hurting them. Timothy had his heart in the right place when he journeyed to Alaska each year, but his actions weren’t quite what the bears needed. Timothy didn’t accomplish much while he was there, he said he was protecting the bears but he was only bothering them. Timothy became so focused on protecting the bears, that he didn’t realize all the harm he was causing. All he saw was that he was there, protecting them from anything that wanted to hurt them. Timothy wasn’t really thinking about how the bears were affected by his presence. He was only thinking about his self assigned role as their protector, and the truth is, the bears would have been fine …show more content…
without Timothy Treadwell. Timothy grew up as a normal kid, but then he got involved with certain drugs and other substances he shouldn't have. Later in his life, he became the man he is known as today, who spent thirteen summers in Alaska protecting and living with the bears. On October 5, 2003 Timothy Treadwell was killed by one of the bears he was living with. After Timothy was mauled and eaten by a bear, Werner Herzog made a documentary on his experience being the grizzly bear bear fanatic he was, calling it Grizzly Man. One of Timothy’s unscripted lines in this documentary was, ¨Would not go into a bear’s home and kill a bear.¨ He is saying that it would be very wrong to invade a bear’s territory and kill it, because hurting the bear would be wrong, especially when you are the invader. What Timothy doesn’t realize is that even going into the bears home without hurting them is wrong, especially when he kept going so close to them and following them everywhere they went. Timothy did not believe in hurting the animals, so he decided not to bring any weapons along with him on his annual trip. Timothy went and camped for entire summers in the territory of some of the most dangerous animals in the world, without any variation of self defense. He put himself completely in the hands of the bears, and it worked, for 13 years. “I have lived longer with wild brown grizzly bears, without weapons, and that's the key, without weapons, in modern history” Doing this did not help anyone, Timothy’s unarmed presence only allowed the bears to become more comfortable around humans. He even named named the bears so they would get used to human interaction and would no longer keep as much separation between humans. He was able to get some good tapes of bears where he was very close to them and calling them by name. Timothy believed he had a special connection between him and the bears, so when he felt strongly about something involving the bears, he let it be known.
Towards the end of the film Timothy went on a rant about the park service and the government, yelling about care for the animals and how the service needed to be more involved. He said he was the only protection the animals had, which is obviously not true. The land that the bears and Timothy were living on were made and protected by the park. In the middle of his rant while Timothy was yelling at the Park Service he said, ¨how dare they challenge me.¨ This statement shows how overconfident Timothy was and how much he had overestimated what he has done for the bears. He was saying that he is the only one who has done anything for the bears, and he was putting himself above the Park Rangers. Timothy was convinced that the government, instead of encouraging him, had discouraged him by telling him he can’t continue what he was doing. In reality, he was harassing and disrespecting the bears, and the park service was completely right in telling him to
stop. Timothy Treadwell was a man who meant well, he truly believed that what he was doing was good for the bears. He focused his entire life on protecting the bears, he became so tunnel visioned that he did not see the negative effects he had on the bears. His unarmed presence helped the bears become more comfortable around humans, which could get them killed if poachers were involved. Instead of Timothy becoming aware of his full effect, he became increasingly arrogant, he complained about the government’s lack of interest in protecting the bears. The bears of Alaska would have been better off without Timothy’s existence.
All three adventurers displayed their affection for the wilderness through how they lived after leaving society. After reaching Fairbanks, Alaska, McCandless set up his camp and began to live off the wildlife nearby. In his journal, he noted what he caught each day and showed his gratefulness through his writing font. He believed that “it [wildlife] was morally indefensible to waste any part of an animal that has been shot for food” (166). He tried his best to preserve the animals he shot for food, which in turn displayed his thoughts of nature as something precious.
...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.
Was Chris McCandless deranged? Was he delusional? Or was he a hero? Since Chris’ body was found in bus 142 in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness, he has been called many things. Those who knew him believed that he wasn’t crazy; that his impulsive actions and aspirations to explore the world, were no more than the natural inclinations of a young and idealistic spirit. However, his desire to venture into the unknown with no source of human contact and nothing but a ten-pound bag of rice, is not considered normal behavior. Jon Kraukauer’s, Into The Wild, manifests how Chris McCandless’ antisocial demeanor, lack of remorse, and impulsive actions are directly relatable to behaviors associated with a sociopath.
Living in the wilderness is difficult, but understanding the meaning of such lifestyle is even more difficult. One of the Christopher’s admirable qualities was that he was well aware of what he was doing. He knew about the difficulties and dangers that he would face into the wilderness, and was mentally prepared for that. Author Jon Krakauer says that “McCandless was green, and he overestimated his resilience, but he was sufficiently skilled to last for sixteen weeks on little more than his wits and ten pounds of rice. And he was fully aware when he entered the bush that he had given himself a perilously slim margin for error. He knew precisely what was at stake” (182). McCandless was an educated youth, who loved nature and dreamed of living in the Alaskan wilderness. Although he ignored to take many necessary things with him on this
Chris McCandless was still just a young man when he decided to drastically alter his life through the form of a child’s foolishness. However, Chris had not known at the time just how powerful his testimony against his father’s authority, society, or maybe even his own lifestyle was going to be revolutionary throughout not only Alaska,not even the lower 48, but the world. The story of Chris McCandless is a much talked about debate on topics of safety and preparedness in the wild, these things forever associated with the boy who was a little too eager for a death wish. Today, Chris is remember as a fool or a hero. The fool, a boy who allowed himself to be drowned in a fictional world inspired by his readings,dying because he ignored he was just a normal human being or the hero who set out to become something more.
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...
In Jon Krakauer’s book Into the Wild, he documents the events that led up to the death of Chris McCandless. McCandless was a teenage boy who dealt with tremendous amounts of pressure from his parents to do well in school and keep family secrets — they apologized for it through buying him things that they thought he needed. However, Chris hated this and just wanted peace, and honesty at home. There was one place in which Chris could get this, and it is in nature — there was no chaos or dishonesty amongst his family. Before he would go to college, he would drive to unknown places on his own — cherishing the peace that he gets. And when he decides to go to Alaska, his journey leads him to
In Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, Christopher McCandless gives up all his material possessions to seek fulfillment in the Alaskan Wilderness. In doing this, Chris is able to escape from his parents and live the life of many transcendentalists that he’s read about. As John Muir once said, “The mountains are calling and I must go.” Like John Muir, Chris has developed such a profound love for nature that he is called into the wild by it. Ultimately, Chris’s life decisions are a fascinating paradox that make him both a transcendentalist hero and a fool.
He believes that the wilderness has helped form us and that if we allow industrialization to push through the people of our nation will have lost part of themselves; they will have lost the part of themselves that was formed by the wilderness “idea.” Once the forests are destroyed they will have nothing to look back at or to remind them of where they came from or what was, and he argues everyone need to preserve all of what we have now.
...can be a life-changing experience. McCandless entered the wild as an overly confident hitchhiker and left as a self-accepting and humble man. He thought that human relationships were futile, he was impervious to materialism, and that he could understand nature on a scientific level. However, McCandless left the wild with a newfound appreciation for humanity, some clarity on his purpose in life, and the ability to create his own legacy. Many people finish reading Into the Wild and form negative opinions about McCandless’ reckless behavior. However, it is important to focus on how being in the wild brought McCandless closer to understanding himself. Into the Wild should motivate humans to participate in explore the wilderness to discover the true meaning of life.
It was said once that while hunting, Roosevelt came upon a bear cub. Despite the demands of his hunting partners, Roosevelt refused to kill the cub. This story touched the heart of millions. Soon cartoon strips, newspape...
Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild has caught many people’s attention. Krakauer has received countless letters with impressions of Chris McCandless. Readers all over had either similar or incompatible notions with the author. Some concluded Chris was heroic and others, on the other hand, thought he was ludicrous and impetuous. Chris’s adventure into the wild ended in a sorrowful way. His decisions before and during his adventure weren’t the most premeditated decisions but he didn't appear unrepentant. Chris was heroic and brave. There is no one deranged enough to pursue the exact same choices Chris did, which makes him unique. Also one can criticize Chris or Chris’s choices. Chris was a grown and intelligent man who graduated college with honors. He was more than capable to make his own decisions. Therefore,
Since time immemorial, society has become increasingly complex, leading otherwise successful people to retreat to their origins. This is often due to an inability to adapt and find true happiness in mainstream civilization. The case of Christopher McCandless from the film Into the Wild is no exception to this rule. Mr. McCandless divests himself of his identity and retreats to the wilderness of Alaska. This journey was what eventually led to his ultimate demise. While it is clear that he was courageous in embarking on this quest, it was unfounded in logic and born of arrogance, stupidity and recklessness. Mr. McCandless knowingly demonstrated a lack of regard for his own life and safety by making several poor decisions. Moreover, he carelessly and selfishly gave up a life of privilege that many covet. Furthermore, Mr. McCandless showed regret for his decisions, further proving his initial recklessness. Based on this, it is clear that Christopher McCandless’ reckless actions that led to his death were founded in arrogance and stupidity. For this reason, he must take responsibility for the ultimate outcome.
McCandless is a very independent person, a person with high hopes, that has a lot of courage, and is a very brave man for going out by himself in the wild of Alaska of the Stampede Trail. Chris McCandless had a lot of courage on going to Alaska by himself at a young age. While Chris was at any city or anybody’s house, he was ready to go to Alaska. But while he was there, close to the end of his life, he left a note on the back of the bus saying, “S.O.S I need your help. I am injured, near death, and too weak to hike out of here i am all alone, this is no joke. In the name of god, please remain to save me. I am out collecting berries close by and shall return by evening. Thank you, Chris McCandless. August?” Chris McCandless was by himself at the time. He shows his courage because while by himself, he went back out even though he was near death. He went out for food. Food for his health. That shows how much courage he had for his trip. Chris McCandless encouraged many young men to ...
We weren’t licensed for bear, so we didn’t want to shoot it. Heck, we had no quarrel with him; we figured we would wait it out in the tree. But it wouldn’t leave once it smelled us. Shots in the air; no effect. An hour later waiting, no deterrent. We were near a creek where the bear could have it’s value meal. But it wanted something more. It wanted a human snack. And it got it. It rushed with such force at our tree that we both were knocked out of it and the bear ripped off chunks of my father’s leg before we could shoot it enough times in the face to make it run away and skip dessert – me and the rest of my