From what I read on pages 77 to 99, McCandless and the other three individuals have some themes that connects them. The first theme that I noticed was the most relevant to the four of them was the theme of ultimate freedom. Although, the theme of the allure of the wilderness also connects them, I feel that the ultimate freedom links them further. “ I have been thinking more and more that I shall always be a lone wanderer of the wilderness… I have always been unsatisfied with the life as most people live it. Always I want to live more intensely and richly ” (91). In this excerpt from one of Ruess’s letters, Ruess described how being there gives him a freedom which he did not find in the way everyone else lives. That was his ultimate freedom,
being away from everything and the ways of society. “ Then, in the winter of 1981, he launched yet another solo attempt on Denali… but his enthusiasm fizzled on the lower reaches of the Ruth Glacier… In March, however, he mustered his resolve once more and resumed his lonely trek ” (79). John Waterman was another man who wanted to succeed in finding the ultimate freedom. He tried two times and failed, but on the third he went through with his decision and he also ended up dead in his search for the ultimate freedom. They all died while trying to find a way out of their normal lives and their odyssey, in which they represent the major theme of ultimate freedom.
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.
McCandless was different to other people, Westerburg saw this, explaining how McCandless ”tried too hard to make sense of the world. To figure out why people were bad to each other so often”(18). When McCandless originally left, he had felt betrayed by his parents and in college he slowly started pushing his friends away. He was disgusted by all the lies and began to shut down and came the plan to leave in his Datsun. Anybody else in his place would have decided to take charge and take a decisive turn turn in their life, hoping it would be for the better. Many don 't realize that although the beginning he was escaping, he later preferred living in nature and didn 't want to stop. He said it himself in a letter “ The freedom and simple beauty of it is just too good to pass up”(33). Also, in McCandless story you’re able to see the evolution of McCandless mentality. At first, he is alone trying to cope with the setbacks he encounters, in which he almost dies from. Then, needing to recharge, he makes friends like Franz and the Westerburg that allow him to see the positives of having someone there for you. However, he still was not convinced that human relationships were necessary, he keeps a safe distance sending them postcards when he can. It is not until at Alaska that McCandless discovers what happiness consists of, he writes in bold letters, “Happiness only
Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, describes the adventure of Christopher McCandless, a young man that ventured into the wilderness of Alaska hoping to find himself and the meaning of life. He undergoes his dangerous journey because he was persuade by of writers like Henry D. Thoreau, who believe it is was best to get farther away from the mainstreams of life. McCandless’ wild adventure was supposed to lead him towards personal growth but instead resulted in his death caused by his unpreparedness towards the atrocity nature.
...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.
Jan Burres, in the story seems to be the mother figure that McCandless always wanted in his life. Looking into McCandless life, to the naked eye it seems that he had it all it almost seems that he even had a perfect life. McCandless was very successful in school, his parents owned their own company which gave them plenty of money, and his sister was his best friend and the only person he could truly confide in. McCandless, it can be said, was very fortunate and lived comfortably. However, in the book, Krakauer explains that when McCandless’s parents argued they would drag their children into their verbal disagreements and force them to take sides. As a result of this McCandless did not have a caring loving mother figure in his life. When McCandless met Jan Burres on his journey he immediately sought out the mother figure he always wanted in his life. Jan Burres demonstrates how naive McCandless was. In the book, Krakauer claims that Jan Burres said, “‘So I said to Bob, ‘Man we got to take this kid with us. You need to school him about some things.’”(30). Burres could clearly see the McCandless was just too naive and helpless to be wandering around the country. In order to complete such a treacherous task, McCandless should have experienced semi adventures and journeys by himself first before doing it all at once. With experience McCandless would have gained the knowledge on what
In the book Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer wrote about Christopher McCandless, a nature lover in search for independence, in a mysterious and hopeful experience. Even though Krakauer tells us McCandless was going to die from the beginning, he still gave him a chance for survival. As a reader I wanted McCandless to survive. In Into the Wild, Krakauer gave McCandless a unique perspective. He was a smart and unique person that wanted to be completely free from society. Krakauer included comments from people that said McCandless was crazy, and his death was his own mistake. However, Krakauer is able to make him seem like a brave person. The connections between other hikers and himself helped in the explanation of McCandless’s rational actions. Krakauer is able to make McCandless look like a normal person, but unique from this generation. In order for Krakauer to make Christopher McCandless not look like a crazy person, but a special person, I will analyze the persuading style that Krakauer used in Into the Wild that made us believe McCandless was a regular young adult.
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.
...emselves. They endure mosquitoes and rain and tough walking and bad river crossings and the possibility of bears. The burden the pilgrims carry to the bus is so heavy, laden with their frailties and hopes and desires, with their lives that don’t quite satisfy. Well, so many of them are young, and they’re lost, somehow, just as he was.” What makes Chris McCandless such a hero to young men is that he is easily relatable to those young men. As Neal Karlinsky writes of Chris McCandless,“McCandless tramped his way across North America determined to live completely free of the trappings of modern society. He was intoxicated by nature and the idea of a great Alaskan adventure — to survive in the bush totally on his own. In his last postcard to a friend, he wrote: "I now walk into the wild."
...because he left a strong impression but possibly because they’re mourning the loss of a friend who was warned not to go off into the wild. Krakauer may have included these characters into, Into the Wild to show readers how McCandless had the opportunity to survive, and the opportunity to start over again but his desire to live free from society, alone and with the wild overcame his reason to stay with people who grew to care for him.
“The Trusty” is a work of fiction, written by Ron Rash, that tells the story of a man and a woman who try to escape their lives. In this short story, Sinkler is depicted as a scandalous but also as a distressed character. Many painted events lead to the illustration of a peculiar setting in which Sinkler is experiencing some abnormal instances. Sinkler is not dead, and his characterization has lead the audience to believe his flawed mental state is the reason why.
...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.
Krakauer states, “McCandless was thrilled to be on his way north, and he was relieved as well-relieved that he had again evaded the impending threat of human intimacy, of friendship, and all the messy emotional baggage that comes with it” (55). This had also occurred a few months prior in Niland Slabs, where he met Burres and Tracy. He had made friends there, and Tracy had developed feelings for him, but he rebuffed any of her advancements; he didn’t want to get involved with others, not after having left home for his journey. To him, having had friends and family that he left behind, he loved people, but he didn’t want to be close to them in any way other than purely being around them. Growing up with a difficult family relationship, such as McCandles’s, which caused him to push people away; it’s easy to relate to him in that aspect.
Christopher McCandless was a man shaped after his rough, sharp-edged, family life. He was born in El Segundo, California on February 12th, 1968. Chris grew up in a very unique situation. His father, Walt McCandless, was probably the closest thing to why Chris left in the first place. Walt lead a very dysfunctional family where he lived and worked with his wife, Billie, which created a nasty combination and left a bad taste in the mouths of each family member. Chris’s sister, Carine, was probably the only person he had to a legitimate connection to. Later on Chris found out his father had been living a double life with another woman and her family. This set Chris off and became a driving motive for his absence from the McCandless family. Jon Krakauer, in a sense, was very much like Chris McCandless. Jon was a man who enjoyed the feeling of escaping from humanity to attempt some of the worlds most daring obstacles and adventures. He found personal pleasure in doing things that were unthinkable. He was a climber that feared very little. He bonded to the story of Chris McCandless by relating his past experience of Everest to the failure of Chris’s expedition. Both Krakauer and McCandless were born with an adventurous nature. Their beings craved being different and pushing the limits. For Chris specifically, we see throughout the book his struggle to push away the mainstream life that he lived. He believed there was more to life then just the 20th century fads that everyone was supposed to live. Which is what made people love him, was also what decided his fate in the end.
The title of my book is “How I Live Now”. It was written by Meg Rosoff, and has 163
McCandless was a fearless human being. I think that most of the people’s ideologies and personalities have to do with how they were raised by the parents and everything that was taught to them. When a lack of love exists from a parent towards his child, a hate can be created without knowing it. McCandless could have gone away from society to escape reality or, for being in a place where he could find himself at peace. Either one, we can assume that he obviously had different ideas about civilization; the idea of having a life full of danger and adventure inspired and excited him.