The unique men
We are living in the world where rules and laws have a significant role in controlling human behavior in the society. There are rules everywhere. Traffic laws help to protect drivers and pedestrians from accidents; syllabus helps to give students a set of rules that teacher expects from them. Nevertheless, a minority amount of people wish not to follow these rules because of its oppression and pressure on the desire to achieve their dream. “Into the Wild,” a book was written by Jon Krakauer, and “Grizzly Man,” a movie which was directed by Werner Herzog, are two non-fiction stories about the journey of men who walked away from constraints for an adventurous, unexpected way of living. Both of them were not pleased with how the
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society works, and neither of them was happy with their current condition before the significant decision which would redirect the flow of their life.
Therefore, by isolating them from human civilization, Chris McCandless and Timothy Treadwell escaped the regular daily life for the freedom, the happiness, and the lifestyle that they were seeking.
Chris McCandless is an American hitchhiker who immediately began his journey right after graduating from college in 1990. Unlike most hitchhikers, McCandless is an energetic, well educated young man who always developed an excellent reputation among people he met throughout his journey. For example, Stuckey, a delivery man who drive McCandless from Liard river to Fair bank, described Chris as a “courteous” person ( Krakauer 159). “ He didn’t cuss or use a lot of that there slang,” added Stuckey when he was interviewed by the Jon Krakauer (159). Except for his parent, McCandless’s relationship with other people is great. People who met him either ask him to stay a little longer or provide necessary materials for his journey. Moreover, McCandless always send them letter and postcard as an appreciation
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for their help but also an update on his current status. By walking into the wilderness, McCandless have abandoned the daily life to seek for a new set of lifestyle that he wishes to obtain. As an independent individual, Chris does not want to be controlled by anything. For example, his father, Walt McCandless, says, “ if you tried to coach him, to polish his skill, to bring out that final ten percent, a wall went up. He resisted instruction of any kind” (Krakauer 111). McCandless went to the wild to be released from things that control him; he went to the wild to encounter and conquer challenges; he went to the wild to prove human ability to survive in nature without any rules or laws that control them. Overall, Chris did these things to fully explore his life without the presence of civilization, just him and nature. The wild is where he could obtain the freedom and happiness he was looking for; it is the place where McCandless could have a thoroughly thought about his life. Therefore, Decided to abandon the past and walked into the Wild is the optimal solution for Chris at the time. “Grizzly Man” is a documentary movie directed by Werner Herzog where it narrates the story of Timothy Treadwell life with Grizzly bear in Alaska.
Timothy“ lived among wild grizzlies for summers” and “ went to remote areas of the Alaskan peninsula believing that he was needed there to protect these animals and educate the public for summers” ( Grizzly Man). Timothy's love for wild animals, especially Grizzly bears, is more than anyone. There is not a better way to protect something than to stay close and keep it safe. Thereby, Timothy decided to abandon his regular life and depart to the Alaskan peninsula to protect the bears. According to Willy Fulton, Treadwell’s friend and also a pilot, Timothy “ saw himself as a guardian” of the land ( Grizzly Man). Treadwell “stylized himself as Prince Valiant” who was “fighting the bad guys with their schemes to do harm to the bears” (Grizzly Man). Timothy was an unsuccessful man who mistakenly hanged out with wrong people, which turned his life around; he lost his scholarship, went back home, and even attempt to smoke marijuana. However, he did get a job in California, but things did not happen as expected. The near-fatal overdose is what change his life completely. Timothy went to Alaska to escape the society that ruins his young adulthood and to seek a new lifestyle. A lifestyle that could please him; A lifestyle that makes him want to appreciate his life; A lifestyle that could make him abandon things that destroyed his life before.
Living close to the bear not only help Timothy escape his sorrowful past but also appreciate the life that God gives him. He was eating while protecting them, sleeping while protecting them; in others word, Grizzly Bears reroute the path of Timothy’s life. In this story, the wild is the mask that covers his past but also a solution that could pull Timothy from it. Therefore, Timothy had made a decision that worked best for him at the time. Timothy and McCandless are two different people, but they walked into the wilderness with the similar purpose. They did it to change their life. For Timothy Treadwell, it is to escape the depressing, miserable past to continue to live. For Chris McCandless, it is to prove human capability to encounter and conquer any challenges that life give them, to fully explore his life without being controlled by others, and to acquire the answer he wishes to obtain at the beginning of his journey. Overall, both Chris and Timothy wanted to live the life they desire, so it is appropriate to say they are happy with their decision. In both stories, the wilderness has a significant effect on the protagonist, and it helps them to answer questions of their life. Even though neither character survives at the end, I believe neither of them regrets their decision in the beginning.
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.
With all of that said, Herzog presents Timothy as looking both foolish and in a sense irresponsible for going to the Alaskan wilderness alone to watch and study grizzly bears without any prior training with the animals. Never shying away from how Timothy died, Herzog had an obligation to document ethically and truthfully, but in a way did not to the full extent. Though even the national park rangers claimed he was harassing the wildlife, Timothy truly believed in what he was doing and was wrongfully portrayed for who he was. In Introduction to Documentary: Second Edition by Bill Nichols (pg. 138), Nichols even states that “Grizzly Man explores the life of a specific disenfranchised and/or marginalized individual,
Chris McCandless was a young man who did everything in his power to try and represent that freedom he was searching for. McCandless had everything before we went out but he decided to go out and travel by choice. He was considered a selfish man because when someone offered him to help him he rejects it in a nice way since we wants to do things himself. In the book Into the wild he states that,"You don't need to worry about me. I have a college education. I'm not destitute. I'm living like this by choice."
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.
Christopher “Alexander Supertramp” McCandless was a dreamer. However, unlike most of us nowadays, Christopher turned his desire for adventure into reality. Similar to Buddha, he gave up his wealth, family, home, and most possessions except the ones he carried before embarking on his journey. He traveled by various methods, mostly on foot, to eventually reach his desired goal in the Alaskan wilderness. Unfortunately, due to various mistakes, Christopher ultimately passed and his body was found in a neglected Fairbank City Transit Bus. His motivation to achieve his goal was based on the many aspects of his life. Chris’s dysfunctional family weighed heavily on him, one prime reason for driving him onto the road of freedom.
In what could have been Chris McCandless’s last contact with humanity he tells his new comrade, Wayne Westerberg, “If this adventure proves fatal and you don’t hear from me again I want you to know you are a great man. I now walk into the wild” (Krakauer 3). For 112 days Chris lived off the harsh Alaskan land. For anyone who is brave enough to travel on the stampede trail and cross the treacherous Teklanika River you will come across the Fairbanks City Transit System Bus 142. Once a backcountry shelter for hunters, trappers, ranger patrols, and for a short time Chris McCandless, Bus 142 now serves as a memorial for Chris McCandless. Travelers will make the trip to witness the basic resources Chris had at hand and the courage it took to make it as far as he did into his journey. Chris was not unaware of the dangers of the Alaskan wilderness. He was fully informed of the challenges he would face and was confident, maybe even hubristic, that he could overcome them. Non Supporters would argue this makes Chris a fool, reckless, brash, or even border lined unintelligent while in fact it is quite the opposite. Chris was a hero because he knew his differences and embraced them, his ambition and strive for perfection took his life, and he followed his dreams no matter the cost.
Thesis- In Jon Krakauer's nonfiction novel, Into the Wild, the wilderness is a natural home to seekers, a place free of the harm of a modern society, where a seeker can explore the lands and experience life by their own rules.
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.
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.
To him, all those people, like Franz, Westerberg, and even Jim Gallien, all seemed like his family. Some of them gave him a place to crash for the night, gave him a job, and even assisted him on his journey, like giving him a ride. McCandless being nice and appreciative to all those people who have helped him throughout his journey shows how “saintly” he can be. Works Cited Into the Wild. Dir.
The gripping tale of a young man who leaves all that he has and goes to live amidst the natural world, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer showcases the two years Christopher McCandless had spent journeying throughout the United States before his unfortunate death. After graduating from Emory University in 1990, McCandless disconnected with all of his past relations and abandoned the majority of his possessions. McCandless’ decisions either seem extremely unwise or extremely courageous. He had a comfortable life with few worries yet he still chose to toss it all away and venture into unknown territories. What many wonder is why he would do such an irrational thing. Maybe, McCandless’ was simply trying to run away from his perception of reality. Through deserting his family, friends, and material possessions, Christopher McCandless was attempting to escape the unavoidable condition of the world along with the mundane life ahead of him. He was escaping from the impending dreariness of his future and the idea of decisions impacting him and the people around him. Christopher McCandless appeared to believe that by going off into the wild, his life would no longer be surrounded by a shroud of uncertainty and despair.
...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’s fair to say that life on the road is something most people do not desire, as a way to live out their days; but a young man named Chris McCandless believed it was necessary to avoid the venomous grips of society. McCandless goes as far as to venture out to the rest of the United States and even crossing borders to achieve his true destination, Alaska. He shows us living such a life can hold many unique and wonderful experiences. Consequently, he also shows us the difficulties that most do not expect upon leaving for such a journey. Many speak about the advantages, like the freedom they enjoy, and the wondrous relationships formed along the way; but even so, some disadvantages outweigh the advantages, like the
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 ...