Since the beginning of time, humans have believed in their possession of superb qualities and of perfection. The question is then raised if humans do indeed posses these qualities and this perfection. For ages people have had the wrong idea about this concept. Nobody is born with a talent or skill to be successful; it is his/her hard work which allows them to achieve new things in their life. People have to work day and night, facing difficulties in order to achieve their dream. These people never give up and continue to try harder, even after the first attempt fails. This is why this world has seen successful business owners like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and many more.
Everyone has two aspects to their lives: number one is having a family
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Simeon was fairly young, just around 21 years old, and has no experience in the real world. Fortunately, his uncle Barnabas Krez knew the key to success and showed him how to reach the top. Barnabas taught him the seven steps to becoming successful and one of the tips was about planning his future. Barnabas gave his nephew an idea of what he should be writing about and he told him:
“Ha, modesty be damned! That is the whole point of this process. If you have designed your last day on earth, if you have decided how you wish to be thought of on your deathbed, only then can you start to plot a course to that point, to your ideal final destination. Then, whenever you feel that you are being blown off course, you can correct yourself. If you feel that you are suddenly on the wrong train, you simply make the appropriate plans to get back on the right one. Without these self-set guidelines and directions, you are at the whim of wherever life takes you, whether you think you are in charge or not.” (Chris Murray,
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Due to his financial status, he was a single parent without a permanent address, not sure if he was going to find a place to sleep or food to eat. After all this, it was obvious he had no money for education; otherwise, he would have had a good job. Chris was really not gifted with the pleasure of education in his childhood, as it is told in the novel “Pursuit of Happyness” about how Chris had to go through military, part time labor jobs and other occupations akin to these instead of going to school. His life would have been easier and fast tracked, and he would have achieved his dream quicker, if he had a good
This is a very important question to answer, as it is vital in exploring why he was unprepared or what he could have done instead. Probably the most obvious example is the circumstances of his death is the fact that he starved to death on the rough side of a river that he died thinking he could not cross. Unable to cross the river, Chris was forced to attempt to survive on the local wildlife and vegetation, this proved to be a losing battle and he was unable to sustain this long enough to find a way to cross. How is Chris’ inability to cross a river relevant to his supposed unpreparedness? Chris lacked a map (Krakauer, 129), easily considered to be one of the most, if not the most important tool when venturing outdoors. If Chris had taken a map, he would have known that the location where he otherwise would have died was less than a mile away from a crossing. “If he 'd known about it [the river crossing], crossing the Teklanika to safety would have been a trivial matter. Because he had no topographic map, however, he had no way of conceiving that salvation was so close at
Chris does not agree with a lot of the values of society. He shuns the day-to-day sheltered routine that comes with the security of the material world. Chris does not hold the security of the government with a high esteem, as shown in the following quote, “‘H*ll, no… How I feed myself is none of the government’s business. F*ck their stupid rules’” (Krakauer 7). Chris doesn’t even enjoy the comfort of modern living. He prefers minimal
Although the story is not in an chronological order, one of the first scenes Krakauer talks about is when Chris offered Jim Gallien; the person who dropped him in Alaska, offering him all his money, his comb and his watch .When he refused to accept it, Chris said “I don’t want to know what time it is. I don’t want to know what day it is or where I am .None of that matters.”(Krakauer ,1996: 7) This clearly depicted how much Chris craved a raw regime and despised any kind of covetous pleasure. As the author describes it ,even getting a college degree was a unwise chore for him, and he genuinely felt relieved after attaining his
My outlook on his decision is that he wanted to leave the material world behind and experience nature and simplicity that is Alaska. An example to describe just why Alaska was a good place for Chris to go and leave his world behind and why it feels so simple is best explained by this quote from Sam Keith’s “One Man’s Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey.” Keith writes, “this country makes a man younger than his birthdays” (Keith 108). I believe this is why Chris wanted to live in Alaska so bad, the freedom and the simple lifestyle with no one but himself to rely
As someone who relates heavily with Chris as a person, It is easy for me to understand Chris’ true character. If you strip a man of all his material possessions, what sets him apart from everyone else? That is the question in which Chris’ motives lie behind. As someone who was well educated and, for lack of a better term, privileged, and intelligent, Chris likely began to question his capability as a person. By stripping down to nothing but his character and his ability, Chris was able to experience his full potential in an unguarded state. In this, it was actually better that he died in the wilderness, for had he emerged in defeat, he would have emerged a broken man. While physically, he may have been totally fine, it is in his spirits that would have been broken. A sense of inability and hopelessness is a greater torture than any physical pain, even
He chose to live deliberately to find real happiness. While living in college, Chris lived off campus in a spartan like apartment, with a couple of crates, electricity and water. After graduating college, he left behind a middle class life full of education and materialistic items to set out on a adventure that would allow him to go into the wild to find his true self. What most people in society would call crazy. A quote from Henry David Thoreau says, “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!” (Walden) Thoreau is saying that people should live a simple life, with out the material possessions controlling their happiness. Chris understood that materialism doesn’t create real happiness and satisfaction. He gave up the comfort of his home to go out to the wild. He gives away his possessions, something society values too much . He gives his money to charity and burns the money he has left in his wallet. He began a simply life hitchhiking, finding food and shelter in the wild and being adventurous with the land and sights around him. In this way making a statement that he rejects the social views and values of property in the search of a higher purpose within
He could not come back into society without sacrificing his freedom, and would have to get used to all the rules that he ignored while outside in the wild. He would regret coming back into society and would undoubtedly want go back to the freedom he was living. In a poetic note he left found inside the bus, “[t]wo years he walks the earth. No phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road… And now after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual pilgrimage… No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild,” (122) In these verses, Chris shows that his happiness is in the freedom of the wild. He talks about all the worldly possessions that he has given up for what he believes is true happiness. It would be extremely hard, if not impossible, for him to get fully use to society life again, because as he describes in some parts in the book and in the quote above, nothing is comparable to the ultimate freedom that is found in the
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
As stated before, Chris’s main reason for going into the woods was so he could live independently and find himself. What he brought with him reflected that. Going into the woods, he had a backpack worth of stuff, and the only food was a ten pound bag of rice, two sandwiches, and a bag of corn chips. If he didn’t catch a ride with Gallien, he wouldn’t even have the sandwiches and the bag of chips. From the beginning, he knew he was going to rely on nature to survive. Instead of observing nature and getting food from outside the woods like Thoreau, he was only surviving off of the nature around him. If he didn’t catch any game, he would have little to no food. As his dad had said, “ Chris was very much of the school that you should own nothing except what you can carry on your back at a dead run” (Krakaeur 32). Before even going on this trip, he was a minimalist. He only took what he needed. So before going on this trip, he only took what he thought he would need, which was a very little amount of items. He was the kind of person that had to live out his beliefs, so in doing that, he went to the woods to find himself with almost nothing except for one bag on his
He could 've even kept the money and go into town and what not to buy some food incase he couldn 't hunt anymore. I say that it is very ironic since Chris McCandless had donated all of his money to the hungry, and burned some of it too, yet he had died from starvation instead of keeping it and buying the food. A good example to why Chris did not use common sense is from Jessica Duling and she states “Chris McCandless was unprepared in more ways than one”, “why would anyone intending to live off the land for a few months, forget Boy Scout rule number one: Be Prepared”. I strongly agree with Jessica because the only thing that chris did to learn on how to live in the wild was buy a book on different types of plants and which ones are poisonous and which ones are not. I believe that if Chris had used a little common sense he would 've at least told his parents or brought a map or maybe look up how Alaska acts during the winter through the summer and maybe he might still be living till this
Most things came easy to Chris. In reality, there were very few things that he was not good at. He came from a privileged background. He was accepted and graduated from Emory University, an elite academic institution. All of these variables resulted in Chris despising the society from which he be... ...
He wanted to get away from all the materialistic world and find himself. Chris never felt that he fit in at Emory. He was not one to brag about his family’s wealth nor did he care for it, “Chris started complaining about all the rich kids at Emory”(page 123). Even before his big Alaska trip, McCandless had taken small trips here and there, he did not know what was going to happen, but he was an advertorials guy and he just wanted to have fun while he can. He wanted to make up for the time that was lost during his teenage years because he blames his dad infidelity for making his childhood so terrible, “He later declares to Carine and others that the deception committed by Walt and Billie made his ‘entire childhood seem like a fiction’”(page 123). Chris just wanted to be happy, he wanted to find his life whether it was going into the wild or not, surviving or not, he just wanted to find himself. According to Maia Szalavitz Why the Teen Brain IS drawn to Risk, she states, “ … teens tend to wildly overestimate certain risks …”(page 1) and that is what Chris did, he had too overconfident in himself and did not think this trip thoroughly because he did not pack all the necessities not did he accept gear or tools that people would offer him along the way He knew the consequences that he would eventually face and instead of preparing for them he decided to ignore them. Maybe if he had a map,
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.
Many times in the book Chris was starving or needed a job and because he was charming either at the time or previously he could always find a meal or job. An example of this is when Westerburg first picks up Chris, Chris had not eaten in days, but because Chris was cordial he got a meal at Wayne’s friend’s house. After this he also got housing and a job from Wayne purely because of his friendliness.
McCandless, an intelligent child to say the least, was frustrated with orders by anyone. He wanted to do things his way or no way and he does this throughout his life. Whether it was getting an F in physics because he refused to write lab reports a certain way (an F was something that was never on McCandless report card) or not listening to advice from his parents to the extreme of leaving society to go into the wilderness, McCandless definitely was not a follower. His parents were told by one of his teachers at an early age that Chris "marched to the beat of his own drummer". Chris never lost his ability to do things the way he wanted and when he wanted to do them. After receiving his diploma from Emory in 1990 he set off on a two-year escapade that would eventually end his life but in my opinion, if Chris could start over he would probably not do things much differently. I think he would still donate his $25,000 to an organization, leave his car in the woods, burn the remainder of his money, and hitch-hiked across the United States. The only thing he might do differently is finding a way not to starve to death at the end of the novel.