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reflective critique about jack london
jack london literary criticism
jack london literary criticism
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Human nature tells us to want what we can't or don't have. Everything from people to a toy to a kind of hairstyle – we just always want what isn't ours. Chris McCandless from Jon Krakauer's Into The Wild is no exception. He lives his life as part of an upper-middle class family, is smart, and goes to and does well in college, but he still feels like something is missing from his life. He want something completely opposite of the life he's used to. Chris McCandless spent a lot of time looking for something entirely different from what he already had and while he found true happiness it eventually lead to his demise.
Life is not something that can be defined by any single person. Everyone sees life as having a different purpose. It seems as though the McCandless family's purpose of life was family. To have a close family and live in a nice house and get their kids onto bigger and better things. Chris McCandless lived a pretty wonderful life. He was raised in that nice house and he seemed to be headed in the right direction. With a college education, $25,000 in savings, and a car that he loved he seemed ready for whatever life threw at him. His parents thought that would be law school – Chris had plans of his own. Chris's plan for his life was not a nice house and pretty, perfect life in the suburbs. Chris was inspired by many authors, but primarily by Jack London:
“A vast silence reigned over the land. The land itself was a desolation, lifeless, without movement, so lone and cold that the spirit of it was not even that of sadness. There was a hint in it of laughter, but of a laughter more terrible than any sadness -- a laughter that was mirthless as the smile of the Sphinx, a laughter cold as the frost and partaki...
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...n the picture, and there is no mistaking the look in his eyes: Chris McCandless was at peace, serene as a monk gone to God.” (199)
Even though Chris was so young and such a vibrant young man, he seemed as though he was ready to let himself go. He had accomplished his dream, and even if it wasn't always everything he'd cracked it up to be, he was ready. Ready to be somewhere else where he could be proud of his accomplishments no matter how meager they may have seemed to others.
Chris McCandless spent a lot of time looking for something entirely different from what he already had and while he found true happiness it eventually lead to his demise. He realized who he really was and what life was really all about, and in the end he seemed to become someone that he himself respected.
Work Cited
Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. New York: Anchor Books, 1997. Print.
Although he was rash, untutored in the ways of the backcountry, and incautious to the point of foolhardiness, he wasn’t incompetent-he wouldn’t have lasted 113 days if he were and he wasn’t a nutcase...McCandless was pilgrim, perhaps”(84). Because McCandless was a believer during the whole duration to his destination, when he died he was at peace with himself and the life that he was given the privilege to live. He no longer was worrying about his father’s betrayal ways, and his mother’s childlike mind. McCandless got what he asked for, and that was to live and to die alone after achieving his dream. Before Chris was at his final ends of life, he took his last breaths to thank god and send everyone his blessings(199). Chris McCandless was born to be an overachiever and died taking pride in who he knew he was and what he had done. He’s more than just a hitchhiker, he’s a
Chris went into the wild, he didn’t seem to grasp the freedom or the beauty he was searching for.
McCandless had exceptional reasons for leaving home and taking on the life of a homeless person living in the wild. McCandless wanted to experience this type of individuality and to experience the life that Henry David Thoreau once lived, however there where more reasons on why he ultimately left home and decided to live the life of a free man. In the book, McKinney explains that Chris was convinced that humans had grown into inferior people and that it was his goal to return to the natural state of being a human (74). He also continued to say that Chris was experiencing what ancient civilizations experienced and that by the end of his lifestyle he had incorporated elements of Neolithic (74). This reveals his intensions from the beginning of his state of being an ultimately the beginning of his un...
McCandless sister, Carine McCandless knew Chris McCandless the best, in Carine’s statement to 20/20 she said “I had to bet my life on whether or not my brother was happy the day that he died I would tell you he was. Now he wasn't happy to be dying, but He was happy. That he did everything in his life that he possibly could to live his life Not just be alive. He got more out of 24 years than most people get when they live to 90” (Carine McCandless). McCandless had lived his life to the fullest every chance he got.
Chris McCandless always felt held back and restricted, either by parents or by an indifferent society in general. An abhorrence against the powers that be and against what he saw as an unfulfilled life led him to embark on a great adventure of solitude and self-discovery.
To most, Chris McCandless from Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, was a young man who seemed to have it all, yet he felt like he had nothing. Chris thought that his ordinary life lacked substinance and meaning which inspired a journey that forever changed his life. He felt trapped by societal pressures and by his parents tense existence. His rough childhood paved the way for the incredible experience he was able to embark on. Although Chris’s soul searching journey eventually led to his demise, it gave him a glimpse into a fulfilled, free life. His strained and disconnected relationship with his parents propelled his journey in search for the true meaning of life.
Chris McCandless was a very intelligent young man and well educated. For example his sister mentions“Chris brought home good grades” (114). Even though having such important qualities he still managed to gain the idea in leaving a good life, to heading and living in a forest on his own. Chris had what people call a good life and family but he believed the complete opposite of what others thought he had. Throughout the story
In the book Into The Wild, there is a man that had ventured off when he was about 22 years old. He had a pretty good life prior to him venturing off. His parents had fairly well off jobs; his father being an antenna specialist for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); and his mother worked as a secretary at Hughes Aircraft. After some time, his mother and father started their own business that was a home-based consulting company that ended up being very successful. His parents, and family friend (who gave him $24,000 to continue into law school) wanted him to pursue the opportunity to go into law school, which everyone had high hopes for him. He had the great grades in college, awesome work ethics, he had it all; but one day he just went off without notice, and went on an adventure to find enlightenment and self discovery. In Chris McCandless’s life, people would argue that his life was about discovery and enlightenment, or ignorance and loss because it does seem that he gives up everything good in his life on a foolish walk-about; but others see that life isn't just about materialistic items, it's more of peace at mind, freedom of doing what you want, not being governed by the rules, or laws around you, and that life is just more than what people give you, it's about being natural, freeing yourself from everything; and I believe that his life was about discovery and enlightenment, and I do think he had found that exact thing.
Chris came into the wild unprepared for what laid ahead of him but followed his plan sticking with it until the very end. Towards the end Chris’s story he reached the point where he accepted the fact that he needs help he writes the note: “S.O.S. I NEED YOUR HELP.” (Krakauer, 198) After being completely isolated for months, Chris finally reached the end of his journey and really accepted the fact that this journey should not have been by himself, but should have been shared with people who had appreciated him and wanted to help him along the way, even when they knew that it was a risk. Towards the end of Chris’s journey, he wrote down, “HAPPINESS IS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED.” (Krakauer, 189) Chris realized that by spending all this time by himself it was not worth losing everybody who he had grown to care about and appreciate. This led to Chris seeing how valuable the relationships were that he built with people throughout his journey and how he missed out on so many opportunities of being with them. Chris threw the relationships that he developed away, leaving them to hope that he might return to them one day. “I now wish I had never shot the moose. One of the greatest tragedies of my life.” (Krakauer, 167). After Chris struggled to preserve the moose meat causing it all to go to waste. This action showed how unprepared he was for this journey and that through ignoring advice from people or listening to the wrong advice, he was already setting himself up for failure. Even though Chris had the drive to do everything by himself and isolating himself from the toxic society that he grew up in, he failed to see how he didn’t have to go to such extremes to be able to achieve what he had wanted out of life - to live a life where money was not what defined people, but where who somebody was would define
Before Chris McCandless had ventured off into the woods, he discovered that his parents had kept a secret and there was more to his family than he thought. He is described as someone that, “seemed like a kid who was looking for something, looking for something, just didn’t know what it was yet.” (Krakauer, 42). People can easily make hasty decisions in a spurt of anger or sorrow which is why Chris did not take into consideration the feelings of the people that cared about him. Even though a person may be dealing with something unfortunate that they might not even understand, it is important that he does not push away the people close to him because they are the ones that will help him move passed his hardships. While personal struggles get in the way of making the right choices, personal gratification can be just as
As McCandless neared the end of his high school years he decided he didn’t want to go to college as he thought it would be, “pointless, a waste of time and money” but surprisingly, he yielded to his parents’ wishes and,“ended up going to Emory”(114). This departure from following his views of the world and allowing himself to submit to ideas that he didn’t really believe in characterizes McCandless in a much more pragmatic light. He may have realized that he was much more dependent on his parents in his day to day life or that college may help him advance his ideals with other like minded people. So instead of fanatically following his ideals to the extreme McCandless decided to keep those ideals with him and act upon them later when he felt the time was right. This would explain his sudden disappearance to go on his Alaskan odyssey many years later as he never let go of his pre-college ideals but rather hid them away temporarily. Chris had a multitude of ideals about the world and others, but he seemed to ignore
Do you ever know what the meaning of life is to you? People have their own wants and needs in life, everyone has a unique mind, we all have different perspectives from life. Us the people won’t understand life till we go out there and experience it for ourselves and the see the beauty in life. In the story Into the Wild, Chris McCandless goes out into the wild not only to see nature but to find himself. People like Shan Callarman thought McCandless was a bright and ignorant child who had no common sense and was making a dumb decision and thought he was just plain crazy, but I disagree with Callarman thought and believed McCandless was a unique soul and was aware of what risks he was taking on this trip, McCandless was an intelligent person and not a careless one.
...s was at peace. Chris McCandless died happy and at peace with life because of the all the sights he had seen, all the people he had met, and ultimately the goal he had wanted to achieve was at his fingertips. He did not make it out of the “Great Alaska,” but he died trying. He had survived one hundred plus days. He had walked all over America. He had met some amazing tramps along the way. He had caused heartbreak, but he helped thousands. I believe, based on the fact that he stated he would write a book upon his return, all he wanted to be a legend and have a legacy. He did just that. Chris has died over ten years ago, and here I am in the tenth grade learning about his eventful life. Chris ‘Alexander Supertramp’ McCandless had lived an eventful life in his twenty-four years of living than most do in their one hundred years of life. His legacy will live on forever.
Throughout the novel, Christopher McCandless’s character changed over time. Up to McCandless’s death, he wanted to live with the wild and to be away from civilization as far as possible. He changes his mind when he writes “HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED” (189). His purpose of living in the wild is to live with freedom and do whatever he wishes to do. However, he realizes he was a “refuge in nature” (189) and intended to abandon his solitary life and rejoin the human community. It is assumed that McCandless died a preventable death because of his unpreparedness, but it is now undeniable that his adversity is what caused his mortality. “…McCandless simple had the misfortune to eat moldy seeds. An innocent mistake, it was nevertheless sufficient to end his life” (194). Had he not eaten the moldy seeds, he would have remained alive to tell the tale.
McCandless had been accused of abandoning his family and loved ones. Chris had always felt like his parents were holding him back, they had a different vision of Chris’ future than Chris had. Even though Chris left his family it was in his best intentions and for the best intentions, if he had never left him he would never have been able to find himself. He did not mean to harm anyone, he was just trying to discover the larger meaning of his life and fulfill his dream. In the end of the novel Chris was able to discover himself when he realized that ‘ Happiness only real when shared’. This was Chris’ realization that life really mattered most when he was with others, it implied that Chris was ready to go back to his parents and