Chris Kyle, a name that comes with a lot of recognition; some good, and some bad. The most substantial title comes with being named as the most lethal sniper in United States’ history, with over one hundred, and sixty confirmed kills. Christopher Scott Kyle was born April 8, 1974 in Odessa, Texas to two loving parents Deby Lynn Mercer Kyle, and Wayne Kenneth Kyle (Kyle 8). Chris was raised in north-central Texas, in the many small towns around the familiar area (Kyle 9). However, Chris was not raised here alone, four years after Chris’s birth on January 25, 1978 his parents were blessed with another bundle of joy, Jeff Kyle ("Chris Kyle"). Both boys grew up as average farm boys, and were raised by their caring parents the best way they could …show more content…
Chris often got into fights, however, he never started them. Chris claimed this about his father “ My dad made it clear I’d get a whuppin’ if he ever found out I started a fight. We were supposed to be above that. Defending myself was a different story.” Also Chris made sure to protect Jeff even if they did not always get along “ Protecting my brother was even better- if someone tried to pick on him, I’d lay them out. I was the only one allowed to whip him.” (Kyle 11). Chris growing up also consisted of him claiming he was cowboy from a young age, that turned into a mature rancher. “You’re not a cowboy until you can break a horse. I started learning in high school; at first, I didn’t know a whole heck of a lot. I learned much more as I got older.” Even though Chris claimed he learned more, he still did not know much until he acquired a job as a ranch hand. “ I went to work for David Landrum, in Hood County, Texas, and quickly found out I wasn’t near as much of a cowboy as I thought I was. David took care of that. He taught me everything about working a ranch, and then some.” (Kyle 16). Chris loved working for David and ranching in general, in his words “working on a ranch is pure heaven.” (Kyle
Although Chris McCandless' life at home growing up was hounded by his so called "ignorant" father or his "bigot" parents, made the best out of his life whenever he could. He was on the cross country team when he was younger, and they all ran out into the wild almost, purposely getting lost. Being on that team and experiencing that made him happier and started his interest and passion for embracing nature. Chris even found solace and was content with providing food, such as hamburgers, stated by his cross country teammate Eric Hathway, providing company to people less fortunate than him. Taking hikes with his grandfather and doing things as mentioned previously (cross country), eventually influenced him to make his greatest adventure and unbeknownst
One thing that most people struggle to do in this modern society is to blaze their own path, or to be a pioneer. This was in Chris’s nature, this isn’t something that was force upon him, he himself was born with this trait and this became a part of his legacy. His desire and will to explore the Alaskan wilderness with little gear and no communication with the outside world can only be defined as crazy. (On pg. 69), Chris states, “Please return all mail I receive to the sender. It might be a very long time before I return south. If this adventure proves fatal and you don’t ever hear from me again, I want you...
“Don’t judge a book by it’s cover, it’s what’s inside counts” This quote reminds people about how they should not judge other people from the outside but look deep into their true personalities. Looking from the appearance and how Chris lives, everyone would assume that Chris is a crazy, foolish person and does everything without thinking. If people try to know more about Chris, they would have different perspective. Chris is intelligent, determined, independent and follows what he believes. He went into the wilderness to escape from the society that tries to suppress him and look for the meaning of life.
In a certain sense that’s how Chris lived his entire life” (112). Chris was creative in everything he did, separating him from his classmates and most of society in general. He was also intensely spiritual from such a young age and viewed running an almost religious exercise. “Chris would use the spiritual aspect to try and motivate us,” recalls Eric Hathaway, another friend on the team. “He’d tell us to think about all the evil in the world, all the hatred, and imagine ourselves running against the forces of darkness, the evil wall that was keeping us from running our best. He believed doing well was all mental, a simple matter of harnessing whatever energy was available. As impressionable high school kids, we were blown away by that kind of talk” (112). McCandless was wise beyond his years to say the least. Testimony from Eric Hathaway’s experiences with Chris should be more than enough to prove how individual Chris was, even in high
Excerpt #3→ Carine McCandless specified an unique detail about Chris when she said, “Chris would never, ever, intentionally burn down a forest, not even to save his life. Anybody who would suggest otherwise doesn't understand the first thing about my brother (198).”
Was he a reckless idiot? That is the big question. This is what people always seem to talk about when they talk about Chris McCandless. There are many people who think that Chris McCandless was a reckless idiot who was mentally ill, or something else was wrong with Chris. It seems that almost everybody that met Chris thought maybe Chris was crazy or had problems. Here are just a few things that people said about Chris and his state of mind. Pg 40 Zarza admits saying, "he was always going on about trees and nature and weird stuff like that. We all thought he was missing a few screws. Pg 42 Charlie said, "seemed like a kid who was looking for something." Pg 45 Burres said "I thought Alex had lost his mind when he told us about his 'great Alaskan odyssey, ' as he called it."
Chris McCandless was a very bright young man yet he was very ignorant at the same time. I do agree with Shaun Callarman with his argument about how Chris McCandless was a very ignorant man. Chris had such a bright future ahead of him by graduating from Wilbert Tucker High School and being a college graduate from Emory University with a bachelor 's degree in history and anthropology and yet he just let all of that go to waste. He was ignorant to the fact that he wanted to find happiness since he couldn 't find it within his household since his parents got into fights all of the time, and so he chose to leave that life, not tell his parents where he was going (which was stupid of him to not tell them), also it was completely stupid and dumb of
He also earned 2 awards of the silver star and 5 bronze stars. He said once after the first kill others come easy. His rank was a Chief Petty Officer, his sniper rifle was a AWM. He was arguably one of America’s best sniper and most effective with his large number of kills.
Having over 500 confirmed kills is quite the feat, especially when you do it with only a sniper rifle. Simo Hayha, one of the few snipers who have over 500 confirmed kills, is full of skill and talent. His skill is what makes him one of the single most deadly people to ever live. A person with his skill is revered by many to this day.
Chris was intelligent; he had a college education. The people that Chris met along his journey had good things to say about him. Westerberg gave Alex a job, "He was the hardest worker I've ever seen. Didn't matter what it was, he'd do it..." (18). Alex was a hard-working kid who constantly tried proving to himself that he could do the impossible. Chris didn't like how people desperately tried to help him, however. "After an extended argument Burres also got McCandless to accept some long underwear and other warm clothing
Chris Hadfield was born on 29 August, 1959 in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. His early life consisted of him moving back and forth between his regular home and his Stag Island Cottage within Ontario. It
He left and “walked into the wild”, as he said, to escape his problems (Krakauer, 69). He never confronted his dad about his feelings. Carine McCandless talks about this personality trait in Chris saying, “Chris was the sort of person who brooded on things. If something bothered him; he wouldn’t come right out and say it” (Krakauer, 122). He changed his name, He wasn’t trying to take pride in his “adventure”. It was an extra and unnecessary precaution to ensure that his problems would not affect his escape. Chris McCandless changed his name and then continued his life ignoring all of the problems he had ever
Patrick Manning evaluates Jerry Bentley’s proposal for periodizing world history in his essay, “The Problem of Interactions in World History.” Manning finds the focus on cross-cultural interaction to be an interesting approach to world history, but he believes it is only “the beginning of the work” and provides suggestions on how historians can expand on what is meant by cross-cultural interaction to improve it as a criterion for periodizing world history (Manning 782). His main critique of using cross-cultural interaction to periodize history is that it involves a degree of simplification. Ultimately, Manning describes Bentley’s proposal as “elegant and comprehensive” and says he is “inclined to accept cross-cultural interaction as an appropriate
According to others, Chris McCandless was inherently selfish. Please, let’s beg to differ, for goodness sake, he was a grown man! It was his life and he was living it the way he wanted to. Chris gave his sister fair warning. He bid to her, “Since they won’t ever take me seriously, for a few months after graduation I’m going to let them think they are right, I’m going to let them think that I’m “coming around to see their sides of things” and that our relationship is stabilizing. And then, once the time is right, with one abrupt, swift action I’m going to completely knock them out of my life...” (Krakauer 64) He knew what he had to do. He had to show his parents how they had made him feel his whole life. As a graduation present they offered him a new car, his old Datsun apparently was to their standards. Chris became infuriated. That was his pride and joy, how dare them try and take that away! They ignored what he was saying, as he did many times before, he o...
Chris Van Allsburg was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on June 18, 1949, the second child of Doris Christiansen and Richard Allsburg (Thomson, 2006). His sister Karen was born in 1947 (Houghton Mifflin, 2011).Chris and his family lived in an old farm-house when he was growing up from he was born until was three years old, then his family relocated to a brand new and better looking farm-house and he lived there