In Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, and The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, Shares the same message behind the concepts of Choices, Dreams and Tragedy. First, both literature shares the same theme known as Choices. The poem by Robert Frost, Narrator said “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by,” As the reader can see this poem centers with the choices. The path in this poem can seen as just ordinary road, however Frost actually represents these roads as the life choices. And he decided to take the one less traveled by. Same goes for Christopher McCandless. He didn’t choose the ordinary road just like other else. And rather, he chose the less traveled path to “experiences, the memories, the great triumphant joy of living to the fullest extent in which real meaning is found.” (page 37) Second, both written works …show more content…
And in the poem, because this was the life decision, the narrator agonize about his path. Yet, at the end he decided to take “the one less traveled by”. The narrator won’t know how his decision will affect his life until it has already changed it. Same thing goes to Christopher McCandless. When he wants to go “into the wilderness not primarily to ponder nature or the world at large but, rather, to explore the inner country of his own soul.” (page 183) He didn’t expect the resolution of his own path. However, he accepted his future and left a note; “I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD. GOODBYE MAY GOD BLESS ALL!” (page 199). Lastly, these both literature shares same theme concepts of tragedy. For example, the narrator said “I took the one less traveled by” Because he took the one less traveled by, it could be considered that he probably had to deal with loneliness and alienation. Same goes to Christopher McCandless. When he accidently ate false potato seeds, he realized the “HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED”.(page 189) Eventually he died because of starvation.
No one makes wise choices all the time, but those who follow their own aspiration makes a person feel more alive. In fact, the people who go out and follow their dreams are explorers or achievers, but the vision of their dreams can become fatal. The reason for this is because they are following their own dreams. Chris McCandless was a hitchhiker who went out into Alaska to get away from society and follow his “‘great Alaskan odyssey.(Krakauer 45)’” Unfortunately, he died, but along the book Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, he takes his readers through Chris’s journal entries and journeys before he heads to Alaska. Naturally, Chris had the ability to be independent through his way into Alaska but had some flaws that caused his death; one
In Jon Krakauer's novel Into the Wild, Krakauer pieces together the journey and motives for Chris McCandless’s trip to Alaska. McCandless was an intense young man who grew up with wealth and a loving family, but ended up leaving this life behind to travel to Alaska, ultimately leading to his demise. Krakauer sympathizes with McCandless and despite trying to keep an unbiased story, paints McCandless as a unique individual- theorizing that “McCandless went into the wilderness not primarily to ponder nature or the world at large but, rather, to explore the inner country of his own soul” (Krakauer 183). While many share similar views of McCandless and admire him, a large majority of people view him in a more negative perspective. Shaun Callarman analyzed Chris McCandless as, “…bright and ignorant at the same time.
In Night by Elie Wiesel and Welcome to Hard Times by E.L. Doctorow, the reader witnesses the purpose of hope in one’s life. Wiesel and Doctorow fabricate their works around the trials and tribulations one suffers and what causes one to persevere to continue living. Elie and Blue, characters in the works, experience a life full of suffering and destruction. Even through this, they both live on with a purpose unknown to the reader, and perhaps unknown to themselves. Elie and Blue live on, but to no avail it seems, as both authors end their works with an ultimate destruction of the lives of their characters. However, Wiesel and Doctorow express that Elie and Blue persevere through their lives entirely as a result of hope. These authors suggest that suffering will exist in everyone’s life, and amidst this suffering one often searches for meaning. As Elie and Blue demonstrate, hope determines one’s meaning and purpose in life. Wiesel and Doctorow prove that one’s hope defines one’s existence; however, that hope only masks the futility of life, through the presentation of Elie and Blue’s construction of hope, destruction of hope, and adaptation of hope.
Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, Jon Krakauer’s Into The Wild, and Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man all tell the stories of a real-life character that makes the decision to venture out into the wilderness on his own. On one hand, Chris McCandless (Into The Wild), Timothy Treadwell (Grizzly Man), and Thoreau are similar in several ways. All three men record some kind of documentation about their journey; McCandless and Thoreau keep journals while Treadwell keeps a video log. Also, all three forced themselves to really live off the land using only the bare minimum of essentials. On the other hand, the men had several differences. In two of the stories, Into The Wild and Grizzly Man, the main character perishes as a result of his choice to live this way, while in Walden, Thoreau survives all the way through his experience. However, the most prominent differences between the characters were their reasons for venturing into the wild in the first place. Henry David Thoreau went into the woods “because [he] wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if [he] could learn what it had to teach, and not, when [he] came to die, discover that [he] had not lived” (Thoreau, Chapter II). His goal was to live his life simply yet richly in the wilderness. Chris McCandless went into the woods for a similar yet different reason. McCandless was opposed to living life the traditional way. He went into the wild to escape society and the traditional way of life. He wanted to prove to himself that he could survive out in the wild away from everything and everyone else. Finally, Timothy Treadwell makes his journey into the Alaskan wild for what he says is the protection of the bear population. His goal is to protect the bears fr...
“The author describes a man who had given away a small fortune, forsaken a loving family, abandoned his car, watch and map and burned the last of his money before traipsing off into the ‘wilderness’ west of Healy” (Krakauer 71). Even though some believe that he was crazy and he was just like every other energetic young guys who think they can just go into the wilderness and survive, McCandless was different, his mentality was not the same as other people which is why he was so determined to go accomplish his dream, he was not thinking in the world's way he had his own view on life that was deeper than other people. He did not survive but he did what he set his mind to and I believe that is all that would have mattered to
In the novel, A Hero’s Journey, Joseph Campbell, an American mythologist, writer, and lecturer, states that “every decision made by a young person is life decisive. What seems to be a small problem is really a large one. So everything that is done early in life is functionally related to a life trajectory” (Campbell). In mythic criticism, the critic sees mythic archetypes and imagery connecting and contrasting it with other similar works. Certain patterns emerge, such as a traditional hero on a journey towards self actualization. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer portrays this hero’s journey. The protagonist of the novel, Chris McCandless, hitchhikes to Alaska and walks alone into the wilderness, north of Mt. McKinley. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. He thought that the reality of the modern world was corrupt and uncompassionate, so he went on this journey in order to find a life of solitude and innocence that could only be expressed through his encounters with the wild. During this ambitious journey to find the true meaning of life, Chris McCandless exhibits a pattern like the type explained above. In Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, Chris McCandless follows this mythic pattern, seeking to be the traditional hero who spurns civilization, yet he discovers that modern heroes cannot escape their reality.
...fe for oneself. McCandless primary tragic flaw being his unwillingness to form long-term relations brought him both to the happiest moment of his life, but also to his demise. McCandless never had a problem with people, but rather with the status quo of society, the idea that a man or a woman has to live inside of a coordinate plane. McCandless left home and went on his adventure simply for his own well being, he achieved both what he wanted to accomplish while learning a valuable lesson along the way. He learned that happiness must be shared, and while everyone has his or her flaws, it is important to let these go. Christopher McCandless should teach people the importance of following your dreams, and the importance of enjoying the natural serenity of life.
Setting is one of the most important factors in the shaping of a story; it shapes the plot and characters while also establishing the atmosphere. In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, the setting is pivotal because it is the backbone for which the story is based upon. Set in post apocalyptic America, The Road is a story of a boy and his father’s journey as they travel south to the coast to stay warm from the impending winter. Due to the condition of their environment, a desolate wasteland, the two characters form a special bond that compels them to be very protective of each other. Because of the isolation, the boy learns everything he knows from his father. The man teaches him simpler things like how to read but
Life is a form of progress- from one stage to another, from one responsibility to another. Studying, getting good grades, and starting the family are common expectations of human life. In the novel Into the Wild, author Jon Krakauer introduced the tragic story of Christopher Johnson McCandless. After graduating from Emory University, McCandless sold of his possessions and ultimately became a wanderer. He hitchhiked to Alaska and walked into the wilderness for nearly 4 months. This journey to the 49th state proved fatal for him, and he lost his life while fulfilling his dream. After reading this novel, some readers admired the boy for his courage and noble ideas, while others fulminated that he was an idiot who perished out of arrogance and
...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.
Chris McCandless was a young man who gave up his belongings to live in the wild away from society, and his journey was to find fulfillment and the meaning of life through nature. In the nonfiction book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, Krakauer writes about the details of Chris McCandless’s journey to find and reinvent himself as he lives off the land in the Alaskan wilderness. Throughout the book, Krakauer portrays McCandless as a hero for rejecting society and falling victim to this bravery. However, Chris McCandless’s death is not an example of heroism and he did not fall victim to his courage. Instead, McCandless died as a result of ignorance and overconfidence that clouded his self-perception and ultimately led to his downfall.
...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."
a more upbeat feel to the mood, which was unlike the poem “Death on a
The persona begins to think about how he cannot take both paths and be the same “traveler”
Perhaps one of the most well-known poems in modern America is a work by Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken. This poem consists of four stanzas that depict the story of the narrator traveling through the woods early in the morning and coming upon a fork in the path, where he milled about for a while before deciding upon one of the two paths, wishing he could take both, but knowing otherwise, seeing himself telling of this experience in the future.