Into the Wild: Searching
Chris McCandless, the main character of Into the Wild, is searching for his true self. His numerous tests of both his physical and mental abilities are proof of his determination. He felt affected in his families presence so went on a road trip. He was criticized by many for this, but who could stop him from discovering who he is. It is clear from the novel that Chris’ relationship with his parents is not good. He refuses gifts from them and then disappears. He had instructed his family that he was not interested in giving or receiving gifts. When his father offered to buy him a new car he became enraged. He had a car and couldn’t understand why his father would buy him a new one. Chris took the money that his family had left him for college and donated it to Oxfam which gives food to the hungry. This is ironic because Chris eventually died from starvation. Many people criticize McCandless for not keeping in touch with his parents and family. Chris was 22 years old. He did not have to tell his parents anything. He was doing what he wanted, not what other people wanted him to do and he was happy. They call him selfish for disregarding his parents’ feelings. McCandless was living his life for himself. He wanted to be happy and it happened to upset his parents. Wanting your own happiness is not selfish it is your right. I don’t think that McCandless was trying to upset his family, he was just trying to make himself happy by doing what he wanted to do. One of the reasons that I believe McCandless did not keep in contact with his parents while he kept in touch with those he met along the way is because he was afraid of disapproval. His parents had never been to find of his “adventures” so he didn’t want to hear them voice their disapproval. The people he met along the way may not have approved of his travels but they weren’t going to tell him not to do it. McCandless needed these people. He needed approval, because in his mind that gave him the ok to go ahead.
In the movie Into the Wild Chris McCandless, the main character, held many of the same transcendentalist ideals that influential transcendentalists such as Henry David Thoreau held; however, Chris is a prime example of someone who missed the point by a long shot. In accordance to the transcendentalist beliefs, Chris decided that after going to college he would go out into the world by himself instead of going into the workforce. From there, he went on a long and exhausting journey to eventually end up in Alaska. He did this based on his gut feeling at the time, something that Thoreau urged people to follow. As with many transcendentalists, Chris valued his individuality and broke off all ties to society that he had during his journey. Chris
Their rationale was that due to sickness he couldn’t make the right choices for his life path. Matthew Power from the article of “The Cult of Chris McCandless” stated that “the outdoors columnist for the 'Anchorage Daily News, ' believes that he was suffering from schizophrenia...McCandless didn 't need the wilderness...He needed help." This quote is saying that McCandless is probably suffering from a schizophrenia and that is why he did not reconsidered his decision making. In the story Chris found out that his father has another family aside from his, therefore, he might be depressed and just want to get away from society. However, Chris might just want to go into the wild to challenge himself and that being in the wild could be his personal goals and hobby. Chris is brave enough to take up the tough challenge and wanting to pursue his ideal lifestyle that he can look forward to each day. There was nothing to pull Chris back from his limit. In the article “Remembering Chris McCandless 20 years” Pete Mason showed admiration towards Chris McCandless by stating his opinion, “Wandering the country for more than two years with no phone, no car, no cigarettes, serves as a lesson that the material goods we all cherish and seek to obtain as status symbols are doing nothing but holding us back from doing what we are truly capable of doing. What is inside each of us -- the need to satisfy curiosity, to explore, to converse and think critically, all these are the lessons of Christopher Johnson McCandless, 20 years after his death.” We are so caught up with the busy modern life that we sometimes forgot about the basic survival skills that is needed. Chris was one of the very few that can let go of materialistic to find himself in the wild. Getting out of your comfortable lifestyle to try living like the old
Throughout Into the Wild, Krakauer portrays Christopher McCandless as an infallibly eager young man hoping to distance himself from the society he so obviously loathes, to "live off the land," entirely independent of a world which has "conditioned [itself] to a life of security." Chris, contrarily to this depiction, is disparagingly viewed by some as a "reckless idiot" who lacked the sense he needed to survive in the Alaskan wilderness. This derogatory assessment of Chris's mindset is representative of the society he hopes to escape and contains all the ignorance that causes him to feel this way. Nevertheless, he is misjudged by these critics, allowing Krakauer to hold the more accurate interpretation of Chris's character, his goals, and his accomplishments.
McCandless used the idea of escaping society from “Walden” by Henry David Thoreau and tried to mesh it together with the ideas of solitude and isolation to form his own beliefs. McCandless misinterpreted what Thoreau was saying. Thoreau states, “I had not lived there a week…It is true, I fear, that others may have fallen into it, and so helped to keep it open.” (Thoreau 3).Thoreau specifically states in this quote that he does not want others to follow or even go do what he did. He also did build the cabin a few miles away from a town because he knew he would go back one day. Thoreau was a sane person in doing this because crazy people stray too far away from society despite the consequences. He believed that he had other things to do with his life and not spending a minute more in that lifestyle. McCandless still went out into the wilderness away from society against Thoreau’s words. Chris was crazy to shun s...
At the end of “Into the Wild” by John Krakauer epilogue, my view towards McCandless’s journey and death is emotionally similar to McCandless’s parents as they accept Chris’s death. Chris’s parents weren’t really involved in his life so they never really knew why he cut everyone off. My initial guess is that Chris got tired of his parents controlling his life and just wanted to get away. Throughout “Into The Wild” Chris’s parents seemed like they didn’t support or care about Chris, or they didn’t know how to show it, however my opinion about Chris’s parents did change because the author shined light on his parents and how they came to senses with their son’s death and that they actually really did care about their son Chris McCandless.
Chris McCandless, the main character of “Into the wild” was angered by his father’s infidelity and bigamy. As a result, Chris McCandless wanted to separate himself from his family and he begins a spiritual adventure to search for his identity. Chris McCandless isolates himself physically and emotionally to find freedom and peace by adventuring into the wild. Therefore, McCandless escapes from Emory University and immediately flees his dull and predictable life, heading west without a word to his family. Although, McCandless journey ends in a tragic ending, he fulfilled his ambition by pursuing his ambition and inner peace. In conclusion, McCandless journey was both a search for inner peace and transition to maturity.
The Red Wings found Yzerman to be there dynasty player in the 1900s through the 2000s. They looked at him and found him as a man with the heart, courage and grit to lead the team and turn the Red Wings around. When the Red Wings looked at him they saw the Red Wings logo tattooed on his chest. Steve Yzerman was definitely a player to remember.
Pearl Harbor is seen as the most devastating “surprise attack” on U.S soil. But was Pearl Harbor really a surprise? There is a significant amount of evidence that supports the theory that President Franklin Roosevelt and other important U.S leaders knew of an attack on Pearl Harbor and did nothing to prevent it. It is said that they did this because F.D.R was determined to help England win the war and reap in the glory of doing so. Since the idea of entering the war was unpopular, something drastic would need to happen in order to change the U.S’s attitude towards foreign affairs. Pearl Harbor was their opportunity (Stinnett 15).
In the story “ Into The Wild “ the main character, Christopher Mccandless is shown to be a normal tennager ready to go into college and start his own life just like any of us. What we didn't know is that this would begin into world of emotions following up to what would lead to his death. In this story chris shows many feeling towards his parents but one of the biggest and strongest feelings would be anger. He always disliked his parents for having a certain point of view on our society and thinking about themselves before others, which to chris was one of the biggest factor in his view of
Originally, Thoroughly Modern Millie was a 1967 movie-musical starring Julie Andrews as the title role. Both the movie and broadway show are done in what is known as a pastiche style. Pastiche is a style that mimics another artist’s work to celebrate it. The show uses new songs as well as previously written songs together which helps the show portray a very jazzy 1920’s feel. The 1920’s setting of the show really contributes to the plotline. In the 1920’s the United States was extremely rich and social barriers were being broken. Women were now more involved in society than they ever were in the past due to their role on the homefront during World War I.
1941 December 7th was the day in which will live in infamy and also controversy. The Attack at Pearl Harbor was a surprise attack on the American fleet at the at the navy base in pearl harbor at Hawaii. Japanese attackers us hard and the planes came in waves, the first hit us at 7:53 and the second hit us at 8:55. Nothing but chaos was left. 2,403 dead, 188 planes. But was this attack really a surprise? Did we really know about it before hand? Or did we just really be bombarded with a Japanese surprise attack.
Revealed in Return to the Wild (PBS Documentary), it was said that his mother often told him and his sister “when I got pregnant with Chris I got stuck with their father”. Given this verbal conformation that he was the reason for his mother’s suffering McCandless had an obvious hatred towards his parents. In a letter to his sister, Carine, shown in the film Return to the Wild (PBS Documentary), McCandless said that one of his goals was to punish and hurt his parents, he wanted to act as he had divorced his parents. This guilt that his parents bestowed upon him lead him to leave his home, change his name, and run away from reality. He was seeking a life away from the toxic household that he lived in and was tormented in every day. He got the idea to set off into the wilderness because whenever his family went out on camping trips there was no fighting and it was peaceful for them. McCandless was seeking this peace and tranquility and he wanted to do it alone so that he could find himself through this
Throughout the book Into The Wild, Chris McCandless repeatedly display his individual views and traits. Chris would purposely do things that society would look down upon to emphasize the fact that he was an individual and not mindlessly following the crowd like many people do. His eagerness to break societal rules wasn’t without purpose, in fact, Chris’ life “Hummed with meaning and purpose. But the meaning he wrested from existence lay beyond the comfortable path” (Krakauer 184). The quote is explaining that everything Chris did had a purpose even though it may have seemed buried or unreachable. Even though he did not value the things that most people deem as normal, he found purpose in his journey. One important trait, which influenced his individualism, was his disregard for what others thought about him. Chris did things for himself and not to please others; this disregard for other people’s opinions was present even when he was a sophomore in high school. His sister, Carine stated, “He didn’t care that it wasn’t a cool thing to do” (Krakauer 120). She then went on to say, “He didn’t seem interested in the money so much as the fact that he was good at making it” (Krakauer 120). It can be taken fr...
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...
To begin with, McCandless’s decision to walk into the wild was acceptable because he wanted to become an inspiration and an individual. Emerson states, “There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance: that imitation is suicide” (Emerson). Chris McCandless left to shun the conformist society that he could feel changing him. Chris wanted the chains that bound him to be broken. Society takes the individual and locks it up and destroys it. According to Emerson, “It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion: it is easy to in solitude to live after our own: but the great man is he who in the midst of the crow keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude” (Emerson). McCandless left his materialistic family to be his own person ad to be unique. The world’s opinion does not make the man wh...