Humans have achieved evolutionary progress in history through the desire to live a better life and the ability to adapt to even the harshest conditions. To be sheltered from the harsh weather conditions, early humans learned to live in caves. To fight off wild animals as well as to cook food, humans developed their own way of making fire after accidental encounters of the process through wildfires caused by lightning. However, progress did not come lightly and through the search for further progress, humans are inevitably reunited with unintended negative consequences for which Edward Tenner called “revenge effects”. In Jon Krakauer’s “Selections from Into the Wild,” Christopher McCandless was adamant about achieving “true progress” in life in the hope of demonstrating to others his ability to be completely independent from society. In order to live up to his self-established survival principles, McCandless brought little equipments while plunging head-deep into an inhospitable environment during the most unwelcoming season though still managing to conqueror most of the setbacks he encountered through the little time spent in the Alaskan wilderness. Similarly to McCandless, Martha Stout’s patients in “When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It Was Friday” sought progress by seeking help in recovering their sense of self after trauma. Meanwhile, Edward Tenner highlighted society’s long years spent on improving transportation and navigation in “Another Look Back, and a Look Ahead”. In a positive light, all the works had portrayed their characters achieving a certain degree of progress after a certain period of time. The chief differences lie in the level of difficulty in achieving the progress, the amount of time the characters were permit...
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...caution and a better assessment of the risks that were present. Instead, people are nevertheless drawn to make rash assumptions, and overestimating their own abilities. These negative human qualities not only hinder progress but can also create new obstacles in life.
Works Cited
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Stout, Martha. “When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It Was Friday.” The New Humanities Reader. Fourth ed. Miller, Richard E., and Kurt Spellmeyer. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012. 380-398. Print.
Tenner, Edward. “Another Look Back, and a Look Ahead” The New Humanities Reader. Fourth ed. Miller, Richard E., and Kurt Spellmeyer. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012. 432-456. Print.
Wideman, John Edgar. “Our Time.” Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers. 9th ed. David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky, Ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008. 657-694. Print.
Wideman, John Edgar. "Our Time". Ways of reading: An Anthology for Writers [ninth edition]. Ed. Bartholomae, David and Anthony Petrosky. N.Y.|Boston: Bedford/St. Martin Press. 2011.655-694. Print.
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John Karkauer novel, Into the Wild displays a true life story about a young man by the name of Christopher McCandless, who creates a new life for himself by leaving civilization to live in the wilderness. The story displays how Christopher develops and matures throughout the story by prevailing harsh predicaments and learning valuable lessons on the way. Christopher’s character evolves by comprehending several new lessons and such as finding true pleasure, disregarding other people’s judgments, as well as realizing that material things are just material things and nothing else. All through the story, Christopher struggles to discover the true satisfaction in his life. Christopher struggles to choose what makes him truthfully content over what makes his parents glad. Christopher’s parents want him to attend law school, despite the fact that he wants to follow his passion to live in the northern wild. Christopher’s letter to his sister Carine says, “or that they think I’d actually let them pay for my law school if I was going to go….” (Krakauer.pg21). According to this quote it can be known that Christopher does not really feel any pleasure or happiness in wanting to go to law school. He finds his satisfaction with life on the road and experiences this because life on the road gives him endless possibilities and adventures every day. Christopher’s letter to Ron Franz goes as, “I’d like to repeat the advice I gave you before, in that I think you really should make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin in boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt……Don’t settle down and sit in one place. Move around, be nomadic, make each day a new horizon.”(Krakaur.pg56-57). The letter details the benefits of living a life in the wild such as the new adventures you face every day. Chris feels what actually happiness is, when he meets face to face with the wild. As he experiences the northern wild, he learns that true happiness doesn’t come from one source, but from various foundations in a person’s life. Chris penned a brief note, which says, “I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD. GOODBYE AND MAY GOD BLESS ALL!”(Krakauer.pg199) The brief note shows that even though Chris was on the edge of death, he was finally happy with his life.
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Jon Krakauer, fascinated by a young man in April 1992 who hitchhiked to Alaska and lived alone in the wild for four months before his decomposed body was discovered, writes the story of Christopher McCandless, in his national bestseller: Into the Wild. McCandless was always a unique and intelligent boy who saw the world differently. Into the Wild explores all aspects of McCandless’s life in order to better understand the reason why a smart, social boy, from an upper class family would put himself in extraordinary peril by living off the land in the Alaskan Bush. McCandless represents the true tragic hero that Aristotle defined. Krakauer depicts McCandless as a tragic hero by detailing his unique and perhaps flawed views on society, his final demise in the Alaskan Bush, and his recognition of the truth, to reveal that pure happiness requires sharing it with others.
Bloom, Harold. Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Yale University. New York City: Chelsea House, 1986. Print.
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
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Krakauer, Jon. Into the wild. New York: Anchor Books , a division of Random House Inc.,, 1997. Print.
“Into The Wild” by John Krakauer is a non-fiction biographical novel which is based on the life of a young man, Christopher McCandless. Many readers view Christopher’s journey as an escape from his family and his old life. The setting of a book often has a significant impact on the story itself. The various settings in the book contribute to the main characters’ actions and to the theme as a whole. This can be proven by examining the impact the setting has on the theme of young manhood, the theme of survival and the theme of independent happiness.