Persuasive Essay On Risks

“It is easy when you are young; to believe that what you desire is no less than what you deserve, to assume that if you want something badly, it is your God-given right to have it”(?). Risk taking--Thrilling, empowering, electrifying-- Plays a role in the lives of everyone. The appeal of risk comes in varying degrees of strength: low, where a person thinks about the risk but never goes through with it, medium, high, and of course extreme, where the person is so set on taking that risk that they seem to have blinders on, distracting them from the fact that they are even taking a risk at all. Christopher Mccandless, Simon Yates, and Joe Simpson, fall into the upper end of the scale. By examining the risks they took, it is impossible to pinpoint a single cause of these risks; however, a hubris and driven attitude can be tied in with any other possible risk taking factor in order to determine the reason behind

Take Chris Mccandless for example. He never had a great relationship with his father, “Both father and son were stubborn and high strung. Given Walts need to exert control and Chris’s extravagantly independent nature, polarization was inevitable... eventually chris rebelled - and when he finally did, it was with characteristic immoderation.” (?). This illustrates that Chris was very strong willed and determined; nonetheless, Chris was pushed by his father so much that personality traits were developed by force, and they most likely would not of been there in the first place. Mccandless’s risky behavior can also be look at from a broader spectrum, “It is hardly unusual for a young man to be drawn to a pursuit considered reckless by his elders: engaging in risky behavior is a rite of passage in our culture no less than most others...McCandless in his fashion, merely took risk-taking to its logical extreme.” (pg ?) This displays the fact that risky behavior amongst a majority of people can be caused by external factors, but it also shows that Chris was not just