Earth is a planet filled with upwards of seven billion people. Most will only meet one hundred thousand, and many will not meet even that many. Each and every one of those people have their own life experiences, and each and every one of those experiences are valuable sources of information. When making decisions, it is incredibly important to consider these experiences. Simply disregarding them all is selfish, idiotic, and deadly. Christopher McCandless made the decision in April of 1992 to venture into the Alaskan wilderness, inspired by the Transcendentalist works of Henry David Thoreau, along with the works of other authors. This decision was made without consulting anyone, and this decision famously ended with McCandless’ death months later. For most people, the idea of living in the secluded Alaskan wilds without any means of communication or navigation is a sign of mental illness. When McCandless made this decision, he effectively ignored the opinions of thousands of people, and decided that his views were somehow more valid. This ideology of “a challenge in which a successful outcome is assured isn't a challenge at all” led to McCandless embarking on a challenge in which a successful outcome was not only not assured, but simply not possible (Krakauer 182). Had McCandless talked to anyone, literally anyone at all, he would’ve been told that this plan was a suicide mission. This shows that the opinions of the general population can be lifesaving. A similar ideological trait is found in Timothy Treadwell, commonly known as the “Grizzly Man.” Treadwell spent many years of his life living with grizzly bears for months on end in Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Each summer, Treadwell would record his... ... middle of paper ... ... they would overwhelmingly tell him that his idea was life-threateningly idiotic. If Treadwell told the modern population, they would be convinced he was mentally unhinged. This shows that it is vital to consider the views and experiences of the other seven billion people on Earth when making a life-changing decision. Had McCandless and Treadwell done this, they would most likely still be alive. At the very least, they would’ve been more aware of the improbability of their survival. After all, it is much more likely that one man is wrong than it is for seven billion people to be wrong. Works Cited Grizzly Man. Dir. Werner Herzog. Lions Gate, 2005. DVD. Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. New York: Anchor, 1997. Print. Thoreau, Henry David. Walden: Or, Life in the Woods: And, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience. New York: New American Library, 1960. Print.
Many people dream about leaving everything behind and starting a new life, but it’s not as easy as it seems. Learning how to adapt to a new environment may be a challenge. In the book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, Christopher McCandless has no knowledge of the conditions he’s going to face when he arrives in Alaska. I would classify Christopher McCandless as a fearless crazy guy, because he leaves his well-shaped life behind. McCandless is not prepared for his expedition to Alaska, because he’s not familiar with the different lifestyles. Making all of these changes to his life like, detaching himself from his family and changing his name to Alexander Supertramp was a bad idea; because losing all of his connections means that he has no help from the people who really know him.
Was Chris McCandless deranged? Was he delusional? Or was he a hero? Since Chris’ body was found in bus 142 in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness, he has been called many things. Those who knew him believed that he wasn’t crazy; that his impulsive actions and aspirations to explore the world, were no more than the natural inclinations of a young and idealistic spirit. However, his desire to venture into the unknown with no source of human contact and nothing but a ten-pound bag of rice, is not considered normal behavior. Jon Kraukauer’s, Into The Wild, manifests how Chris McCandless’ antisocial demeanor, lack of remorse, and impulsive actions are directly relatable to behaviors associated with a sociopath.
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...
Every year people die in the Alaskan wilderness. Some of these people are crazy and have no idea what they are doing. It was the opposite with Chris McCandless, as Jon Krakauer shows in Into the Wild. According to Krakauer, McCandless was not incompetent, but followed his own path. He shows this in chapter 8 by using the rhetorical strategy of examples and then comparing and contrasting.
“I quickly came to understand that climbing Everest was primarily about enduring pain. And in subjecting ourselves to week after week of toil, tedium, and suffering, it struck me that most of us were probably seeking, above else, something like a state of grace.” (Krakauer Into thin Air, 133) As Krakauer says in this quote, many people use the beauty of nature as a form of self satisfaction. Enduring pain and suffering while in nature makes some people feel accomplished and changed. Krakauer himself sees mountain climbing as a way to achieve inner peace, and feel content with life. I share the opinion that nature is seen as a beautiful challenge, and can help bring someone to their true potential. Krakauer’s opinions on nature show the idea that conquering nature, can satisfy and ease desire. Among my own opinions, I think the same as Krakauer, even if our experiences are vast in comparison. I share similar perspectives about how the outdoors can affect one’s conscious and strive them to achieve personal goals as Jon Krakauer.
Transcendentalism is a religious, philosophical, literary, and social movement of the nineteenth century. Essentially, this movement was based upon the ideals of the “sixth sense,” nature, and non-conformity, as well as individualism, intuition, idealism, imagination, and inspiration. A few of the works and writings featured in the transcendental unit include Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, The Beatification of Chris McCandless: From Thieving Poacher into Saint by Craig Medred, and Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson. The primary focus of this essay is to provide an opinion on a strikingly debatable topic; Whether or not Christopher McCandless, hero of Krakauer’s Into the Wild, was a true transcendentalist. Despite the bold actions of Chris McCandless on his daring Alaskan odyssey, he turned out to be far from a true transcendentalist, failing to meet the definition of transcendentalism, being solely concerned with himself, and acting out of revenge rather than seeking self discovery - nothing more than a childish suicidal rebel.
In April of 1992 a young man named Chris McCandless, from a prosperous and loving family, hitchhiked across the country to Alaska. He gave $25,000 of his savings to charity, left his car and nearly all of his possessions. He burned all the cash he had in his wallet, and created a new life. Four months later, his body was found in an abandoned bus. Jon Krakauer constructed a journalistic account of McCandless’s story. Bordering on obsession, Krakauer looks for the clues to the mystery that is Chris McCandless. What he finds is the intense pull of the wilderness on our imagination, the appeal of high-risk activities to young men. When McCandless's mistakes turn out to be fatal he is dismissed for his naiveté. He was said by some to have a death wish, but wanting to die and wanting to see what one is capable of are too very different things. I began to ask myself if Chris really wasn’t as crazy as some people thought. Then I realized it was quite possible that the reason people thought he was crazy was because he had died trying to fulfill his dream. If he had walked away from his adventure like Krakauer, people would have praised him rather than ridicule. So I asked the question, “How does Krakauer’s life parallel Chris McCandlesses?”
To start with, McCandless was not someone who gave up. Despite others trying to scare him out of continuing with his journey into the Alaskan wilderness, nothing deterred McCandless. He anxiously awaited to experience life off the land. The people McCandless encountered on his way to Alaska often commented on his determination. Jim Gallien, a man who drove McCandless into the Alaska interior, described McCandless as “real gung-ho”. McCandless's attempt to undertake such a risky endeavour is something to admire in itself. To travel two years, mostly on foot, is certainly not an easy task. However, McCandless still persevered through the hardships he faced throughout his journey. McCandles...
Chris McCandless is regarded as being something as a spiritual figure almost as a cult hero, some call him a disillusioned fool, some call him a great adventurer, and the debate still continues. As Matthew Power calls in his article, an article where he tells the story of McCandless,“The debate falls into two camps: Krakauer's visionary seeker, the tragic hero who dared to live the unmediated life he had dreamed of and died trying; or, as many Alaskans see it, the unprepared fool, a greenhorn who had fundamentally misjudged the wilderness he'd wanted so desperately to commune with.” Like so many stories covering Christopher McCandless’ death, both ends of the argument are discussed in an unfavored manner in the hopes to help develop an opinion on the McCandless story. This open ended question can only be answered open-endedly based on what the readers base for themselves as covered stories intend. Like Power has done, ...
Thoreau, Henry David. “ Where I Lived, and What I l Lived For”. 50 essays.
What is a perspective? A perspective is someone’s point of view. It could also mean a particular belief toward or a way of regarding something. In Chapter 14 of Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer says, “My suspicion that McCandless’s death was unplanned, that it was a terrible accident, comes from reading those few documents he left behind and from listening to the men and women who spent time with him over the final year of his life. But my sense of Chris McCandless’s intentions comes, too, from a more personal perspective” (134). This personal perspective that Krakauer talks about is his own viewpoint of how McCandless died, “From all the available evidence, there seemed to be little doubt that McCandless- rash and incautious by nature- had committed a careless blunder, confusing one plant for another, and died as a consequence. In the Outside article, I reported with great certainty that H. mackenzii, the wild sweet pea, killed the boy” (192). When comparing the experience of the
Chris McCandless was a graduate from college whose dream was to go into the Alaskan wilderness and live there to get an overall experience of living off the land. McCandless wanted to experience how to hunt and gather everything that he needed to live in the Alaskan Wilderness. However was it a good idea when Mccandless went into the wild. Many people on his adventure tried to help him by giving him some equipment or buy him some because he wasn't prepared for his adventure. After McCandless’s death to this date people would say that McCandless is an idiot or stupid for not being prepared for the Alaskan wilderness.
Thoreau, Henry. Walden or, Life in the Woods. 1854. New York: Dover Publications, 1995. Print.
Myerson, Joel. The Cambridge Companion to Henry David Thoreau. New York: Cambridge UP, 1995. Print.
McCandless was a fearless human being. I think that most of the people’s ideologies and personalities have to do with how they were raised by the parents and everything that was taught to them. When a lack of love exists from a parent towards his child, a hate can be created without knowing it. McCandless could have gone away from society to escape reality or, for being in a place where he could find himself at peace. Either one, we can assume that he obviously had different ideas about civilization; the idea of having a life full of danger and adventure inspired and excited him.