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Into the Wild Home Essay

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Submitted By Duncanhdude
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Into the wild The book Into the wild, by Jon Krakauer, is about a man named Christopher McCandless, who was a very wealthy person, because of his successful parents. Chris McCandless graduated from Emory University as one of their top students and he was also really good athlete. Instead of Chris McCandless following the American Dream, and having his parents pay for a really good college he rebelled and took a life changing journey. He was still very intelligent, however, and decided to change his lifestyle, and he gave his savings to save the hungry charity. Afterwards he burned his money on his journey to the Alaska to find his inner self and get to a certain spiritual journey he was trying to achieve. Because Chris’s life style is changing I give him props for taking control and doing what he is ‘passionate’ about. However I have to agree with Shaun Callarman’s quote, “I think that Chris McCandless was bright and ignorant at the same time. He had no common sense, and he had no business going into Alaska with his romantic silliness. He made a lot of mistakes based on arrogance. I don’t admire him at all for his courage nor his noble ideas. Really, I think he was just plain crazy.” This is because he had noble ideas, but he took them way too far and was very arrogant.
Chris Mccandless would be considered a freak because he went along with what he wanted to do, which was to go into the wild and it was not to follow what everyone else wanted him to do, this happened his entire life not just after he graduated, “… Keep going to the top. I told him no way. He was only 10 so all you can do is complain.” If he been 14 and 15 you would've had simply going without me. Chris is fearless even when he was little." Page 109. This is proof how even at a young age he is very independent and on his ow
Although he was very independent, I am not sure that this is the best thing for him, because he acts like he has no common sense past a very low point and the later I got into the book the more crazy he seems to be. For example it list everything he had which was, “His gear seemed exceedingly minimal for the harsh conditions of the interior...hiking boots were neither waterproof nor well insulated. His rifle was only .22 caliber, a bore too small to rely on if he expected to kill large animals like moose and caribou, which he would have to eat if he hoped to remain very long in the country. He had no axe, no bug dope, no snowshoes, and no compass. The only navigational aid in his possession was a tattered state road map...” He lacked being really prepared which displays obviously how he didn't use common sense. In chapter 17, he overestimated his self-reliance levels on carrying only ten lbs. of rice, and he starved. After murdering the moose, he felt super terrible for all the remains and felt like he destroyed and wasted the moose. He went most days day to day of hardly eating anything. In chapter 18 I picked this certain part of his journal entry, “EXTREMELY WEAK, FAULT OF POT. SEED. MUCH TROUBLE JUST TO STAND UP. STARVING. GREAT JEOPARDY.” Because it shows he wasn't just hungry but really starving. If he was more prepared or only took a shorter trip out into the wild he wouldn't have been starving so much he could hardly walk. This is ironic because here he's starving but he donated his whole life’s savings to a non-starving charity. So bottom line if he wasn't so arrogant and planned more for his future he might have not suffered so much. Before making a big life decision such as being a pilgrim everyone should think about the risk and how would it affect others besides being like Chris McCandless and hurting his mother and father after all they did for him. It shows how selfish he was by cutting off communication with his family, he writes often to the people but not often enough finally McCandless writes an SOS letter asking for help this displays his last days, while his final postcard. For example in paragraph

Chris McCandless was adventurous since he was a young boy, so it doesn’t surprise me that he took a trip into the wild. As quoted from chapter 18, "And so it turned out that only a life similar to the life of those around us, merging with it without a ripple, is genuine life, and that an unshared happiness is not happiness...And this was most vexing of all." This displays although he was arrogant and wouldn't be my favorite person, but he accomplished his goal for his journey in the wild. I personally love adventures, and new experiences however, as long as I’m not hurting others physically or emotionally, I think its okay. There has to be a line and a certain point for what a moral is and what one isn't. Because McCandless hurt his mother and father I think the most, So this journey was very absurd by crossing so many lines just for a spiritual journey. I agree one hundred percent with Shaun Callarman’s quote.

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