...Nicholas Aesch ENG103 (9:30) Ms. Kolsrud November 14, 2013 Into The Wild “Christopher McCandless's Influences, Relationships, and Preparation forAlaskas survival.” The influences from the authors and books chris read, shows us all how he related himself from the quotes that are in this book. Chris carved in to a piece of wood that was discovered on the bus at the scene of chris' death, that Jack London is KING, and also used a passage from White Fang (9). The passage chris read says, Dark spruce forest frowned on either side the frozen waterway. The trees had been stripped by a recent wind of their white covering of frost, and they seemed to lean toward each other, black and ominous, in the fading light. A vast silence reigned over the land. The land itself was a desolation, lifeless, without movement, so lone and cold that the spirit of it was not even that of sadness. There was a hint in it of laughter, but of a laughter more terrible than any sadness-a laughter that was mirthless as the smile of the Sphinx, a laughter cold as the frost and partaking of the grimness of infallibility. It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life. It was the Wild, the savage, frozen- hearted Northland Wild (JACK LONDON, White Fang) (9). Chris related to this passage because it described what his present surroundings were exactually like. The passage from Leo Tolstoy tittled “Family Happiness” was also found with...
Words: 883 - Pages: 4
...Andrea Perez English 110 A journey of self-discovery Going into the wild, Chris McCandless, a young man, whose past shows the wounds of a troubled family, gives up living by the standards of society and decides to go in an adventure for two years. Living as a tramp, traveling around; first by car, then by foot, meeting people on the road but always continuing towards his ultimate adventure: Alaska, McAndless shows great determination to carry on the road that brought him to his final exploration. However, not knowing that his odyssey would cost him his life and the pain and suffering of the ones that loved him the most. Thus, many people ponder: “was he crazy?” “Why would he do something like that?” It is easy for one to wonder what was the impulse for such an adventure. What was driving his heart and soul to that lifestyle? Some people argue that he was just a reckless young kid trying to punish his family. However, some of this thoughts might be true; Alexander Supertramp, a name he adopted to symbolize a complete disconnection with his previous life, had deeper and more important reasons to his actions, his main intention was to pursue what made his soul feel at peace, he was looking for happiness and escaping from the ghost of a past that tormented him. Though, he surprised himself by realizing that his stubborn concept of happiness wasn’t completely right for himself. According to the google dictionary happiness is a state of mind of feeling characterized by contentment...
Words: 1338 - Pages: 6
...to his death. Many people, such as the Into the Wild author Jon Krakauer, believe that “McCandless wasn’t some feckless slacker, adrift and confused, racked by existential despair. To the contrary: His life hummed with meaning and purpose. But the meaning he wrested from existence lay beyond the comfortable path: McCandless distrusted the value of things that came easily” (184). Even though I do not agree with the methods he used while on this spiritual journey, I do agree with Krakauer’s assertion that he kept hope alive even while close to death, and that his life “hummed with meaning and purpose”. McCandless came from a comfortable upper middle class family. Many people would say that Christopher McCandless had a relatively good life. His parents worked hard to provide him with all the necessary tools to ensure that he had a secure future. When he graduated, his parents were under the impression that he was going to attend law school. Chris had different plans which became evident when he donated all his money to OXFAM, and he disappeared into the wild. He didn’t want to be tied down by the stresses of today’s society; he didn’t want an ordinary life. He felt “emancipated from the stifling world of his parents and peers, a world of abstraction and security and material excess, a world in which he felt grievously cut off from the raw throb of existence” (22). Chris attempted the impossible when he decided to venture into the wild to give his life a deeper meaning. Chris McCandless...
Words: 1227 - Pages: 5
...Comparative Essay Into the Wild Leo Tolstoy is considered to be one of the greatest novelists of all time, influencing the world of the arts as well as the way we analyze the philosophies of human beings. Throughout the past century, he has influenced millions of people with his meaningful and powerful novels and essays about the way we appreciate love and how we live our lives. When reading the novel Into the Wild, it becomes clear that the artist’s philosophies have had leverage on Christopher McCandless and the theories he applies to his chosen lifestyle. When analyzing McCandless’ behavior, Tolstoy’s importance becomes evident through the reasons the protagonist has when leaving the society he was a part of in terms of luxury, human contact with the wilderness, and the importance of conscience. These ideals can be seen specifically represented in one of Tolstoy’s essays titled On Labor and Luxury, which forms part of a compilation of papers published in the book What to do? in 1887. Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy opens his argumentative piece by describing his reasons to criticize society, which presents McCandless’ ideals on escaping the community he was a part of. Tolstoy describes “the wretchedness of our life” by stating that “If the people of our sphere, of our caste, will only take a serious look at themselves, then young persons, who are in search of personnel happiness, will stand aghast at the ever-increasing wretchedness of their life, which is plainly leading them...
Words: 1093 - Pages: 5
...There are many different points in the story Into the Wild where things Chris McCandless does and ways that he acts suggest that he had a transcendentalist way of thinking about things. From his distaste for money, need to find his true self, and his views on how society was corrupt and impure, Chris exemplifies his high moral standings and his outlook on how things should be. There are many good examples that help to prove that McCandless was a transcendentalist in the essay Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson. One belief of transcendentalists that McCandless expresses multiple times throughout the book is a need to disconnect from corrupt society and find his inner self by taking trips with strange motives, and retreating into the wild...
Words: 428 - Pages: 2
...classified by many sources as a threat to Public Safety as well as being “dangerous” as stated by the prompt. These animals are also grossly “expensive”, time-consuming, and carry large responsibilities. We cannot allow these pets to be introduced to our society, for the good of the pets, and the welfare of our nation. Furthermore we cannot allow these dangerous exotic pets into our society because of the notion that they are dangerous. The article “Do You Really Want a Baby Tiger?” states that When these exotic animals grow up, that “an adult animal is also likely to be aggressive and have more difficult behaviors then a baby tiger.” This article also states, that quote they are wild animals with wild animal instincts, even when born in captivity.” We cannot have American cities and suburbs teaming with wild animals. These exotic and dangerous animals...
Words: 763 - Pages: 4
...boar Wild boars are now widespread throughout the world and negatively affect many ecosystem components especially plants and animal species. The wild boar belongs to the phylum Chordata since it has a structure called a notochord, class Mammalia because the female boar has mammary glands, order Artiodactyla since it is an even-toed ungulate and family Suidae since it is a type of pig. Wild boars are native to western Europe and northern Africa and were introduced to the United States by early explorers in 1912 (Dobson 1998). Wild boars quickly adapted to the new environment and began spreading throughout the country. The biology of the wild boar is related to the success of the wild boar invasions. The wild boar can eat wide range of food. The wild boar spends a lot of time rooting for bulbs and invertebrates and they also...
Words: 758 - Pages: 4
...wilderness knowing that he was ill equipped and unlikely to be able to walk out, relying solely on himself. How is that not brave? In the novel, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, the readers get to travel with Chris, starting at the point when he leaves college and disappears for the first time, all the way up until when his body is found in a bus in the middle of an Alaskan forest. Jon Krakauer believes that Chris was a brave, heroic, noble young man who chased his dream until death caught up with him. Krakauer’s beliefs about Chris, and the way that he chose to live his life, were spot on. Krakauer describes as being brave, heroic and noble because he walked into the wild, all alone, to chase his dream. Webster dictionary defines brave as “having or showing mental or moral strength to face danger, fear, or difficulty”. Krakauer believes that Chris was brave because he walked into the forest trying “ to...
Words: 863 - Pages: 4
...Unlike many books, the structure of this narrative is nonlinear. Right off the back Krakauer announces the death of Chris McCandless within the first chapter. The chronology of the way Krakauer narrates the story of McCandless helps the reader better understand each part of McCandless’s life and journey “into the wild”. Many readers should take acknowledgement of how thoroughly Krakauer constructs this book and in detail how the narrative changes among two parts of Chris McCandless’s life. For example, the book begins with McCandless’s appearance in Alaska and the final individual to interact with McCandless before obtaining his anticipated goal of freedom and happiness in the wildness of Alaska. A few pages into chapter one Chris McCandless was, “Then, smiling broadly, he disappeared down...
Words: 414 - Pages: 2
...I agree with the author that Chris McCandless wasn’t a crazy person, a sociopath or an outcast because he got along with many people very well, but he did seem somewhat incompetent even though he survived for a while. He knew some things about surviving alone in the wild but also learned things too with being out in the wild. Chris started his adventure and had the right to go and explore the wild on his own. In the wild, there are many things to find, but Chris seeked one thing in particular in the wilderness, but what was it he was trying to look for. The one thing he was trying to seek in particular was maybe this, “…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. (Krakauer 189)”. He noted “HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED” (Krakauer 189). Maybe this is what he seeked in the wilderness, “Happiness”. McCandless did find happiness before he died, so that might have been the thing he meant to seek out in the wilderness....
Words: 551 - Pages: 3
...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...
Words: 902 - Pages: 4
...Both Henry David Throeau’s Walden and Jon Kraukauer’s Into the Wild speak of entering a solitary existence in order to find peace and tranquility in their own personal worlds. Thoreau wrote about his visit at Walden pond, whereas Kraukauer related his text to the nonfiction story of Chris McCandless’ journey into the wild Alaskan terrain. Besides the similarities, both McCandless and Thoreau had different approaches in their own pursuit of life alone that would later determine their separate fates. In everyone’s life, there will be a point in which we feel a sudden urge to just get away. We come to realize that there could be more than just the materialistic things. We come to wonder the meaning behind everything. In Henry David Throeau’s Walden,...
Words: 584 - Pages: 3
...For some reasons that people believe that Chris McCandless went into the wild for being upset with his parents, but I believe that the reason why he left was because of risk-taking tendencies. In the story, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, he talks about the very long but short journey for Chris McCandless leaving the East Coast and going to Alaska without any worries of what lied in his future trip to Alaska. Before starting his journey he burned all of his belongings, such as his I.D., credit cards and money that he had in his wallet. But he had $25,000 for his college fund but donated all of it. Along his way to Alaska he met a lot of people that he has helped in someway. But the real case is why did he leave everything to go to Alaska. Some may say that he was the cause of his parents, but I believe that he left because he was a big risk-taker and felt that he was very independent and daring. The reason why I believe that he left because he was a risk-taker and independent is because he left home without saying a word to anyone and started his journey to Alaska. Although his journey to Alaska got him killed, he enjoyed his life and everyone that was part of it. In the article “Why the Teen Brain is Drawn to Risk,” explains why some of the reasons why Chris left to Alaska. Even though Chris knew the risks of going to Alaska,...
Words: 629 - Pages: 3
...Every day, millions of people around the world, use a means of transportation to go from their homes to their place of occupation or enjoyment. Sometimes people just follow the same patterns day after day from when they wake up in the morning too when they go to sleep, with no other change in daily activity other than their food choices. People make these choices to better suit their lives and help pave their future. Why do people move from place to place so frequently? Or better yet, people should be asking them selves, “Why do we travel”? In two separate reading pieces this semester, Michael Lipschutz noticed a strange connection in the motivation behind people’s reason to travel in the novel “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed, and the essay “A Supposedly...
Words: 774 - Pages: 4
...Alyssa Nevarez ENG 214.58 Professor Sours September 18 2012 Into the Wild In the spring of 1990, Chris McCandless graduated from Emory University with the notion of attending law school. Before he could start out his new and carefully constructed life, he disappeared. Chris became a nomad, meandering around the North American continent under the pseudo name Alex Supertramp, searching for the meaning of life. John Krakauer revives Chris’s story while attempting to interpret Chris’s intentions. He died during his quest at the age of twenty-four alone in the Alaskan Range. His dispassion towards the life he lived attributed to his decision on entering the wild. His epic two year journey to the Alaskan wilderness led him to the discovery of himself and true happiness. By the time Chris embarked on his chase for self discovery and ultimate happiness, his relationship with his parents was distant. Walt and Billie McCandless were the epitome of a white collar, upper middle-class family who enjoyed the materialistic possessions they earned. Walt and Billie worked hard every day from sunrise till sunset on their home business. During this time Chris and Carine, Chris’s little sister, were only toddlers and rarely spent quality time with their parents. Only once a year Walt would take Chris to Longs Peak, the highest summit in the Rocky Mountain National Park, to make-up for lost time together. The status of Chris’s relationship with his parents throughout high school...
Words: 1267 - Pages: 6
