Towards the beginning of the book and this section, I started to wonder, why is Krakauer so interested in McCandless’ story? I found it so crazy that they had a lot of things from their past in common, like their father’s and that they had both ventured to the wilderness. He describes himself at a younger age in a way much like he describes McCandless. Honestly, I know that Krakauer used this trip as a way to kind of refresh his mind, and rely on himself more than others, like his father. I think McCandless was doing the same thing, he was tired of people messing up and those same people having power over him, this way he only had to rely on himself, either he didn’t mess up and it turned out great, or he did and he had to pay for it, like life and society should work. Pure, no corruption. With someone who was in a similar situation telling his story, it provides ideas more from McCandless’ point of view rather than an outsider’s, not that they were his exact ideals, just similar thinking. McCandless was running from society and creating his own individual idealistic society. When stories of McCandless’ adventures came out after he passed away, people started voicing their ideas about it, I was surprised that many were negative and critical. A man named Nick Jans wrote, “Such willful ignorance . . .amounts to disrespect for the land,”. First of all, I would not consider McCandless ingnorant, he wasn’t stupid, he knew it was dangerous, and that it would be hard, and uncomfortable. That was the point of it, it wouldn’t be a cake-walk like life in the mass of society, but it wouldn’t have the impurities of that life. Just because he died doesn’t make him ignorant, he’s just strong headed and strong hearted, he didn’t give up when it got hard, he risked it all. He may have been arrogant but he wasn’t stupid. Second, I don’t understand how him living this lifestyle was disrespecting the land, he didn’t burn down the forest, or spill oil, or leave behind trash, or cut up the woods, he used them for food and shelter, which is how people did it in the ancient times before we started harvesting fossil fuels and emitting carbon into the atmosphere, this guy is just trying to make McCandless seem terrible for doing something important to him. I find his action very brave, he risked his life for something he believed in, I may not agree with his ideals or how he conducted his relationships, but he did everything he could to achieve his dream and that’s someone to look up to.
In the beginning of chapters 8-15 of the book the author is describing many people who have decided to take risk and venture out of society. Some chose the woods in Alaska or the mountain ranges, others traveled along the south deserts and canyons. While describing the choices of the individuals and their own experiences the author would compare them to McCandless. For instance the author writes about a man named "Gene Rosellini", who had chosen to abandon society's way and live from scratch and off nature. Leaving behind his life of school and college education to experience a different and challenging way of live. Now the difference between Rosellini and McCandless is that Rosellini wanted to live life in the neolithic era with nothing from modern day no tools, weapons, everything was to be handmade. McCandless on the other hand would limit himself but still use modern advantages such as a coat, a .22 rifle, backpacks, and live with society from time to time. Another man the author compares McCandless to is "Everett Ruess" who would travel the desert and canyons attempting to live off the land. Same as McCandless did Ruess would change his name and return to society every once in while and work jobs to restock on supplies before disappearing again. Both of these men had switched their names and rarely talked about their past family relations to avoid being found and forced back into society, but would still write letters to keep in contact with those they have met along their journey's. All the people the author compares with McCandless journal in some way some write letters and others have diaries and some are more detailed than others. But they all make mistakes in one way or another and journey alone out of society and lead to unfortunate fates. Which I think is the authors way of saying that if you do chose to journey out of civilization be extra prepared and don't travel alone. It is not wise to chase a fantasy that you are not fully prepared to challenge.
As Jon Krakauer digs deeper into McCandless’s childhood and family issues, I soon realized that there was much more to Chris than what I originally thought. My first impression of Chris was that he was merely a Transcendentalism enthusiast with a desire to rebel against his conformist parents. However, Chris had a dark streak that went deeper than the surface. Jon Krakauer wrote that “He could be generous and caring to a fault, but he had a darker side as well, characterized by monomania, impatience, and unwavering self-absorption... McCandless’s personality was puzzling in its complexity. He was intensely private but could be convivial and gregarious in the extreme. And despite his overdeveloped social conscience, he was no tight-lipped, perpetually grim do-gooder who frowned on fun. On the contrary, he enjoyed tipping a glass now and then and was an incorrigible ham.” I think his sister said it well in the quote “Chris marches to a different drummer...He wasn’t antisocial--he always had friends, and everybody liked him--but he could go off and entertain himself for hours. He didn’t seem to need toys or friends. He could be alone without being lonely.” I admire this aspect of Chris. I think it’s rare for a person to be satisfied with solitude instead of craving the attention and comfort of other people. I personally think I’m more of an introvert, so I like time away from people. However, I struggle with being alone in some settings. Krakauer also related to Chris in a way saying that “We like companionship, see, but we can’t stand to be around people for very long. So we go get ourselves lost, come back for a while, then get the hell out again.” Although I could slightly relate to Chris, I have a hard time understanding him most times. But one Thoreau quote that he highlighted in one of his books really resonated with me. “Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. I sat at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, an obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not, and I went away hungry from the inhospitable board.” I think that this really speaks to how society functions today. With social media being a major influence in this generation, I can see how materialism and “fake” culture is in full force and I can see why Chris wanted to leave this toxic life behind. It’s slightly unnerving to read about how Chris could be a hypocrite. Despite claiming that he was completely against the idea of money and often shamed his parents for valuing it so much, he made a game out of making money taking advantage of his charismatic ways. His sister said that “He didn’t seem interested in the money so much as the fact that he was good at making it. It was like a game, and the money was a way of keeping score.” To add on to his already stubborn ways, I’m sure that Chris was sick of hearing how he had so much “potential.” I wonder if the constant push from the people around him to become better was what ultimately drove him off the edge. Chris’s father, Walt, mentioned how "Chris has so much natural talent, but if you tried to coach him, to polish his skill, to bring out that final ten percent, a wall went up. He resisted instruction of any kind.” Chris could be charismatic to a fault, but one the flip side could be totally withdrawn. Above all, I think his courage, reckless innocence, impractical fascination of nature, and the urgency of his desire led to his downfall.
Through this next section of reading that we did the author gives examples of people like Alex or Chris and people who are just like him and did the same things when they were about his age. Even the author, which is probably why he wrote it in the first place, gives his story and how he also went into the wilderness except he had a goal that he wanted to climb a mountain. Even though he failed his first attempts at climbing the mountain he eventually made it and made the journey worth it. But I think that the reason that all of these young men are going on adventures is because of their parents. Both the author and Chris had very successful parents and these parents set high expectations for them. Because of this the children felt stress to be as good as their parents and always tried to please them but when they got free from their parents grip they went out into the wilderness and did what they wanted to do not what their parents wanted them to do. "My father’s faith in this blueprint was unshakable. It was, after all, the path he had followed to prosperity. But I was not a clone of my father. During my teens, as I came to this realization, I veered gradually from the plotted course, and then sharply. My insurrection prompted a great deal of yelling." This is the author describing his journey and how he got to where he was. He says that his father had a plotted course for him and things that he wanted him to do. Chris had these very same expectations from his father in fact Chris didn't even want to go college but thought that his Dad would get mad at him so he went but right after he got out of college he did what he thought was best.
It is absurd to think that specific events someone may think are a big deal are only revealed once something of a 'larger' caliber is seen by the public. It is odd to think that no one in the general public knew who Gene Rosellini was until he was compared to Chris by Krakauer. Gene was considered the mayor of "Hippie Cove" in Cordova, Alaska which was full of "summer squatters who'd come to Cordova hoping to score high-paying fishing jobs..." but eventually was found dead with a self-inflicted knife would. In the first of a number of similarities between these two men, as a young boy, Rosellini was educated and clever and graduated high school and college with a 4.0 GPA. There must be a connection between those who are educated, yet feel the urge to do so much more. Both McCandless and Rosellini might have considered the fact that maybe all of modern society's expectations are ultimately useless. Rosellini believed that humans have become "progressively inferior beings and it was his goal to return to a natural state." I see this as the development of a God Complex (albeit a mini one). This may seem like an extreme view, however, both McCandless and Rosellini believed they were the ones who could change how things happen. It makes no sense and isn't at all healthy to believe that one man could somehow revert human history back to a "natural state". This may have been an exaggeration on his part, however, I wouldn't find it hard to believe it true. McCandless has some sense of reality, acknowledging many times his possible death. However he still somehow believed he could survive the Bush without even the *essentials*. Educated men don't bring books into the Alaskan Bush.
It baffles me how Chris would go on an adventure to Alaska and leave his sister behind. During the first few chapters the author portrays Chris as never being able to build an emotional connection with the people he meets. However in chapters 8-15 a whole different side of Chris was brought to light. Learning about how close him and his sister were brings questions to mind, for example, how come he never wrote to her? If they were so close, why didn’t he tell her his plans? These are all questions that may never be answered. Another thing that I found interesting was that in some ways Chris and Carine were very different. For example Chris thought that money and being wealthy was nothing to be proud of, however Carine didn’t really think that. She thought that if you worked hard you should enjoy the fruits of your work and that is exactly what she did when she “..bought an expensive home and regularly logs fourteen-hour days at C.A.R services, Incorporated, the auto repair business she owns with her husband,Chris Fish, in the hope of making her first million at an early age.” This shows that although Carine was close to her brother his opinions and thoughts didn’t affect Carine and the way she thought. In other words he has no influence in the decisions his sister made. Chris however did poke fun at her because of her decisions “..calling her the duchess of York, Ivana Trump McCandless, and a rising successor to Leona Hemsley”. The fact that Chris could light-heartedly make fun of his sister’s lifestyle choices,even though he did not agree, really shows how close they were and what she meant to him. Because their relationship was so strong when the news of Chris’s death came it broke Carine and I can see why she felt his death maybe more than their parents.
I got more compelled to the story “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakuer the further I got into it. I was so intrigued by the multitude of characters that were similar to Mcandles or had a relationship with him. Most of them had the same idea, to explore, and it was their life mission to do so. Through Mcandless story and others, Krauker uses an empathetic tone when explaining Mcandless journey and or Mcandless. His sympathy towards Mcandless portrays himself in a way that he feels the same about himself. He was so understanding of Mcandless because he could relate to him so much in chapter 14 he says, “No longer poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild.” I think this quote relates to the portrayal of Mcandless by giving a sense of understanding and awe. Krakauer's was so intrigued by Chris and sense they had the same ideals I think he felt like he needed the same for himself. To not be poisoned by society. I think the word alone has a greater meaning to it too because alone is a simple word of how to describe Mcandless, I mean he had relationship but I would feel alone if I was him. Also the word “poisoned” to describe civilization as a lethal and terrible thing to be associated with. That was another way of showing his understanding of Mcandless, he knows how terrible society is and gets why Mcandless feels that way.
Chapters 8-15 in the novel Into the Wild by jhon Krakauer look at a deeper dive into Chris McCandless life and journey that led to his death. In chapter Thirteen, titled ‘Virginia Beach’. This clapter goes into an in depth deep dive on the impact chris’s death had on his sister Carine. The author depicts Chris and his younger sister Carine as having a very close bond. Alex was the closest to his sister than any other of his siblings. Krakauer quotes a letter Chris wrote to Carnie, Chris states “Any way, I like to talk to you about this because you are the only person in the world who could possibly understand what i'm saying”. The author then goes into depth with Carine to uncover what happened the day she found out, what where her emotions and thoughts. John depicts Carines reaction to her close brothers death, she is full of emotion and greef. When carine is interview the author discuss the differences between her and her brother. The author states that the two big differences between Chris and Carnie was that carnie forgave her parents for her teenage resentment and anger, butchers never did. Carine also didn't have a disposition or dislike of wealth as chris did. These chapters highlighted what others thought of chris, many people say he was mentlay ill for going on his journey, some thought he even had a death wish. Why? Why did chris do what he did? If his sister turned out ok, and she is depicted to be very similar then him what happened? Hopefully the author will unreveal the most accurate reason for Chris McCandless behaviors.
Continuing the reading of into the wild, it’s very interesting to dive into his upbringing. I viewed his family as relatively normal, sure there definitely were some factors that made their family lives stressful. But above all, Chris’ parents had good intentions. Or so I thought so. To read about Walt’s infidelity definitely made me sympathize with Chris’ tendencies to be hard-headed. But the difficulty I find with Chris is why he would completely neglect his family-based mostly on the actions of his father. It's completely understandable to be upset but perhaps he was putting too much thought into believing that his childhood had been a whole lie. It’s definitely in his nature to blow things out of proportion and it felt like the whole world was falling apart to find out about super serious issues that had happened years ago. On the other hand, his relationship with his father certainly imply the reason for his trust issues and rebellious demeanor. The lives of his parents seemed to be captured by their work to sustain their family and if anything it demonstrated the sacrifices they made to try and raise happy kids. Chris could have definitely inherited the family work ethic seeing as he was always fully committed to the plans he set for himself. If anything, I felt the most sympathy for Carine. I felt like she was the only grounded and was the only voice of reason that Chris could turn to. Then again, she fully supported him through this whole ordeal. “And I think that my parents’ worry was mixed with hurt and anger. But I didn’t really feel hurt by his failure to write. I knew that he was happy and doing what he wanted to do; I understood that it was important to see how independent he could be.” From an outside view, it seems like only Marcia or those who could ever really get close to Chris could fully comprehend why Chris did the things he did and maybe look past his initial personality. Maybe Chris didn’t mean to be selfish to his family but found no other way around it in order to serve the foundations that he could actually trust.
In the beginning section of Into the Wild, Krakauer mainly gets into Chris McCandless’s journey leading up to his fatal trip into the Alaskan wilderness. Throughout chapters 14-15 the author sheds light on his background. Krakauer was also a wilderness explorer and had many similarities to Chris. In both of their early ages, they had problems with following the paths that each of their fathers made for them. Krakauer goes in-depth on his Alaskan expedition in succeeding to climb Devil’s thumb. There are several highs and lows of his story on recalling the dangerous mountain climb. At one point on his journey he almost falls through a crevasse and after he, “bent double with dry heaves, thinking about what it would have been like to be lying in a pile at the bottom of the crevasse,” and continues to reflect, “waiting for death to come, with nobody aware of how or where I’d met my end,” (139). Krakauer sets different moods throughout his recalling and it’s interesting to wonder if McCandless went through the same emotions. Were there ever times where he was scared? Times before death where he was already near death as the author? Krakauer also experienced joy through his vigorous climb. He reflects, “the climb becomes a clear-eyed dream. The accumulated clutter of day-to-day existence… temporarily forgotten… at such moments something resembling happiness,” (143). Getting through the rough times allowed Krakauer to enjoy his Alaskan climb, and make the hardships worth it. Going back to McCandless, the tragedy of his death makes you wonder if he was happy at any point in his time spent in the wilderness. He had gone through many experiences in nature that pushed him for Alaska, but we can never know if his journey through the cold truly made him happy.
I find it interesting how people reacted when Chris passed away. Some were sure he was mentally ill, and others called him crazy and foolish. Many thought his death was “unnecessary” and that he deserved what happened to him. I think this is extremely harsh. I don’t think Chris was crazy at all. I think he was strongly inspired by authors like Thoreau and Tolstoy and eventually lost sense of reality. I think Chris had a hard time separating the real world from fantasies. I can understand his obsession with nature and living life in the most natural form possible. But if Chris truly had common sense, he would have realized that living alone in Alaska without proper materials, experience, and knowledge, is a death wish. I think Chris Mccandles could definitely compare to Thoreau and Emerson. They all share the same free-spirited energy and attitude. All three of them believe in living a life without truly relying on anything. They are all obsessed with living life in its purest form. While the idea does sound intriguing, the reality is, the technology today has been created to make life easier and more convenient for people. It isn’t a bad thing to do some things the easy way, and I think many people view “easy” as “lazy”, which is not always true. The only difference between Thoreau, Emerson, and Mccandles, is Mccandles had the courage to live out his ideas, instead of just writing them down. It is a very tragic story that keeps you wondering what would’ve become of Mccandles had he survived his journey into Alaska. “...an avoidant infant might very well develop into a person whose principal need was to find some kind of meaning and order in life…”(Krauker 61). Chris- like Thoreau and Emerson- was determined to find the meaning of life. But Mccandles’s sense of curiosity and wonder is what eventually killed him.
In the first section of chapters, one through seven, Jon Krakauer gives the story of Chris McCandless, but he only tells it from Chris's point of view. He shows his journey and the people that he meets along the way. He also shows the way that Chris feels about his family. But, in the seconds set of chapters (8-16) Krakauer shows the McCandless family's feelings towards Chris. Chris and his father didn't have a close knit relationship, Mr. McCandless was a highly intelligent man who attained wealth and was able to comfortable raise his family in the suburbs. Mr. McCandless wanted Chris to be just like him, intelligent and successful. But soon Chris found out that his father continued to spend time with his first wife after Chris was born. When Chris found this out, he gradually cut himself off from the family. "Children can be harsh judges when it comes to their parents, disinclined to grant clemency, and this was especially true in Chris's case. More even than most teens, he tended to see things in black and white. He measured himself and those around him by an impossibly rigorous moral code." (page 122). The only family member Chris felt close to was his sister, Carine McCandless. I think Chris was only able to go to Alaska and leave Carine behind because of the strength of his emotion distance. Carine was heartbroken when she caught wind of Chris's death. Her husband was contacted by Chris and Carine's brother, Carine's husband shared the news and Carine spend the rest of the day crying because she had thought that Chris would return soon after he left. She had never imagined that he would die. I think she partly assumed that he would return because his updates came in a rare postcard and were not very descriptive, they mainly told where Chris was headed and nothing else.
These few chapters went over many other stories that were closely related to McCandless's story. I especially was taken aback by Krakauer's personal story and how similar it was to Alex's. They both had difficulties with their parents specifically their fathers as it seems. But one thing that I think Krakauer did better than Chris was he realized that his father knew what was best and regretted it later while Chris seems to feel no remorse at all for dropping his parents until the end, which didn’t turn out well for him. I understand that Chris did not get along with his parents whatsoever but I am very confused as to why he never reached out to Carine. Chris was very fond of his sister so it doesn't become clear to me why. He even says to Carine in a letter, "Anyway, I like to talk to you about this because you are the only person in the world who could possibly understand what I'm saying." He says that talks to her about things because he trust her in that quote but yet, he still didn't reach out to her very often, not nearly enough for someone he seemed to have loved dearly. It seemed like he reached out to those he traveled with more than he did his own sister. Maybe he wanted to protect her from worrying more than she already was, or maybe he was trying to accomplish complete isolation. But I couldn’t help but feel pity for Carine because she did nothing but care for her brother and support Alex through everything and he still didn’t bother to keep in touch. It just interests me because he would write out all of those saying on his bus but couldn’t take the time out of his day to write to his sister. I understand his want to be completely alone but I find it selfish to let her suffer as such.
Jon Krakauer had a very interesting background. He mostly goes over it in chapters 14-15, and most of it is about him climbing Devil’s Thumb, but he also talks about his relations with his father. They were very similar to McCandless’s relations with his father. They both had stubborn fathers who they felt treated them unfairly and tried to force them down a path. Krakauer’s dad seemed to be more pushing, however. I found it especially intriguing when Krakauer talks about how his dad pushed him to go to Harvard Medical School since kindergarten. He goes on to talk about how his dad was very pushy and wouldn’t budge on anything. He would receive microscopes and chemistry sets for Christmas, and if he couldn’t make it into med school, his father would try to get him into law school. He began to dislike his father for this and as Jon Krakauer states, “the unbridgeable gulf between us widened.” Since he never went to medical school his father got mad at him and they argued. He talked about how he never wanted to turn out as his dad wanted. He then goes on to say “There was another irony he failed to appreciate: His struggle to mold me in his image had been successful after all. The old walrus in fact managed to instill in me a great and burning ambition; it had simply found expression in an unintended pursuit.” Twenty years later, he realized his distaste for his father was long gone, and that he was too late to forgive his father in person. This is because 30 years after fighting polio, his father regained the symptoms and went insane, only to die later on. It is interesting that neither of them realized that Jon was shaping up to be just like his father, stubborn and pushy, just not doing what his father wanted.
Surprisingly enough, Jon Krakauer has a very interesting background just like Alex. Both Krakauer and Alex had rough relations with their fathers and were forced down a road they didnt want to go down, This may be why in the story Alex suddenly vanishes from society. "The unbridgeable gulf between us widened." this quote hit me very close to home due to my own family matters and allowed me to open up my eyes to Krakauer's story as well as his character Alex's. Both never wanted to interact with or become their fathers, and instead change their fate. I believe this is why "Into the Wild" was originally written. As the dreams of Jon Krakauer he wasn't able to escape himself but he could make another form of himself escape as he wished. After 20 years, realizing that he no longer hated his father, it was too late to apologize due to the polio infecting his father, eventually turning him insane. Sadly, he turned out how he didnt wish to be, stubborn and pushy, just like his father.
in chapter 8-15 of "into the wild" there was a common thing about Krakauer and Chris which was that they both had family problems with their fathers the main thing was though how Krakauer did not exactly resent his father like Chris did but it wasn't only the fathers Chris resented his whole family other then his sister which he actually really liked but he didn't get along with his parents at all like one bit the only time he seems to show remorse for his parents is in the end of the book but by then it was a little to late but it just shows him as a person so much more. but it was very weird how he didn't try to at least talk to his sister sense they seemed to have a good relationship, he is a very confusing kid sometimes.
Gene Rosellini and the Failures of Transcendentalism
Throughout this second portion of the book we start to see more people who follow similar transcendentalist ideals has the focus of the book, Chriss McCandless. One of these people that really stood out to me was Gene Rosellini. Most of the people that are talked about in this book are tragic stories, but still have some support for the ideals that they share with Chriss. Rosellini, however, is an example and showing of the failures of the Transcendentalist philosophy. He is very successful in the world’s society with a very good education, vast amounts of personal connections, lived in a nice city and other things. But he wants to leave this all behind to conduct his experiment to see if stone age living is possible. Living away from society and off the land is one of the main focal points Transcendentalism. But after 30 years of trying this, Roesllini says “But to borrow a Buddhist phrase, eventually came a setting face-to-face with pure reality. I learned that it is not possible for human beings as we know them to live off the land.” He’s saying that even after 30 years of trying, one of the main focuses of this philosophy is just not feasible. Rosellini’s story continues with him about to embark on his world journey, but instead commits suicide in his own home. The condition he left his life in was very sad. “There was no suicide note. Rosellini left no hint as to why he had decided to end his life then and in that manner. In all likelihood nobody will ever know.” In the end of his life, Gene died sad and alone after spending so much time trying to find meaning in those ideals. So not only is the main focus of these ideals deemed not even possible by this educated man, it left him depressed and completely alone, even with his previous life being so full of family and people. Thus, Gene Rosellini’s story is the perfect example to expose the flaws and imperfections of the philosophy that Chriss clung so hard to.
Criticisms and Relatability
ReplyDeleteTowards the beginning of the book and this section, I started to wonder, why is Krakauer so interested in McCandless’ story? I found it so crazy that they had a lot of things from their past in common, like their father’s and that they had both ventured to the wilderness. He describes himself at a younger age in a way much like he describes McCandless. Honestly, I know that Krakauer used this trip as a way to kind of refresh his mind, and rely on himself more than others, like his father. I think McCandless was doing the same thing, he was tired of people messing up and those same people having power over him, this way he only had to rely on himself, either he didn’t mess up and it turned out great, or he did and he had to pay for it, like life and society should work. Pure, no corruption. With someone who was in a similar situation telling his story, it provides ideas more from McCandless’ point of view rather than an outsider’s, not that they were his exact ideals, just similar thinking. McCandless was running from society and creating his own individual idealistic society. When stories of McCandless’ adventures came out after he passed away, people started voicing their ideas about it, I was surprised that many were negative and critical. A man named Nick Jans wrote, “Such willful ignorance . . .amounts to disrespect for the land,”. First of all, I would not consider McCandless ingnorant, he wasn’t stupid, he knew it was dangerous, and that it would be hard, and uncomfortable. That was the point of it, it wouldn’t be a cake-walk like life in the mass of society, but it wouldn’t have the impurities of that life. Just because he died doesn’t make him ignorant, he’s just strong headed and strong hearted, he didn’t give up when it got hard, he risked it all. He may have been arrogant but he wasn’t stupid. Second, I don’t understand how him living this lifestyle was disrespecting the land, he didn’t burn down the forest, or spill oil, or leave behind trash, or cut up the woods, he used them for food and shelter, which is how people did it in the ancient times before we started harvesting fossil fuels and emitting carbon into the atmosphere, this guy is just trying to make McCandless seem terrible for doing something important to him. I find his action very brave, he risked his life for something he believed in, I may not agree with his ideals or how he conducted his relationships, but he did everything he could to achieve his dream and that’s someone to look up to.
Zoe Lutz
He seems to be more idealistic, which would be consistent with Transcendentalism.
DeleteExplorers Comparison and Contrast
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of chapters 8-15 of the book the author is describing many people who have decided to take risk and venture out of society. Some chose the woods in Alaska or the mountain ranges, others traveled along the south deserts and canyons. While describing the choices of the individuals and their own experiences the author would compare them to McCandless. For instance the author writes about a man named "Gene Rosellini", who had chosen to abandon society's way and live from scratch and off nature. Leaving behind his life of school and college education to experience a different and challenging way of live. Now the difference between Rosellini and McCandless is that Rosellini wanted to live life in the neolithic era with nothing from modern day no tools, weapons, everything was to be handmade. McCandless on the other hand would limit himself but still use modern advantages such as a coat, a .22 rifle, backpacks, and live with society from time to time. Another man the author compares McCandless to is "Everett Ruess" who would travel the desert and canyons attempting to live off the land. Same as McCandless did Ruess would change his name and return to society every once in while and work jobs to restock on supplies before disappearing again. Both of these men had switched their names and rarely talked about their past family relations to avoid being found and forced back into society, but would still write letters to keep in contact with those they have met along their journey's. All the people the author compares with McCandless journal in some way some write letters and others have diaries and some are more detailed than others. But they all make mistakes in one way or another and journey alone out of society and lead to unfortunate fates. Which I think is the authors way of saying that if you do chose to journey out of civilization be extra prepared and don't travel alone. It is not wise to chase a fantasy that you are not fully prepared to challenge.
Justin Jensen
Good comparison and contrast.
DeleteThe complexity of Chris McCandless
ReplyDeleteAs Jon Krakauer digs deeper into McCandless’s childhood and family issues, I soon realized that there was much more to Chris than what I originally thought. My first impression of Chris was that he was merely a Transcendentalism enthusiast with a desire to rebel against his conformist parents. However, Chris had a dark streak that went deeper than the surface. Jon Krakauer wrote that “He could be generous and caring to a fault, but he had a darker side as well, characterized by monomania, impatience, and unwavering self-absorption... McCandless’s personality was puzzling in its complexity. He was intensely private but could be convivial and gregarious in the extreme. And despite his overdeveloped social conscience, he was no tight-lipped, perpetually grim do-gooder who frowned on fun. On the contrary, he enjoyed tipping a glass now and then and was an incorrigible ham.”
I think his sister said it well in the quote “Chris marches to a different drummer...He wasn’t antisocial--he always had friends, and everybody liked him--but he could go off and entertain himself for hours. He didn’t seem to need toys or friends. He could be alone without being lonely.” I admire this aspect of Chris. I think it’s rare for a person to be satisfied with solitude instead of craving the attention and comfort of other people. I personally think I’m more of an introvert, so I like time away from people. However, I struggle with being alone in some settings. Krakauer also related to Chris in a way saying that “We like companionship, see, but we can’t stand to be around people for very long. So we go get ourselves lost, come back for a while, then get the hell out again.”
Although I could slightly relate to Chris, I have a hard time understanding him most times. But one Thoreau quote that he highlighted in one of his books really resonated with me. “Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. I sat at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, an obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not, and I went away hungry from the inhospitable board.” I think that this really speaks to how society functions today. With social media being a major influence in this generation, I can see how materialism and “fake” culture is in full force and I can see why Chris wanted to leave this toxic life behind.
It’s slightly unnerving to read about how Chris could be a hypocrite. Despite claiming that he was completely against the idea of money and often shamed his parents for valuing it so much, he made a game out of making money taking advantage of his charismatic ways. His sister said that “He didn’t seem interested in the money so much as the fact that he was good at making it. It was like a game, and the money was a way of keeping score.” To add on to his already stubborn ways, I’m sure that Chris was sick of hearing how he had so much “potential.” I wonder if the constant push from the people around him to become better was what ultimately drove him off the edge. Chris’s father, Walt, mentioned how "Chris has so much natural talent, but if you tried to coach him, to polish his skill, to bring out that final ten percent, a wall went up. He resisted instruction of any kind.” Chris could be charismatic to a fault, but one the flip side could be totally withdrawn. Above all, I think his courage, reckless innocence, impractical fascination of nature, and the urgency of his desire led to his downfall.
Mia Kawamitsu
Strong discussion of his complexity.
DeleteThrough this next section of reading that we did the author gives examples of people like Alex or Chris and people who are just like him and did the same things when they were about his age. Even the author, which is probably why he wrote it in the first place, gives his story and how he also went into the wilderness except he had a goal that he wanted to climb a mountain. Even though he failed his first attempts at climbing the mountain he eventually made it and made the journey worth it. But I think that the reason that all of these young men are going on adventures is because of their parents. Both the author and Chris had very successful parents and these parents set high expectations for them. Because of this the children felt stress to be as good as their parents and always tried to please them but when they got free from their parents grip they went out into the wilderness and did what they wanted to do not what their parents wanted them to do. "My father’s faith in this blueprint was unshakable. It was, after all, the path
ReplyDeletehe had followed to prosperity. But I was not a clone of my father. During my teens, as I came to this realization, I veered gradually from the plotted course, and then sharply. My insurrection prompted a great deal of yelling." This is the author describing his journey and how he got to where he was. He says that his father had a plotted course for him and things that he wanted him to do. Chris had these very same expectations from his father in fact Chris didn't even want to go college but thought that his Dad would get mad at him so he went but right after he got out of college he did what he thought was best.
Do you think it is a need to test or prove themselves?
DeleteMcCandless and Gene Rosellini
ReplyDeleteIt is absurd to think that specific events someone may think are a big deal are only revealed once something of a 'larger' caliber is seen by the public. It is odd to think that no one in the general public knew who Gene Rosellini was until he was compared to Chris by Krakauer. Gene was considered the mayor of "Hippie Cove" in Cordova, Alaska which was full of "summer squatters who'd come to Cordova hoping to score high-paying fishing jobs..." but eventually was found dead with a self-inflicted knife would. In the first of a number of similarities between these two men, as a young boy, Rosellini was educated and clever and graduated high school and college with a 4.0 GPA. There must be a connection between those who are educated, yet feel the urge to do so much more. Both McCandless and Rosellini might have considered the fact that maybe all of modern society's expectations are ultimately useless. Rosellini believed that humans have become "progressively inferior beings and it was his goal to return to a natural state." I see this as the development of a God Complex (albeit a mini one). This may seem like an extreme view, however, both McCandless and Rosellini believed they were the ones who could change how things happen. It makes no sense and isn't at all healthy to believe that one man could somehow revert human history back to a "natural state". This may have been an exaggeration on his part, however, I wouldn't find it hard to believe it true. McCandless has some sense of reality, acknowledging many times his possible death. However he still somehow believed he could survive the Bush without even the *essentials*. Educated men don't bring books into the Alaskan Bush.
Yes, he does acknowledge the possibility of death, but he doesn't really seem to believe it.
DeleteChris and Carine
ReplyDeleteIt baffles me how Chris would go on an adventure to Alaska and leave his sister behind. During the first few chapters the author portrays Chris as never being able to build an emotional connection with the people he meets. However in chapters 8-15 a whole different side of Chris was brought to light. Learning about how close him and his sister were brings questions to mind, for example, how come he never wrote to her? If they were so close, why didn’t he tell her his plans? These are all questions that may never be answered. Another thing that I found interesting was that in some ways Chris and Carine were very different. For example Chris thought that money and being wealthy was nothing to be proud of, however Carine didn’t really think that. She thought that if you worked hard you should enjoy the fruits of your work and that is exactly what she did when she “..bought an expensive home and regularly logs fourteen-hour days at C.A.R services, Incorporated, the auto repair business she owns with her husband,Chris Fish, in the hope of making her first million at an early age.” This shows that although Carine was close to her brother his opinions and thoughts didn’t affect Carine and the way she thought. In other words he has no influence in the decisions his sister made. Chris however did poke fun at her because of her decisions “..calling her the duchess of York, Ivana Trump McCandless, and a rising successor to Leona Hemsley”. The fact that Chris could light-heartedly make fun of his sister’s lifestyle choices,even though he did not agree, really shows how close they were and what she meant to him. Because their relationship was so strong when the news of Chris’s death came it broke Carine and I can see why she felt his death maybe more than their parents.
Evelyn Zuniga
It is strange that he never contacted her.
DeleteTone and View Of Mcandless
ReplyDeleteI got more compelled to the story “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakuer the further I got into it. I was so intrigued by the multitude of characters that were similar to Mcandles or had a relationship with him. Most of them had the same idea, to explore, and it was their life mission to do so. Through Mcandless story and others, Krauker uses an empathetic tone when explaining Mcandless journey and or Mcandless. His sympathy towards Mcandless portrays himself in a way that he feels the same about himself. He was so understanding of Mcandless because he could relate to him so much in chapter 14 he says, “No longer poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild.” I think this quote relates to the portrayal of Mcandless by giving a sense of understanding and awe. Krakauer's was so intrigued by Chris and sense they had the same ideals I think he felt like he needed the same for himself. To not be poisoned by society. I think the word alone has a greater meaning to it too because alone is a simple word of how to describe Mcandless, I mean he had relationship but I would feel alone if I was him. Also the word “poisoned” to describe civilization as a lethal and terrible thing to be associated with. That was another way of showing his understanding of Mcandless, he knows how terrible society is and gets why Mcandless feels that way.
ReplyDeleteChapters 8-15 in the novel Into the Wild by jhon Krakauer look at a deeper dive into Chris McCandless life and journey that led to his death. In chapter Thirteen, titled ‘Virginia Beach’. This clapter goes into an in depth deep dive on the impact chris’s death had on his sister Carine. The author depicts Chris and his younger sister Carine as having a very close bond. Alex was the closest to his sister than any other of his siblings. Krakauer quotes a letter Chris wrote to Carnie, Chris states “Any way, I like to talk to you about this because you are the only person in the world who could possibly understand what i'm saying”. The author then goes into depth with Carine to uncover what happened the day she found out, what where her emotions and thoughts. John depicts Carines reaction to her close brothers death, she is full of emotion and greef. When carine is interview the author discuss the differences between her and her brother. The author states that the two big differences between Chris and Carnie was that carnie forgave her parents for her teenage resentment and anger, butchers never did. Carine also didn't have a disposition or dislike of wealth as chris did. These chapters highlighted what others thought of chris, many people say he was mentlay ill for going on his journey, some thought he even had a death wish. Why? Why did chris do what he did? If his sister turned out ok, and she is depicted to be very similar then him what happened? Hopefully the author will unreveal the most accurate reason for Chris McCandless behaviors.
-Reese Van Osdel
Family Matters
ReplyDeleteContinuing the reading of into the wild, it’s very interesting to dive into his upbringing. I viewed his family as relatively normal, sure there definitely were some factors that made their family lives stressful. But above all, Chris’ parents had good intentions. Or so I thought so. To read about Walt’s infidelity definitely made me sympathize with Chris’ tendencies to be hard-headed. But the difficulty I find with Chris is why he would completely neglect his family-based mostly on the actions of his father. It's completely understandable to be upset but perhaps he was putting too much thought into believing that his childhood had been a whole lie. It’s definitely in his nature to blow things out of proportion and it felt like the whole world was falling apart to find out about super serious issues that had happened years ago. On the other hand, his relationship with his father certainly imply the reason for his trust issues and rebellious demeanor. The lives of his parents seemed to be captured by their work to sustain their family and if anything it demonstrated the sacrifices they made to try and raise happy kids. Chris could have definitely inherited the family work ethic seeing as he was always fully committed to the plans he set for himself. If anything, I felt the most sympathy for Carine. I felt like she was the only grounded and was the only voice of reason that Chris could turn to. Then again, she fully supported him through this whole ordeal. “And I think that my parents’ worry was mixed with hurt and anger. But I didn’t really feel hurt by his failure to write. I knew that he was happy and doing what he wanted to do; I understood that it was important to see how independent he could be.” From an outside view, it seems like only Marcia or those who could ever really get close to Chris could fully comprehend why Chris did the things he did and maybe look past his initial personality. Maybe Chris didn’t mean to be selfish to his family but found no other way around it in order to serve the foundations that he could actually trust.
In the beginning section of Into the Wild, Krakauer mainly gets into Chris McCandless’s journey leading up to his fatal trip into the Alaskan wilderness. Throughout chapters 14-15 the author sheds light on his background. Krakauer was also a wilderness explorer and had many similarities to Chris. In both of their early ages, they had problems with following the paths that each of their fathers made for them. Krakauer goes in-depth on his Alaskan expedition in succeeding to climb Devil’s thumb. There are several highs and lows of his story on recalling the dangerous mountain climb. At one point on his journey he almost falls through a crevasse and after he, “bent double with dry heaves, thinking about what it would have been like to be lying in a pile at the bottom of the crevasse,” and continues to reflect, “waiting for death to come, with nobody aware of how or where I’d met my end,” (139). Krakauer sets different moods throughout his recalling and it’s interesting to wonder if McCandless went through the same emotions. Were there ever times where he was scared? Times before death where he was already near death as the author? Krakauer also experienced joy through his vigorous climb. He reflects, “the climb becomes a clear-eyed dream. The accumulated clutter of day-to-day existence… temporarily forgotten… at such moments something resembling happiness,” (143). Getting through the rough times allowed Krakauer to enjoy his Alaskan climb, and make the hardships worth it. Going back to McCandless, the tragedy of his death makes you wonder if he was happy at any point in his time spent in the wilderness. He had gone through many experiences in nature that pushed him for Alaska, but we can never know if his journey through the cold truly made him happy.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting how people reacted when Chris passed away. Some were sure he was mentally ill, and others called him crazy and foolish. Many thought his death was “unnecessary” and that he deserved what happened to him. I think this is extremely harsh. I don’t think Chris was crazy at all. I think he was strongly inspired by authors like Thoreau and Tolstoy and eventually lost sense of reality. I think Chris had a hard time separating the real world from fantasies. I can understand his obsession with nature and living life in the most natural form possible. But if Chris truly had common sense, he would have realized that living alone in Alaska without proper materials, experience, and knowledge, is a death wish. I think Chris Mccandles could definitely compare to Thoreau and Emerson. They all share the same free-spirited energy and attitude. All three of them believe in living a life without truly relying on anything. They are all obsessed with living life in its purest form. While the idea does sound intriguing, the reality is, the technology today has been created to make life easier and more convenient for people. It isn’t a bad thing to do some things the easy way, and I think many people view “easy” as “lazy”, which is not always true. The only difference between Thoreau, Emerson, and Mccandles, is Mccandles had the courage to live out his ideas, instead of just writing them down. It is a very tragic story that keeps you wondering what would’ve become of Mccandles had he survived his journey into Alaska. “...an avoidant infant might very well develop into a person whose principal need was to find some kind of meaning and order in life…”(Krauker 61). Chris- like Thoreau and Emerson- was determined to find the meaning of life. But Mccandles’s sense of curiosity and wonder is what eventually killed him.
ReplyDeleteChris and family relations
ReplyDeleteIn the first section of chapters, one through seven, Jon Krakauer gives the story of Chris McCandless, but he only tells it from Chris's point of view. He shows his journey and the people that he meets along the way. He also shows the way that Chris feels about his family. But, in the seconds set of chapters (8-16) Krakauer shows the McCandless family's feelings towards Chris. Chris and his father didn't have a close knit relationship, Mr. McCandless was a highly intelligent man who attained wealth and was able to comfortable raise his family in the suburbs. Mr. McCandless wanted Chris to be just like him, intelligent and successful. But soon Chris found out that his father continued to spend time with his first wife after Chris was born. When Chris found this out, he gradually cut himself off from the family. "Children can be harsh judges when it comes to their parents, disinclined to grant clemency, and this was especially true in Chris's case. More even than most teens, he tended to see things in black and white. He measured himself and those around him by an impossibly rigorous moral code." (page 122). The only family member Chris felt close to was his sister, Carine McCandless. I think Chris was only able to go to Alaska and leave Carine behind because of the strength of his emotion distance. Carine was heartbroken when she caught wind of Chris's death. Her husband was contacted by Chris and Carine's brother, Carine's husband shared the news and Carine spend the rest of the day crying because she had thought that Chris would return soon after he left. She had never imagined that he would die. I think she partly assumed that he would return because his updates came in a rare postcard and were not very descriptive, they mainly told where Chris was headed and nothing else.
Harper Snead
These few chapters went over many other stories that were closely related to McCandless's story. I especially was taken aback by Krakauer's personal story and how similar it was to Alex's. They both had difficulties with their parents specifically their fathers as it seems. But one thing that I think Krakauer did better than Chris was he realized that his father knew what was best and regretted it later while Chris seems to feel no remorse at all for dropping his parents until the end, which didn’t turn out well for him. I understand that Chris did not get along with his parents whatsoever but I am very confused as to why he never reached out to Carine. Chris was very fond of his sister so it doesn't become clear to me why. He even says to Carine in a letter, "Anyway, I like to talk to you about this because you are the only person in the world who could possibly understand what I'm saying." He says that talks to her about things because he trust her in that quote but yet, he still didn't reach out to her very often, not nearly enough for someone he seemed to have loved dearly. It seemed like he reached out to those he traveled with more than he did his own sister. Maybe he wanted to protect her from worrying more than she already was, or maybe he was trying to accomplish complete isolation. But I couldn’t help but feel pity for Carine because she did nothing but care for her brother and support Alex through everything and he still didn’t bother to keep in touch. It just interests me because he would write out all of those saying on his bus but couldn’t take the time out of his day to write to his sister. I understand his want to be completely alone but I find it selfish to let her suffer as such.
ReplyDelete- ILLiana Hammers
DeleteJon Krakauer had a very interesting background. He mostly goes over it in chapters 14-15, and most of it is about him climbing Devil’s Thumb, but he also talks about his relations with his father. They were very similar to McCandless’s relations with his father. They both had stubborn fathers who they felt treated them unfairly and tried to force them down a path. Krakauer’s dad seemed to be more pushing, however. I found it especially intriguing when Krakauer talks about how his dad pushed him to go to Harvard Medical School since kindergarten. He goes on to talk about how his dad was very pushy and wouldn’t budge on anything. He would receive microscopes and chemistry sets for Christmas, and if he couldn’t make it into med school, his father would try to get him into law school. He began to dislike his father for this and as Jon Krakauer states, “the unbridgeable gulf between us widened.” Since he never went to medical school his father got mad at him and they argued. He talked about how he never wanted to turn out as his dad wanted. He then goes on to say “There was another irony he failed to appreciate: His struggle to mold me in his image had been successful after all. The old walrus in fact managed to instill in me a great and burning ambition; it had simply found expression in an unintended pursuit.” Twenty years later, he realized his distaste for his father was long gone, and that he was too late to forgive his father in person. This is because 30 years after fighting polio, his father regained the symptoms and went insane, only to die later on. It is interesting that neither of them realized that Jon was shaping up to be just like his father, stubborn and pushy, just not doing what his father wanted.
ReplyDelete-Kayden Buffington
Surprisingly enough, Jon Krakauer has a very interesting background just like Alex. Both Krakauer and Alex had rough relations with their fathers and were forced down a road they didnt want to go down, This may be why in the story Alex suddenly vanishes from society. "The unbridgeable gulf between us widened." this quote hit me very close to home due to my own family matters and allowed me to open up my eyes to Krakauer's story as well as his character Alex's. Both never wanted to interact with or become their fathers, and instead change their fate. I believe this is why "Into the Wild" was originally written. As the dreams of Jon Krakauer he wasn't able to escape himself but he could make another form of himself escape as he wished. After 20 years, realizing that he no longer hated his father, it was too late to apologize due to the polio infecting his father, eventually turning him insane. Sadly, he turned out how he didnt wish to be, stubborn and pushy, just like his father.
ReplyDelete- Shea Jackson
in chapter 8-15 of "into the wild" there was a common thing about Krakauer and Chris which was that they both had family problems with their fathers the main thing was though how Krakauer did not exactly resent his father like Chris did but it wasn't only the fathers Chris resented his whole family other then his sister which he actually really liked but he didn't get along with his parents at all like one bit the only time he seems to show remorse for his parents is in the end of the book but by then it was a little to late but it just shows him as a person so much more. but it was very weird how he didn't try to at least talk to his sister sense they seemed to have a good relationship, he is a very confusing kid sometimes.
ReplyDeleteGene Rosellini and the Failures of Transcendentalism
ReplyDeleteThroughout this second portion of the book we start to see more people who follow similar transcendentalist ideals has the focus of the book, Chriss McCandless. One of these people that really stood out to me was Gene Rosellini. Most of the people that are talked about in this book are tragic stories, but still have some support for the ideals that they share with Chriss. Rosellini, however, is an example and showing of the failures of the Transcendentalist philosophy. He is very successful in the world’s society with a very good education, vast amounts of personal connections, lived in a nice city and other things. But he wants to leave this all behind to conduct his experiment to see if stone age living is possible. Living away from society and off the land is one of the main focal points Transcendentalism. But after 30 years of trying this, Roesllini says “But to borrow a Buddhist phrase, eventually came a setting face-to-face with pure reality. I learned that it is not possible for human beings as we know them to live off the land.” He’s saying that even after 30 years of trying, one of the main focuses of this philosophy is just not feasible. Rosellini’s story continues with him about to embark on his world journey, but instead commits suicide in his own home. The condition he left his life in was very sad. “There was no suicide note. Rosellini left no hint as to why he had decided to end his life then and in that manner. In all likelihood nobody will ever know.” In the end of his life, Gene died sad and alone after spending so much time trying to find meaning in those ideals. So not only is the main focus of these ideals deemed not even possible by this educated man, it left him depressed and completely alone, even with his previous life being so full of family and people. Thus, Gene Rosellini’s story is the perfect example to expose the flaws and imperfections of the philosophy that Chriss clung so hard to.
-Daniel Fitch