Chris McCandless, a.k.a. Alex Supertramp, was a man who decided to abandon the usual materialistic lifestyle to search for the actual meaning of life while roaming in the margins of society and in nature. In 1992, he met his end after living alone for months in the wilderness of Alaska. A few years later, Jon Krakauer decided to tell his story through the book Into the Wild, which was written based on interviews with family members and people who Chris met through his voyage, as well as on a journal he kept. Alternatively, in the novel Disgrace, J. M. Coetzee writes the story of David Lurie, a fictional character, and allows the readers to have a great insight into his personality and thoughts, but only assumptions regarding the intentions
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He maintains a considerably inflexible hierarchical structure in his mind, which was the basis of his relationship with others. People were only fit to be in his life if they were intrinsically valuable to him or had an accomplished life. David admired and somewhat could relate to the life of the poet Lord Byron, and there are many references to his relationships with women in Disgrace. Likewise, Chris admired writers such as Henry David Thoreau and Jack London, who, with their stories, inspired his travels and ideas of self-sufficiency while living alone in the wild, especially in Alaska. He, however, was oblivious of the actual lives of these writers that didn’t exactly match their stories, like Krakauer observes when he states that “London himself had spent just a single winter in the North and … [was] a fatuous drunk, obese and pathetic, maintaining a sedentary existence that bore scant resemblance to the ideals he espoused on print” (44). The reality was that the stories that Jack London wrote were actually considerably unattainable and impractical. Besides, even though Chris enjoyed the idea of independence, he relied heavily on the …show more content…
He believes that society shouldn’t haste to judge Chris only because of how his life ended, but that they should comprehend his striking personality and aspirations; after all, he was attempting to explore humanity in its primitive state, when people didn’t depend on technology and facilities. Chris was trying to achieve incredibly difficult goals that he set only for himself, without meddling or disturbing other people’s lives in the process, which is probably why Krakauer also feels the need to protect his reputation against society. On the other hand, Coetzee uses his novel to expose the relations between black and white people, as well as men and women, in South Africa after the Apartheid. Even though David Lurie isn’t the narrator in the story, the book is written through his eyes, as the readers are constantly exposed to his thoughts, while there are only assumptions about the remaining characters’ actual motives. He uses this perspective so that his targeted audience can relate, as they may be included in the socially constructed category that his main character, David Lurie, finds himself in: white males. That opens the possibility to actually criticize this category, when the thoughts and attitudes that David has towards females and black people are exposed to scrutiny. Even though in some moments is possible to feel sorry for David in the
He maintains a considerably inflexible hierarchical structure in his mind, which was the basis of his relationship with others. People were only fit to be in his life if they were intrinsically valuable to him or had an accomplished life. David admired and somewhat could relate to the life of the poet Lord Byron, and there are many references to his relationships with women in Disgrace. Likewise, Chris admired writers such as Henry David Thoreau and Jack London, who, with their stories, inspired his travels and ideas of self-sufficiency while living alone in the wild, especially in Alaska. He, however, was oblivious of the actual lives of these writers that didn’t exactly match their stories, like Krakauer observes when he states that “London himself had spent just a single winter in the North and … [was] a fatuous drunk, obese and pathetic, maintaining a sedentary existence that bore scant resemblance to the ideals he espoused on print” (44). The reality was that the stories that Jack London wrote were actually considerably unattainable and impractical. Besides, even though Chris enjoyed the idea of independence, he relied heavily on the …show more content…
He believes that society shouldn’t haste to judge Chris only because of how his life ended, but that they should comprehend his striking personality and aspirations; after all, he was attempting to explore humanity in its primitive state, when people didn’t depend on technology and facilities. Chris was trying to achieve incredibly difficult goals that he set only for himself, without meddling or disturbing other people’s lives in the process, which is probably why Krakauer also feels the need to protect his reputation against society. On the other hand, Coetzee uses his novel to expose the relations between black and white people, as well as men and women, in South Africa after the Apartheid. Even though David Lurie isn’t the narrator in the story, the book is written through his eyes, as the readers are constantly exposed to his thoughts, while there are only assumptions about the remaining characters’ actual motives. He uses this perspective so that his targeted audience can relate, as they may be included in the socially constructed category that his main character, David Lurie, finds himself in: white males. That opens the possibility to actually criticize this category, when the thoughts and attitudes that David has towards females and black people are exposed to scrutiny. Even though in some moments is possible to feel sorry for David in the