Hitchhiking

In 1996, Jon Krakauer published a nonfiction book called Into the Wild. Into the Wild, is a true story about a man named Chris McCandless who is a young Emory graduate who is found dead in the Alaskan forest around September 1992. McCandless grew up very wealthy living with his parents, he was into sports and a very good student. After he graduated from high school, he spent summer alone on a road trip across the country. After from graduating from college, McCandless gets dropped off by…

John Ford, the director of the film, The Grapes of Wrath, produced a classic masterpiece based off of John Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel which was published in 1939. According to Lisa Cornwell, “The films in this category for the most part are centered on a universal and timeless concern that in turn helps those films achieve the enduring excellence that qualifies them as classics” (5). As viewers watch the film, the constant theme of human suffering related to the social problems of…

As Chris had abandoned his family, both had been left alone on the road. The two had met when McCandless was hitchhiking into town for food and water in the beginning of his voyage. Acting as a chauffeur to McCandless, Franz drives him to San Diego and then to Grand Junction, Colorado. Franz then proceeds to ask Chris if he could adopt him; he was concerned about…

“I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and to sacrifice myself for my love. I felt in myself a superabundance of energy which no outlets in our quiet life”(15). This quote emphasizes that nature is essential to one’s existence. Nonetheless, making sacrifices for what you love is a true passion. In the story Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, the protagonist Chris McCandless can relate to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s perspective in that nature is the key to…

Into the Wild describes the story of Christopher McCandless. He hitchhiked in 1992 to Alaska where he was found dead four months later in a deserted bus in the Alaskan wilderness. Author Jon Krakauer uses accounts from people who interacted with Chris and personal research to account the story of Alex Supertramp, another name proclaimed by Chris. The book starts with the description of Chris’s last day in society before starting his journey in the Alaskan wild. It shifts to the events that led…

Between the time period of 1989 and 1990, the bodies of seven middle aged men: Richard Mallory, David Spears, Charles Carskaddon, Troy Burress, Charles Humphreys, Peter Siems and Walter Antonio were found dead in Central Florida. All seven men were victims of serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a middle aged woman. So what possibly could have led a 37-year-old woman like Wuornos to murder not only one but seven men? That is a question that is difficult to answer. However, looking at Wuornos’s life in…

McCandless didn’t conform particularly well to the bush-casualty stereotype. Although he was rash, untutored in the ways of the backcountry, and incautious to the point of foolhardiness, he wasn’t, incompetent- he wouldn’t have lasted 113 days if he were. And he wasn’t a nutcase, he wasn’t a sociopath, he wasn’t an outcast. McCandless was something else- although precisely what is hard to say. A pilgrim, perhaps (85). Although Chris/Alex was a very bright and educated young man, he lacked any…

died nearly 25 years ago, Chris McCandless’ story does not have a clearly explained ending. In the novel Into the Wild, the author Jon Krakauer goes into depth trying to uncover McCandless’ motives for leaving his home in Annandale, Virginia and hitchhiking eventually to the Alaskan bush. Into the Wild tells McCandless’ travels throughout the US and eventually to his last days before he perishes in a bus in the Denali Borough in Alaska. In the beginning of the novel, Krakauer states that he has…

The story, In the Time of the Butterflies, commenced in 1994, with Dede, the only surviving Mirabal sister, being interviewed in 1994. She was explaining to the interviewer and to the readers about her other three sisters’ unfortunate death. This unfolds a series of flashbacks that are explained throughout the book. In the derivation, the reader encounters the Butterflies, the nicknames given to the revolutionist Mirabal sisters, Minevra, Patria, and Maria Teresa (better known as Mate.) Their…

Whenever an incident occurred that made me feel unloved, I acted inappropriately: from throwing myself headlong into a concrete wall (many times), to alcohol use, to hitchhiking and disappearing without a word. In every case, the powers of providence protected me from harm, but I was never able to recognize the source of my problem. Looking back, I believe my early experience at the tender age of ten skewed my understanding…