Wilderness

irradiated world, a small valley in which Ann Burden finds herself stuck with a murderer. Unlike Ann, Chris struggles to survive in nature. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer features a survivalist named Christopher McCandless who tries to live in the Alaskan wilderness with a minimal amount of materials. Ann Burden and Christopher McCandless both find themselves in life or death situations. The fact that Ann is productive and considerate helps her escape annihilation; in contrast Chris, an…

Christopher McCandless’ expedition across North America and his time spent in the Alaskan wilderness where he died alone. During the film viewers are taken along a journey where they see the main character search for his true place in the natural world independent from the trappings of a normal suburban life. The movie is beautifully filmed and seductively draws us into the attraction of the American wilderness and the noble ambition to being self-reliant. However, the movie challenges us…

Jessie and her friend Olivia. They were discussing how they found it interesting that in his high school days, McCandless was a cross country runner. They questioned if this could’ve taken part in his mindset to travel out alone into the Alaskan wilderness. I was intrigued by this story because as a cross country runner myself, I have observed the tendencies of distance runners to abide by many transcendental principles. Although I wouldn’t go as…

he tells a brief story where a traveler asks Wordsworth’s servant to show him his master’s study, to which the servant replies “Here is his library, but his study is out of doors.” Both Wordsworth and Thoreau were keen on taking long walks in the wilderness: it was this connectedness with nature which Thoreau viewed as fundamental to living a meaningful life. He sarcastically credits shopkeepers and others who spend their lives indoors for not committing suicide long…

Throughout history there have been people who have chosen to take a very different path and do the unexpected. We rarely hear their stories but are lucky enough to be able to read about Chris McCandless’s journey. Into the Wild is a novel written by Jon Krakauer about Chris McCandless’ life and how it was cut short. Krakauer writes about Chris as a hero who did a noble thing by living life to the fullest. The book tells the story of how Chris finished college and dropped everything. He doesn’t…

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 Mt.McKinley and hikes into the wilderness. He then spends the next 16 weeks in the mountains. He was successful for the most part. Whereas Chris McCandless worked to earn money in between adventures, Chris is a transcendentalist given that Chris was self reliant and he had his own…

He actually thought that he could live in the Alaskan wilderness by himself. He even named himself “Alexander,” after Alexander the Great, and his last name “Supertramp,” because he thought of himself as the greatest of all the tramps, or homeless people. How ridiculous is that?! He also decided that he didn’t…

Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines recreation as “A means of refreshment or diversion”. It describes conservation as “official supervision of rivers, forests, and other natural resources in order to preserve and protect them through prudent management”. A true outdoorsman knows these words and their definitions by a commonly disregarded and misunderstood colloquialism “Pack it in, Pack it out”. Many people believe that this phrase translates into “If its mine, I pack it out”. What…

He is not running—indeed he is reputed to be the most efficient and successful station manager in the entirety of the Company. He is renowned and respected by all, and envied by most. This is his greatest power. Left to his own devices in the wilderness, he is able to sway the neighboring natives and the other Europeans, even without direct contact to them. He conveys power, authority, and confidence though he is the weakest of them all. He is highly productive—according to Marlow, “there was…

greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun” (Krakauer 40), remarked Chris McCandless, the idealistic adventurer who embarked on a once in a lifetime expedition throughout the North American wilderness in Jon Krakauer 's novel, Into The Wild. Within the story, McCandless was both an ill-prepared greenhorn and an adventurer; with his free-spirited, nature-loving demeanor, he chose to leave the only place he had ever called home in favor of…