For Friday: Krakauer, Into the Wild, Chs. 6-9




Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: Where does the line between fiction and non-fiction become blurred in these chapters?  Why might he include things that may not be 100% true?  How does this affect (or help us understand) the novel? 

Q2: In Chapter 6, McCandless writes a letter to Franz explaining his philosophy of life: “The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure.  The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun” (57).  Despite his own failings, does McCandless express something fundamental about the ‘meaning of life’ here?  Or is he simply terrified of settling down and assuming any adult responsibilities? 

Q3: The preface to Chapter 8 reads, “It may, after all, be the bad habit of creative talents to invest themselves in pathological extremes that yield remarkable insights but no durable way of life for those who cannot translate their psychic wounds into significant thought or art.” How might this help explain many of the “types” who make idealistic journeys to Alaska, and who—like McCandless—are as much driven by their psychological makeup as any detailed philosophy?

Q4: Commenting on McCandless’ refusal to contact his parents, Westerberg remarks, “If Alex was here right now, I’d be tempted to chew him out good: ‘What the hell were you thinking? Not speaking to your family for all that time, treating them like dirt!’” (64). So much of McCandless’ identity seems to be based on a rejection of his parents, even more than his books and ideals. Is his trip “into the wild” basically an adolescent fantasy of running away? Do you feel he’s more trying to prove something to them rather than fulfill his own dreams and ambitions?



Comments

  1. 3. Well, first off, it takes a particular type of person to find such a journey attractive. And a slightly different person to pull it off without grievous harm to their selves. These two are not always mutually exclusive, because it takes a bit of realism to properly plan and pack to survive such a trip. Someone who stares into the middle distance thinking over the hypocrisy of life and love is rarely ever a realistic type of person. McCandless is the type of person that would see the wolf in all its beauty, know that the fangs are wet with fresh blood and claws sharp enough to rend him in two, and somehow manage to forget that the wolf is more than a metaphor. Nature is beautiful, it's true, but there is an edge to this beauty. Get too close and someone is going to get cut.

    4. To be fair, this is told from someone else's point of view based on a bread crumb trail of events. And all of it started when McCandless cut ties with his family. Maybe it was all about defying his parents (build over the years on whimsical imaginings from a teenager) or perhaps he was really trying to live such an extreme and nomadic life. But if he was trying to show up his parents, he didn't leave much of a way to brag, so if anything it's likely more of the latter than the former. Or maybe it started out as proving himself and spiraled out of control? Sort of hard to tell at this point. McCandless himself probably didn't even know.

    Kenia Starry

    ReplyDelete
  2. 1. Although things may be subject to suspicion regarding the author as he trots along the road of fiction and non-fiction, this effect is needed. This effect conveys to us that although some things may be untrue, this is the basic idea of what is needed to understand the life of the McCandless. This presents the idea that McCandless was not simply living in a non-fictional world. With this idea, we now have an understanding as how Krakauer believed McCandless' perception on life may be.

    4. McCandless isn't trying to prove anything to his family. He is trying to prove to himself that his life can be whatever he wants it to be. Moreover, as he is a graduate of college, his stage of adolescence should be long-gone. He simply made a decision, as he is not "destitute", to go through life the way he views it.

    Joshua Bain

    ReplyDelete
  3. Q2: To me the meaning of life means people change people, adventures change people, and experiences change people. Going on an outrageous adventure to Alaska was what he wanted to do, but his parents didn’t want him to. Sometimes our parents don’t understand the need we have to go see the world or to just go to another state just to see if it’s different than ours. They want us to be grownups and get jobs or go to school, they have your life planned out for you when all you want is to go on an adventure and see who you meet along the way, or where life takes you.

    Q3: The people who already live in Alaska always see people from all over the place come there to try and live in the wild. So when McCandless shows up their not surprised that there’s another one who’s probably going to die. I feel like he wanted to prove to his parents somewhat that he could do it and more that they didn’t own him. He wanted to know what is was like to experience something his parents didn’t want him to, and feel like if he did accomplish this that he would find what he looking for in life.

    Bailey Copeland

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment