Father Into the Wild 2

1. I feel that Chris was unprepared on purpose because he wanted to see how he would do on his own with out almost any help. I do not think that he went in wanting to die, I believe that he went into it wanting to see how far away man had traveled from his need on nature. He wanted to reinvent himself so that he could be closer to all man's roots. Maybe he knew that he might not survive. In fact, he knew it might kill him.He said so in a letter that he wrote to Wayne Westerburg(pg. 3). He understood the most primal fear of all people, to die. He understood this and faced in no matter what anyone thought.
2. For myself, I found the fact that he started at the end mysterious and intriguing. He wanted you to start off knowing that he died, but not how. Later, when he describes the finding of the remains, he still doesn't tell you exactly how he died.This intrigues me, and makes me want to kn ow what happened and what lead him to that point. I personally like Krauker's writing style because it pulls the reader into the story that he is presenting. It also almost makes me sad for Chris, knowing from the get go that what he was trying to accomplish really did kill him, and that in some peoples opinion he failed. Maybe he didn't fail. Maybe he did what he wanted; we will never know. That is one thing that the author has yet to share, or does not even know.
3. I was shocked to read Chris' S.O.S note. I thought maybe he realized that maybe he made the wrong decisions somewhere along the way.  I thought that if he knew what he was doing was right, he would never ask for help. My guess is that the primal human need to survive finally took over as he began his slow descent toward death.He was human  after all just like the rest of us, even if he made choices that almost no other human has made. He was a scared young man, wanting to survive. Morally, I believe that he did not want to write that note, but instinctively,  he knew he had to. What makes me sad, is that even when he went against what he wanted to do, he died anyway.

Starting Into the WIld 1

Chris McCandless was a young man who set off on a journey to reinvent himself. He may have believed that he was not good enough as he was and where he was so he decided to go back to man's most primal roots. He was heavily influenced by Tolstoy, so much so that he took everything he said at heart. At the start of chapter three there was a reprinting of a passage from Tolstoy that Chris had highlighted. "I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love. I felt in myself a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quiet life" (Leo Tolstoy, "Family Happiness", passage highlighted in one of the books found with Chris McCandless's remains, pg. 15). This quote begins the chapter about how Chris treated his family and what happened before he left. From what he wrote in a journal that he kept, they may be one reason he decided to leave and go off on this deadly adventure. "I'm going to have to be real careful not to accept any gifts from them in the future because they will think they have bought my respect"(pg. 21). He obviously kept his feelings bottled up, and that sometimes leads a person to do crazy or irrational things. I am not saying what he did was either of those things, but they could be perceived that way. He left his family without any idea of where he was going. No hint or anything. They did not know where he went until they recieved his remains. Another reason why he could have left is that he was described as an overthinker and that got him into somje trouble. I myself have this problem, so I can understand how overthinking can lead to bad decisions. I have never thought about ditching everything and running off to Alaska however. Also, this venture would have most likely been succesful and no one would have thought he was crazy, if he had not died. According to the author, there were a few seemingly small mistakes that ended his life. I believe that leaving Carthage earlier that he would have if his friend had not been arrested was one of those mistakes, but that has yet to be confirmed. He was a brave man who decided to do what he thought was right.