Maria
Rough Draft- editorial essay ITW
If someone died trying to achieve their goal/
dream would you accuse them of being a fool or a hero? Chris’s dream was to
become more in tune with nature and to get away from all of our new technology
and our government and all of the unnecessary material things so many people
use in their daily lives, and most people think that he is a fool for doing
this. I am on the positive side of the controversy, I think Chris is a hero
for not giving up on his dream because of what anyone else thought.
Christopher McCandless is a hero to me
because even though accomplishing his goal would be difficult he did not show
any signs of backing down, he was brave even when faced with difficulties, for
example: when Chris knew, and was told that there wasn’t going to be a lot of
game out in Alaska he still went but figured out what plants he could eat if he
wasn’t able to get some game. He did relatively
well for himself right up until the end, when he really wasn’t able to do much
to change his outcome. In “Cult of McCandless” there is a quote that explains
Alaska is no walk in the park, it is tough and that Chris was doing pretty
well. –“We’re not talking about a week
with another buddy and ATVs, hunting. This was 113 days, 79 of them by choice.
And he did pretty damn well.” Chris was brave and he knew what he would have to
face when he went into the wild.
Chris is a hero for others reasons too, when it was time for him to
begin his journey he burned all of his money, he gave up modern technology when
he left, which I know nowadays I nor anyone could do, I truly think that this
is courage because it takes a lot to give up those things and leave behind the
only life you know, which is basically made up of those things. In chapter four it explains how Chris is getting ready to
embark on his journey and gets rid his things –“ he arranged all his paper
currency in a pile on the sand- a pathetic little stack of ones and fives and
twenties- and put a match to it."- Page 29 ch.4. One other thing is that
he chose to give up his name, which is a big part of who you are so I think
that is brave as well even though it is only a small detail.
One last reason I think Christopher McCandless is a hero is that all throughout
his adventure he never let anyone dissuade him from what he knew he wanted and
what he felt he needed to do. In chapter one Gallien (one of the first to pick
up Chris) says that he tried to dissuade Chris not to go by trying to scare him
a little- he talked about bears and how there wasn’t going to be any game “I
said the hunting wasn't easy where he was going, that he could go for days
without killing any game. I also tried to scare him with bear stories. I told
him that a twenty-two probably wouldn't do anything to a grizzly except make
him mad." Even though Gallien tells him this it doesn’t seem to bother
Chris because he knows that he needs to go on this trip in order to have fully
lived and to get away from everything that was keeping him from achieving his
goal of wanting to be more in tune with nature.
Some people do not agree with my
point of view on Chris and his journey, they think that he was just another stupid
kid who over estimated himself and thought he could just go into the wild and
come out unscathed and didn’t care about what happened to himself, in
chapter there were letters written about
Chris after he was found dead; some were positive and some were negative like
the one written by Nick Jans, he said in his letter “Over the past 15 years, I’ve
run into several McCandless types out in the country. Same story: idealistic,
energetic young guys who overestimated themselves and underestimated the
country, and ended up in trouble." There are many other people that share
his idea of what he thinks Chris was – stupid, a fool, and just another stupid
kid looking for trouble. I most
certainly do not agree with anyone who thinks this of Chris because almost everyone
he met on his journey said that he was a smart kid and that they knew that he
was aware of what he was doing. All of these people admired him and thought he
was brave just like I do, Chris did well trying to reach his goal and he was
NOT just some other guy with the same old story, he was different and special
in so many ways. In chapter 5 page 46 Jan Burres says how smart she thought he
was and that since he had gotten through other obstacles that had faced him – “
I thought he’d be fine in the end” “ he was smart. He’d figured out how to
paddle a canoe down to Mexico, how to hop freight trains, how to score a bed at
inner- city missions. He figured all of that out on his own, and I felt sure he’d
figure out Alaska too.” If Chris was stupid and didn’t know what he was doing
at all then I don’t believe that he would have been able to do all of those
things that she had mentioned, but he did all of them and that is why he was no
stupid kid just out looking to get into some trouble; he was a brave person whom
I admire greatly.
Christopher McCandless is no fool
of any kind in my eyes, only a hero. He pursued his goal and never gave up no
matter what anyone said or did, he showed bravery in times of difficulty, and
he gave up what I don’t think anyone could give up on the spot like he did. I
want others to learn that if you have a dream or goal that you want to
accomplish, don’t let anyone stop you, just because someone says that you
cannot do something does not mean that you shouldn’t at least try your best to
achieve what you want to; you define who you are and no one else does. People
told Chris to back down from the one true thing that he wanted and told him
that he wasn’t ready for what lay ahead, but Chris carried on to achieve his
goal and he didn’t let anyone stop him.
Works cited:
·
Power,
Matthew. "Cult of McCandless."
Men's Journal (2007):
1-5. Print.
·
Into the
Wild book
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