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The Crucible Opinion Paper

Decent Essays

The Young & The Reckless When you think of children, what was the first thing that comes to mind? Reckless? Young? Naïve? Gullible? Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, is a book written about an extraordinary but childlike man who set out on a quest, looking for an adventure of being surrounded by nature. Chris McCandless, who the book is based off of, was a man of wonder. No one was ever certain about what he thought, how he felt, or why he went on this suicide journey. Was it because of his childlike recklessness? Or was it something deeper? Chris McCandless was reckless and along with that came passion, loneliness, and despair. So, can we really judge him when he made the decision to live in the most wild parts of the Alaskan state? …show more content…

He lived a lie for a short time in his life. He been told before that his birth is what started the chaos in his large family. He’d taken himself through college and he was on the brink of starting his life. In my opinion, I think Chris didn’t let go of his childlike personality and reckless behavior because after learning so much about transcendentalism he wanted to do something that he wanted to do because he wasn’t ready to start living in this modern society. Krakauer explains,“It is easy, when you are young, to believe that what you desire is no less than what you deserve, to assume that if you want something badly enough, it is your God-given right to have it,” (Krakauer 155). This excerpt was more of Krakauer’s feelings about Chris McCandless. He doesn’t think McCandless is so naïve or arrogant but sees that Chris was young and that was his main flaw. McCandless’s youth is what was his main downfall. McCandless youth is what caused him to fail. Chris had a very mature mind but he was very young and reckless. Krakauer writes “It is hardly unusual for a young man to be drawn to a pursuit considered reckless by his elders; engaging in risky behavior is a rite of passage in our culture no less than in most others. Danger has always held a certain allure. That, in large part, is why so many teenagers drive too fast and drink too much and take too many drugs, why it has always been so easy for nations to recruit young men to go to war. It can be argued

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