The Wild By Chris Mccandless

Stephanie Coontz is a teacher, historian, author and a scholar activist. She has also very indulged in the world of public debate on families, this mostly due possible because of her extensive skills to study modern families as well as historical patterns. In her book The Way We Never Were, Coontz presents a historical look at the family and how it has changed over time. Her interest in the subject comes for her need to understand how families functioned in the past and present, and what lead to notion and definition of family nowadays.

In The Sports Gene, David Epstein compares two high jumpers and their success, arguing that physical ability is the leading cause of an individual's success. David Epstein uses Donald Thomas as an example to support his claim by comparing his success to Stefan Holm. Donald Thomas was an inexperienced high jumper who had an incredible amount of success leading him to participate and eventually win the 2007 World Championships. Stefan Holm was the reigning Olympic champion of the high jump which used discipline and many years of practice to achieve success but was defeated by a neophyte. Epstein provides information about studies conducted on

There are an infinite amount of unique responses to the question “What is the meaning of life?”. However, the majority of people will agree that the true meaning of life is to find happiness and what is really important to one’s self. In Jon Krakauer’s, Into The Wild, Chris McCandless conveys this idealism through his life’s journey as he bravely defies all limitations. Chris McCandless isolates himself from society in his Alaskan Odyssey as a way to defy accepted expectations and to begin discovering the meanings of life without any corrupted influences.

So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future (Krakauer, pp. 56-57).

Chris was a very stubborn individual and never wanted to compromise his morals to please others. Chris never listened to suggestions or advisement of others as he was on his journey. His incompetence and inability to take other people’s advisement into account was ultimately was caused his death. Gallien tried to warn McCandless of the rough conditions by telling him “the hunting wasn’t easy where he was going, that he could go days without killing any game” (Krakauer 5). Gallien is just one example of someone who tried to help McCandless realize that living alone in Alaska would be very gueling, but McCandless assumed that if he could survive for a month in the Gulf of California, he would also be able to thrive in Alaska. Of course Chris ignored Galliens advice and did things his own way because he’s stubborn. One of Chris’ flaws was that he had very strong opinions that were so different from the rest of society and was fiercely independent. Chris’ beliefs and points of view led to him going into the wild without anyone aware of his whereabouts. Chris never wanted help from anyone and he expressed this when he said, “I won’t run into anything I can’t deal with on my own”(Krakauer 6). Chris also “hadn’t spoken to his family in nearly two years”(Krakauer 6). Both of these quotes emphasize the fact that he felt the need to be utterly alone. If Chris had told someone his real name and his desired destination then he wouldn’t have died alone in Alaska. Chris would’ve been better off if he had listened to the advice he was given and if he had told people about his whereabouts.

Do you like horror books? Well if you do you’ll like this one. The book “After Dark” by James Leck, is about a boy named Charlie Harker, who has just finished school. He soon finds out that he’ll have to help renovate a old family inn his family owns. There are 252 pages in this book. ``The point of view in this book is third person objective. The genre of this book is horror.

First things first, Chris Mccandless followed his dream to escape society and live in nature. Once he got out of society and was on the road he delighted, "McCandless was thrilled to be on his way north, and he was relieved as well—relieved that he had again evaded the impending threat of human intimacy” (Krakauer, 55). Chris had the capability of escaping the society where he could go off on a journey to find himself. Chris is one of the few people out there that has the mindset of doing whatever it is to achieve his dream. Not many people in this world are able to do that especially if it is going out into the wild to fulfill your dream, maybe they will swim 50 miles in an ocean

In this essay I intend to explore the narrative conventions and values, which Oliver Smithfield presents in the short story Victim. The short story positions the reader to have negative and sympathetic opinion on the issues presented. Such as power, identity and bullying. For example Mickey the young boy is having issues facing his identity. It could be argued that finding your identity may have the individual stuck trying to fit in with upon two groups.

Reading the book, The Other Side of the River, by Alex Kotlowitz, the author writes about the relationship between two towns in Michigan, and the death of a young boy named Eric McGinnis. The two towns, Benton Harbor and St. Joseph, are called the “Twin Cities”, but are ironically not related in any way. St. Joseph is 95 percent white, while Benton Harbor is impoverished and is 92 percent black. Throughout the book Kotlowitz questions the residents from both towns and how they are affected by the environment around them. The author also starts with the climax on the first page of the book – the death of Eric, and uses this as an technique to tell the story of the disagreements between the two towns.

Richard Wright, wrote the fictional novel Native Son, using three intellectual forces, which include: Naturalism, Existentialism, and Communism. He uses these forces, along with racist ideology, to shape the life of a young black male, Bigger, living in the ‘Black Belt’ of Chicago in the 1940’s. Wright refers to the ‘Black Belt,’ as a ‘black world’ where violence is directed towards other American Americans, and warns that this violence will be aimed at white people. Bigger, is used to depict the criminal actions that come along with living in racial confinement under the fear of white people during this time.

The short story On The Bridge by Todd Strasser is about two boys, Adam and Seth, who are hanging out after school on a bridge that overlooks the highway. Seth was the character that demonstrated maturity towards the end of the story. He showed some examples of this when Adam got them into some trouble. For example, when Adam flicked his cigarette onto the windshield of a car below the bridge, the drivers came up behind them. “But suddenly he [Seth] noticed that all three guys were staring at him. He quickly looked at Adam and saw why. Adam was pointing at him.” It was this point where Seth started to question his friendship with Adam, because they had gotten into trouble because of Adam, and then he blamed it on Seth. After the men left, Seth

The world loves dreamers. Every, day people are inspired by other people who strive to achieve their dreams of grandeur. They pick their heroes: charismatic, daring, and habitually dead. The romantic ideals of these individuals present skewed views of reality and often lead to dire situations.

The Whale Rider by Niki Caro is a film about a young girl, Paikea’s journey to acceptance from her grandfather. This film explores many themes such as feminism, family and conflict. One of the main conflicts explored throughout this film is the conflict between Nanny Flowers and Koro, Paikea’s grandparents. Conflict is an important issue in this film because it causes rupture among an already fractured family.

Upon reading the title to the reading “Camping for Their Lives” by Scott Bransford, A lot of images come to mind as they do for many people. Whether it be family outings, military experience or just plain adventure. Scott Bransford takes a good long look at camping in a different way. The author’s topic is about tent cities and their homeless populations. He argues the struggles that they have with little or no help from the government and highlights a location in Central Valley California. The author structures the article well starting off with an example of a married couple that does not have enough money to sign a lease or take out a mortgage. He then goes into the day to day life and difficulties that are accustomed with living as a homeless person. He mentions statistics and the government’s temporary remedies to deal with the homeless population and the complications when imposing restrictions. The author goes into depth about the lack of jobs within the areas but does not go deep into the addictions, the crime networks that operate out of the areas nor the filth associated with enabling these tent cities to pop up.

American history teaches us that, going west has always been a regarded as progression. From the earliest settlers to the “new land” to the idea of Manifest Destiny, progressive movement and thinking has always traveled west. The west is always thought of as being more liberal more free. “True West” A compelling play written by Sam Shepard, developed characters that “struggle to define and assert their identities.” <1702> By using the idea of going west Shepard’s play’s “ present a picture of America torn between its idealistic values and the painful realties of frontier paved over for a parking lot, and cowboys enclosed in a move and television screen.”<1702> By comparing and contrasting the lead characters Austin and Lee, Shepard shows the reader that “going west” does not always mean a change in the right direction.