...Haydn Schoonover American Lit, P6 Westenskow May 9, 2014 Into the Wild, Chris McCandless Analysis In Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer tells the story of Chris McCandless, a man born in an affluent family. McCandless allowed his wandering thoughts and moral code guide him in a way that lead to certain death. His parents, Billie and Walt McCandless set him up for an impressive, promising life. Chris took this promising, successful future and spun into a journey filled with idealist literature and danger that skewed his world view. Chris McCandless is often seen as a narcissistic, deeply-misplaced young man that betrayed the emotional trust of his parents. He was not the ideal hero, nor was he a fool. He was rather an idealist, applying his beliefs in order to shift his purpose, unable to be influenced by the forces in his life, such as his collegiate endeavors and his family. “At long last he was unencumbered, emancipated from the stifling world of his parents and peers, a world of abstraction and security and material excess, a world in which he felt grievously cut off from the raw throb of existence.” (Krakauer, 22). McCandless frees himself, despite being chained to the rabid chaos of the urban, modern world. The story of Into the Wild communicates that it is important to follow your own path, in spite of external opinions. Chris McCandless was a pompous fool taking into consideration the decisions he made throughout his short life. He burned all of the money his wallet...
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...resulted in his death in the wilderness of Alaska. Prior to his expedition, Chris uncovered the secret of his father's infidelity and of his second family. This cause Chris to separate himself from his parents, and fueled his desire to escape the greedy, complicated nature of society. On his travels across the western United States, Chris befriended many and kept in a distant touch with few, one of those select few being Wayne Westerberg, the owner of a grain elevator in South Dakota. After two years of hike-hiking as far south as Mexico, McCandless reached his final most northern...
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...probably the dumbest thing that Chris could’ve done with his life. Although he had a rough upbringing and a fallout with his dad, I do not think that going into the wilderness ill-prepared was the best way to deal with his issues. Chris McCandless was a boy from the suburbs of Virginia who was very athletic. He was only twenty four years old when his body was found in an abandoned bus in the Alaskan wilderness. He was a student at Emory University and shortly after he graduated, he set off on his adventure that would later kill him. McCandless became angry with his family because he had found out that his father had had another family when Chris was just a child. This information is what set Chris off and provoked him to leave with no return. He had no intentions on telling his parents or sister where he was going. This is the most psychotic act I have ever heard of. Chris changed his identity by going by name “Alex.” Personally, I do not think that this was a smart idea at all. Chris...
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...Chris McCandless and Suicide His life withered away as he perched in a bus he claimed as home, he tried to thrive as a part of Alaska, but unfortunately mistakes were made. Christopher weighs only sixty-seven pounds and is confronting the fact that his life is slipping away. Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer depicted Chris as an individual with a hunger to discover all of life's true meaning. Chris voyaged to the north to discover life's meaning, but was faced with many issues along the way. This eventually led to his unfortunate death, but it was not because he killed Himself. Chris McCandless’ life was a spiritual pilgrimage, which he loved, and would never want to end it himself. Alaska and adventure had been romanticized by McCandless...
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...shared experience that struck close to home. Trauma is unavoidable, the result of experiencing something that is too difficult to cope with. In “Selections from Losing Matt Shepard”, Beth Loffreda discusses the murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie Wyoming and it’s traumatic effect on the university and community as a whole. She focuses heavily on the idea of identity, both that of the individual and the shared identity of the community after the traumatic event of his death. Trauma is of particular interest to Martha Stout, author of “When I Woke up on Tuesday, It was Friday”. She questions idea of sanity and whether we can truly call ourselves sane. She uses examples of her patients to discuss the effects of trauma on a person’s memory, feelings, and ultimately their identity. In “Into the Wild”, Jon Krakauer implies some of these same concepts with the story of Chris Candles and his travels in the Alaskan wilderness. Through out the story Chris seems to be searching for his own identity and seemingly trying to cope with damage and after effects of childhood trauma. Trauma as personally experienced or shared through a community causes a disconnection between individual and shared identity, significantly damaging and profoundly affecting our self and shared perceptions, feelings, and opinions of ourselves and the world around us. As a result we are challenged to either over come our past traumas or succumb to them; in other words our reactions to past trauma determines whether...
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...Into the Wild - Sean Penn “Some people feel like they don't deserve love. They walk away quietly into empty spaces, trying to close the gaps of the past.” At an early age children learn to feel either valued and important, or inferior and insignificant. For those whose early years were filled with physical or emotional abuse, neglect or abandonment, love will not feel natural or deserved. For these children, as normal as they may seem on the outside, part of them lives in the dark, afraid to emerge. But is it possible to close the gaps of the past? The movie 'Into the Wild' by Sean Penn is a passionate and faithful suggestion of Jon Krakauer's book about Chris McCandeless. It's the disturbing and complex story of a young idealist and seeker who was a rebellious child who renamed himself Alexander Supertramp. He gave away his $24,000 savings to Oxfam after college, went off in his old car and left his family behind, and disappeared for two years wandering the country. He where found by hunters, dead of poisoning and starvation in an abandoned bus in the wilds of Alaska. In addition to the fascinating cinematography in the movie, which is really catchy, I find the story extremely inspiring; people in the late modern society must be so tired of seeing the same things every single day. Wake up in the same bed - in the same house. Everything is the same and everybody is unhappy. We are all searching for the exact same thing. But what is it? It is the ultimate freedom, which...
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...Forgiveness leads an individual down the path of healing and peace. However, what happens if someone chooses against forgiving? Someone who chooses against forgiveness most likely will plummet into emotional trauma and will make some questionable decisions. Chris McCandless is a key example of someone who chooses against forgiveness. Chris McCandless is the main character in the book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer which speaks of his journey to Alaska. As soon as Chris graduated from Emory, a top university school with a 4.0 GPA, his life was all planned out to be successful. Then came his irrational decision to drop everything and journey to Alaska. On top of that, he also dropped everyone, including his very own family. What kind of sane...
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...Chris Clarke on how Disney's treatment of animals has altered our sense of the wild and cleared the way for environmental decline. As the close of the twentieth century approaches and our world becomes more and more urban our knowledge of nature is increasingly second-hand. Those of us in cities, whose non-human neighbors tend toward rats, pigeons and dandelions, are dependent on the media for our understanding of the natural world – or at least that part of it not adapted to urban life. It is from movies, television and packaged tourism that we derive our sense of nature. For the last half century, it has been Walt Disney and his corporate estate that have provided that sense. In doing so Disney has instilled an appreciation of nature in generations of media consumers. Many environmentalists and animal-rights activists credit Disney with awaking their concern for the environment. But this appreciation has not been delivered in a value-free package. From the outset Disney’s nature films have supported the notion that the natural world’s chief value lies in the profit that industrial society can extract from it. At first this support took the form of simple paeans to the righteousness of logging, mining and urban development. Now, amidst the increasing commodification of everything from tribal myth to basmati rice, the value extracted from nature is the right to define nature. Disney covets that right and will gain it at our peril. Not much besides hindsight distinguishes...
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...life. During his journey, he discovered what life really meant to him and was capable of exploring America free from rules and some human contacts .During Campbell’s travel, his writing became influential to his supporters, some of his greatest pieces were created along with his travels. Campbell once said,”A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” That is how many Campbell as, a hero. A man who stepped outside boundaries and gave his full potential to something he believed in. Campbell's story relates to biography Into The Wild By author Jon Krakauer....
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...Transcendentalists tend to view the world in a much more positive manner, and in the end, this innate optimism can skew their perception of their surroundings, giving them a false sense of security. Obviously in most cases, like the aforementioned scenario, having a realistic view of the world is ideal, and unfortunately, McCandless fell victim to transcendentalism’s faulty idealism. Chris did exactly what the naturalist most likely wouldn’t attempt – to survive in the barren lands of the Alaskan wilderness. Regrettably, Chris’s idealistic view of the world ended his life. Rational thinking, however, does not prevail in every situation. While naturalism is favorable in instances requiring unbiased assessment to avoid ill fate, it cannot confidently explain intangible concepts like values, morality, or the conscious mind. In these situations, transcendentalists rely on their belief of a higher law or power to guide their understanding of the incorporeal world, which they believe transcends “…beyond what they can see, hear, taste, touch or see” (Transcendentalism, an American...
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...“Dad please can I get a dog,” I asked, before I went to school. “I’ll feed the dog, walk the dog, and besides we'll have so much time.” Every Friday, before I go to school I would ask if we could get a dog, but my Dad always says, “No, Emily how many times have I told you.” I really hope that one day my Dad will get me a dog, I thought. I had to go to school, Elmore High. As I said my goodbyes, I thought, Maybe I should stop asking, I don’t think my Dad will get me a dog, anyway. I has tall, thin, had brown hair, brown eyes. I hopped on the bus, and as I was looking for Izzy, my best friend, she was tall, thin, had blue eyes, and red hair. I heard a loud voice saying, “Emily, I am over here.” When we got off the bus we had to rush to lacrosse practice, because we were late. I was the captain on my lacrosse team, the Sharks....
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...with greatness and immortality. A name comparable to such greats as Isaac Newton, Abraham Lincoln, and Superman. A man who seemingly has conquered every aspect of the entertainment industry as we know it. With multiple musical hits spanning several decades, an iconic hugely popular sitcom, and with countless blockbusters, Will Smith is part of an elite group of people who have been able to enjoy success in the three major entertainment categories within the United States. Not since the discovery of fire has the world been so captivated, not since the invention of the wheel has the world seen such success, and not since the days of the bible has the world experienced such perfection. “…Jesus has gone away to heaven, and some day, just as He went, He will return!” (Acts 1:10-11, TLB). These words insight hope, hope that maybe after 2000 years the savior has finally returned in the form of a fine piece of chocolate, better known as Will Smith. If not the messiah, it is safe to conclude that God had created Will for a much more important reason than is even possible to conceive by any living being. His rise to fame, compelling, his music, timeless, his movies, groundbreaking, and his life, nothing short of amazing. Follow as you are taken from West Philadelphia all the way to the very pinnacle of stardom. In West Philadelphia born and raised, on the playground is where he spent most of his days, just chillin’ out, maxin’, relaxin’ all cool, and all shootin’ some b-ball outside of...
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...Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html Go Ask Alice By Anonymous If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this "stripped book." First paperback edition March 1998 Go Ask Alice taken from "White Rabbit," written by Grace Slick. Copyright 1967. Irving Music. Inc. Copper Penny Music Publishing Co., by permission, all rights reserved. Go Ask Alice Author anonymous Copyright © 1971 by Simon & Schuster Inc. Simon Pulse An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Also available in a Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers hardcover edition. Printed and bound in the United States of America 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows: Library of Congress Catalog Card Number-. 74-159446 Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html ISBN 0-671-66458-1 (hc) ISBN 0-60-81785-1 (Pulse pbk.) Go Ask Alice is based on the actual diary of a fifteen-year-old drug user. It is not a definitive statement on the middle-class, teenage drug world. It does not offer any solutions. It is, however, a highly personal and specific chronicle...
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...Running head: SHACKLETON: THE LEADER Shackleton: The Leader Chris Pilkington Chapman University Foundations of Organizational Leadership OLCU 600 Dr. James Liberty Dec 16, 2006 Shackleton: The Leader For some, Ernest Shackleton’s pursuit of being the first to cross the Antarctic on foot was a complete failure, as he never made it to Antarctica. However, for those who study leadership his failure was nothing short of extraordinary. Trapped for almost two years on the ice floes of the Antarctic without proper rations, the group watched their ship crushed by those same floes, and without the modern day artic expeditionary gear, Shackleton kept the hope of reaching land alive in all of his men. What were the leadership skills, traits, abilities, or style that allowed Shackleton to hold this group of 27 men together for just under two years? Arguably, Shackleton was a transformational leader using many of the other types of leadership, such as the skills approach, the trait theory, and the path-goal theory as written by Northouse. Although I consider Shackleton a transformational leader, arguments based around a skills approach type of leadership for Shackleton are possible. According to Northouse a skills type of approach to leadership “imply what leaders can accomplish whereas traits imply who leaders are” (Northouse, 2004, 36). Northouse goes on to give the three-management skills necessary at different levels of an organization as technical...
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...National Hockey League (NHL). Most of the concussions do tend to happen in football or in hockey, but even boxers, professional wrestlers, Mixed Martial Artists (MMA), and soccer players have been diagnosed with concussions. “Over 250 current or retired athletes - including 50 NFL players and 12 hockey players - have pledged to donate their brains, including Keith Primeau, who retired from the NHL in 2006 due to post-concussion syndrome” (McIlroy and Mick). That itself is a pretty crazy number and that is just in the past five years. That kind of shows how committed to fixing and understanding the concussion crisis is upon us. Concussion protocols in all sports needs to be redefined. There have been concussion protocols for the NFL and NHL that have been put into place since the frequency of concussions started happening. Teams across the nation and even world have started to employ neurologists for when a player gets a concussion so that the proper steps are taken. Usually a player has to sit out if he has failed a part of the concussion test. Recently an Arizona Cardinals player named John Abraham had his first serious concussion. He had gotten to the point of possibly retiring because he was not sure if the risk was worth it. The risk he himself had encountered was memory loss. He said he was not remembering things from as far back as last year. There are also many other risks that players can encounter when dealing with a concussion. “Cerebral concussions are the most...
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