Another guilt which he felt about his family was the fact that because of the convenience of plastics and throw away containers, they had no time really spent together as a family. Even the family dinner was forgone in place of fast-food and take-out. This was also disturbing and worrisome to Beavan since it went against everything his grandparents tried to teach him. Beavan grew up not but a 5 minute walk away from his grandparents and spent a great deal of time with them. Both having been born and lived though the Great Depression, they had a “Waste not, want not.” attitude that they tired to instil in Beavan.
The Inuit, that inhabited Northern America within the Artic region, are almost pure hunters due to the fact that there is hardly any edible plant life. They used their surrounding environment such as snow, ice, and animal skins for all of life’s necessities to survive. The snow and ice provided housing for them while animal skins could be used for clothing. Tools and weapons would be formed from that of animal bones as well as used to hunt and fish for their food. The climate in particular, periods of 24 hour darkness, dictated the survival methods and movements for the Inuit people and left them with hardly any foraging capabilities.
Dylan Summers “Do What Makes You Happy” A Soul Searcher is defined as someone who leaves every aspect of their former life behind to go on a spiritual journey to discover, or rediscover, something that they were missing. Chris McCandless went into the wild to find his true self, and that is exactly what he did. Throughout his journey, McCandless met many people. Most of which would agree that Chris was an amiable, altruistic young man. Even though Chris was rather unprepared to go into the wild, he had a sense of confidence about him that seemed impenetrable.
Chris thought that nothing could stop him from achieving his final goal, which was Alaska. Chris often refused money and help; he believed he could do everything on his own. When the glass is full of water, don’t add that one drop that will make the water spill. By analyzing this metaphor, the trip to Alaska; into the wild, is the one drop that spills all the water from Chris’s cup which represents Chris’s life. Chris obviously overcompensated with this trip to the wilderness of Alaska.
Chris believed that by going off on his own in the Alaskan wilderness he would change himself; finally know what his purpose was in life. From what Chris wrote in his journal, he implied that happiness comes from finding yourself, not by how many people you have a personal relationship with. Chris, who had renamed himself as “Alexander Super-tramp”, wrote in his journal “I didn’t really mind the absence of intimacy in my life, the lack of real human connection” (137). Writing this thought down in his journal, he had proven that human connection to him was nice, but not necessary. People need connections with others, but these connections are not always what brings them to their absolute highest level of happiness.
He then hitchhikes to Alaska, where he walks alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley in April 1992 and later, after four months, he is found dead. By the time McCandless is a senior at Emory, he lives austerely, has driven away most of his friends with his intensity and moral certitude, and barely keeps in touch with his parents because he does not like the way in which his parents want to dominate him. He lets his parents think that he is interested in law school, but instead, after graduating with honors, he decides to donate his $24,000 savings anonymously to a charity organization. Afterwards, he gets in his car and drives away without telling anybody where he is going, abandoning the use of his real name along the way and never contacting his parents or close sister, Carine, again.
Similarly to Jan Burres thoughts on McCandless expedition, Westerberg did not agree with most of McCandless’ ideas, such as traveling to Alaska and leaving his parents, but he admired McCandless passion toward reaching his goal. Westerberg said to Chris during the conversation, “You're a young guy! You can't be juggling blood and fire all the
Second, Phil has almost no control over his life. On the first Groundhog Day, there is a blizzard when Phil has to leave down. Phil exclaims “I am the weather!” This statement is very ironic because he doesn’t even have control over what his happening in his own life. Phil feels like his existence from day to day is meaningless and
The colonists spent most of their time looking for gold instead of farming. Only one man named John Smith was smart enough to map the area in witch they settled in and make frinds with the indians. When the harsh winter approached the food supplies diminised. The colonists had nothing to eat and referred to canniblism to survive. John Smith said, "...one amongst the rest did kill his wife, powdered [i.e., salted] her, and had eaten part of her."
According to the story, the “trouble” with the man is that he is “without imagination” and therefore never speculates about “man’s place in the universe,” his “frailty in general,” or the fact that people are “able only to live within certain narrow limits of temperature.” Yet during his trek the man is confronted again and again by his weakness as a lone individual against the formidable power of nature in the form of the brutal cold. Each time he removes his gloves, the man is surprised at how quickly his fingers are numbed. He is also startled at how fast his nose and cheeks freeze, and he is amazed when his spittle freezes in midair before it ever hits the snow. When the man stops for lunch, his feet go numb almost as soon as he sits still, a fact that finally begins to frighten him. Even the dog—who is half-wild and thus closer to nature—feels “depressed” by the cold.