While reading Into The Wild, although I couldn’t particularly relate to Chris’ passion for secluded living, I was able to sympathize with the ultimate compulsion that lead him to live in the Magic Bus in Alaska. Chris McCandless' relationship with his father was strained at best. Chris was an opinionated, determined, and stubborn young man with high ideals and little room for compromise. His father was a hardworking man with high standards who shared his son's inability to compromise. Chris was always critical of his parents and their lifestyle, but that criticism turned to outright anger when Chris learned that his father had lived a double life with another family for a time.
Over a twenty-year period he had gotten to know the country well as carpenter, fisherman, journalist, and occasionally as an imperilled mountain climber. He is in a position to recognize that Chris' naive idealism was greatly responsible for the mistakes that led to his death, but he knows too that a dismissive off-the-rack psychoanalysis of the impulse to live dangerously in the wild can miss something important. That insight is not only good for the story itself but can encourage readers to confront issues we are inclined to
During the course of the novel of ‘Deadly Unna?’ the readers are exposed to the negativity between the father and his son. This affects Blacky in way that his self-esteem is almost non-existent, and the negativity is prominent throughout the novel. Examples of the neglect shown by his father are that of the time when Bob refers to Blacky as a ‘gutless wonder’, and the journey we take through the story of Blacky’s deteriorating respect for him. The ‘gutless wonder’ incident was a influential part of the novel, as Blacky realises that his Dad isn’t one to take advice of someone he feels is inferior than him, thus saying, ‘My own son, a gutless wonder. A gutless fucking wonder!’ When Blacky explains to his father about the storm, Bob insults him rather than swallow his pride and takes his son’s advice on board.
“Some readers admired the boy immensely for his courage and noble ideals; others fulminated that he was a reckless idiot, a wacko, a narcissist who perished out of arrogance and stupidity...” (Krakauer, authors note). After Krakauer wrote his article in Outside many people did not know half of the story behind MacCandless, wrongly marking him as a lunatic or crazy person. Writing Into The Wild gave Krakauer more time and space to elaborate on certain aspects of MacCandless’s voyage that were not in his article for Outside magazine. Krakauer wrote this novel to entertain the reader while recounting the story of Chris MacCandless’s
January 19, 2009 Foreshadowed Tragedy Jon Krakauer’s book, Into the Wild, elaborates on how Christopher J. McCandless’ identity was shaped and how that identity was expressed. Krakauer provided a wealth of background and extensive details in order to inform the reader of McCandless’ development. I believe that three factors influenced the identity of McCandless – his family, his education, and his experience. Certainly, as I read the book I could see the emergence of his independent nature. He generally kept his beliefs to himself and was non-confrontational when others suggested alternatives.
Junot Diaz’s ‘The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao’, provoked this untold truth. His chosen dialect and seemingly personal account on the life of not just an immigrant, but on the life of a young adult who struggled with issues of cultural identity and self-esteem, helped to demonstrate that the world is a vast place, but the evils are all the same. Oscar Wao was just one of the many who have or is undergoing trying times but he just so happened to overcome them; even in his death. And although people today often like to pretend that individuality is respected, it is actually underappreciated especially due to the influences one with power may inflict. Trujillo turned out to be not just Oscar’s counterpart, but also as Oscar’s personal Fuku that he learned to eventually conquer in his own way.
Because of his position rather than his brother’s, he experiences jealousy and is a victim of favoritism. His brother is a veteran, and to his father this means a lot. This meant that Frank could get away with everything while Wes was scolded. Wes reveals this jealousy when he says, “I wonder if he was supposed to stay at the hospital.”(p.36) When Wes
He sought to give advice as a peer rather than a parent, which shows his devotion to his son because he is not acting like the dominant father he very clearly is. Chesterfield uses his style of diction mainly for the purpose of showing dominance. He constantly belittles his son and shows his supremacy. The different types of diction used throughout the letter all show in some way the virtues that Lord Chesterfield is imposing on his
To be a nonconformist is to live by values that are atypical of the majority of society. One man that can be easily fit into this definition is Henry David Thoreau, who lived in Massachusetts from 1817 to 1862. Brought up from a young age by family and friends to not always conform, Henry David Thoreau proved he was a rebellious individual with both his writing and actions, and although these were not seen as very impressive during his time, they have been seen later on as material to help change the world for the better. Although Thoreau’s family taught him that abiding the law is not always the right thing to do, his biggest influence was Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was Thoreau's mentor for much of his life. Emerson, who was fourteen years older than Thoreau, served as Henry's mentor after he graduated from Harvard in the spring of 1837.
Whatever the reason-and there are just as many reasons as there are people in the world- it’s natural for a human to feel this way at some point or another in their life time, its only our nature to continue to learn about ourselves and improve on that learning as time passes as people journey on from the past. The novels Into the Wild (Jon Krakauer) and Cold Mountain (Charles Frazier) both show how their protagonists, Chris McCandless and Inman, embarking on a journey to reach an ultimate goal they wish to reach, leaving behind a life that drug them down emotionally. Both novels depict the young men departing from a place of possession, with people who are protesting they not leave the place of comfort and familiarity. ” Oh, how one wishes sometimes to escape from the meaningless dullness of human eloquence, from all those sublime phrases, to take refuge in nature, apparently so inarticulate, or in the wordlessness of long, grinding labor, the sound sleep, of true music, or of a human understanding rendered speechless by emotion!” (Krakauer 189). However, the protagonists, Chris McCandless and Inman, feel that