Quote Analysis: Into The Wild

"Chris invented this workout he called Road Warriors: He would lead us on long, killer runs through places like farmers' fields and construction sites, place we weren't supposed to be, and intentionally try to get us lost. We'd run at a slightly slower pace until we found a road we recognized and race home again at full speed. In a certain sense that's how Chris lived his entire life." (112)

The quote told by Gordy Cucullu, a highschool teammate, has summed up what McCandless had been doing. McCandless loved to run. Maybe it was to get away from his lifestyle. I doubt it was that because McCandless once confessed to his parents how he appreciated them crying his eyes out. He also adored his sister and hardly showed anger to his family. Maybe his lifestyle, didn't include just his family, but the materialism from everyone he knew. Alex tried to go beyond what was set in stone, and nobody knew how to handle the extremeities. He hated the fact that there were limits on almost everything when he knew he could at least make some effort to improve the lives of others. The limits were set from the risk of dying, and death just wouldn't matter to him. Maybe McCandless ran for exploration, to continue to make chanllenges and accomplish them without effort. He seemed to achieve everything he wanted and quit as soon as someone told him to polish up. He quit and ran away to some other skill he had naturally. There could be many reason why McCandless run, but it never seems like a flaw to him.

Very literally, McCandless worked at farms that required physical and hard labor. He then roll around the country and soon become lost again. He would write to most he came in contact with during his trip. Although, there were gaps, making him lost to society. Eventually he'd come around, find a place he recgonized and continue to write or work again in the same places. After ALaska, he didn't. Readers can tell that his intentions weren't to stay there until he died, even friends and teammates understood that. McCandless always wanted to come back, fine a famliar ground and run home. Unfortunatly, he had to die while he was lost.

Maybe we can all relate to this. Not as highschoolers, but as almost-to-be-away freshmen in other colleges. We're going to run away with homes in mind. Still, we'll have to leave them and try and become more independent. On the way, we'll become frustrated, anxious, even bored when we lose ourselves in new territory we've been so excited about all year. I plan to come back home every once in a while, but run back where I'll probably feel lost forever.

Another intrepretation for losing ourselves and finding a famliar road again could be of ourselves! A lot of us have no idea what we want to become. We've had so many difficulties finding what colleges we appeal to and what colleges appeal to us. We worry about what we want to do with the rest of our lives and who we're going to be with, and how we're going to get there. Once we find out our true passions. Once we find a place we're famliar with and love, I sure hope that we'll run after our goal horns first. I would do everything I could possibly do to fulfill my dreams. Whether that be to make a place a better world or deciding who I want to be for the rest of my life. I'm going to "race home" and make sure I get to what I want to be as fast as possible.

Hopefully, we can interpret this lifestyle to be a positive force on our lives. We can accomplish our dreams and fight for them. We should be stubborn at the approriate times and sometimes let go of those who don't understand. I just want to make this a positive experience.