Sunday, April 5, 2009
Is McCandless crazy?
I have heard that many people think McCandless is completely loony. I think that aside from the fact that he was not well equip to go to Alaska he is not as crazy as people think. It may have been a stupid thing to do, but being the person that he is I don't think it was that crazy. From reading this book I have learned a lot about McCandless, about his family issues, and the way he has been all his life. he has always been adventurous and daring so why does it seem crazy to people that he would do something like this. What I get from this book is that he wanted freedom to fully feel that he could be independent, he never said that he was going out to kill himself he wanted to be a part of nature. The way he acted seems strange but as I read into further chapters I realized that he had been that way since he was a child. The way he found out about his families secrets was extremely sad but I think he didn't handle the problem the right way, you can't simply shut them out because they made mistakes you have to talk about it. McCandless showed so much hate towards his parents to the point that it was cruel, his dad understood how adventurous he was and that he never liked being told what to do but he was his father no matter what. I don't think that McCandless went out into the wild to kill himself, why would he do that? Yes he had family problems but that wasn't going to hold him back, it really never had. All the people that met Chris(Alex) said that he was a smart guy, he liked talking about the world, he knew what he was doing and did whatever he wanted. I think he really wanted people to feel what it was like to be a part of the world. He wasn't crazy just different, many people don't take risks and do what they want he had the guts to do it and ended up dying happy. A lot of people talk about how stupid it was that he left a note for help, he never wanted help before. His note does seem stupid because he was out there on his own doing hat he wanted with no one's help really, maybe he had come to realize that he wasn't fully prepared for this kind of adventure. McCandless isn't crazy just different.
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5 comments:
I think you are right, Chris always seemed adventurous as a kid. His love for adventure became his way of dealing with his family problems, rather than dealing with them head on. He could have been one of those kids that didn't fit into his parents' plan no matter what and pushed himself into this extreme way of life as the solution to his problems.
Michelle Herrera
i agree he was not crazy i would have to say he was ill equipped and didn't look far enough into the future. he was so set on going to Alaska,he never thought what was he going to to after that. we never heard a peep out of Krakuer what McCandless was going to do after Alaska. well anyways i read a book called Catch 22 it showed me some insight on the human brain. during World War 2 bomber pilots had to be crazy literally crazy to fly their planes in formation through hails of German anti aircraft bullets only half the planes that left to bomb returned. the catch was the if you were crazy you were allowed to go back to the states because your not fit for combat. but once you told your commanding officer your crazy i want to go home that very second your not crazy and put back in the plane. their reasoning is that a normal man with a normal functioning brain flees from clear and present danger to ones life and if u realize that danger you ask for a medical leave then you are not crazy. and if your crazy you don't ask to leave so therefore stay any ways. so McCandless was not really crazy according to this catch because he knew he was in danger of dieing everyday he was out there.
I think Chris was just trying to find himself away from the "real world" and I think thats why people people believe he was crazy. For the simple fact that most people don't deal with their problems by living far from real life and civilization.
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