The Young & the Restless

"It is easy, when you are young, to believe that what you desire, is no less than what you deserve" (Krakauer 155).

Topic: Inspiration or Fool?

This quote pretty much sums up Krakauer's perception of Chris' mindset and his eventual downfall in the wild. He explains that young minds are not yet matured and so they feel like invincible to failure and are entitled to achieve whatever goals they set out to accomplish. Krakauer made this same mistake himself when he made the trip to Alaska. He figured that climbing the mountains would help solve all of his life issues. He believed that young underdeveloped minds have a misperception on life that says if they want something bad enough it is their god given right to have it. Krakauer doesn't believe that Chris was arrogant or a fool and that he was only a young adolescent kid who didn't fully understand the true nature of the world and how life doesn't give any hand outs to anybody no matter how hard you strive for it. 

Love is a Gift you can't Return

" How is it... a kid with so much compassion can cause his family so much pain"(Krakauer 104).

Topic: Family Dynamic

It's definitely a strange thing to hear a father who was so abusive to his children sound so lost when one of them is gone. If you've only ever read the book and never researched deeper into the true Mclandless story, then you may be under the impression that Chris' father was just a oblivious man who misunderstood Chris. But the fact was that his father beat his kids and drove his done to the edge and eventually into the wild. So it came as a surprise to me that his father still continued to care as much as he did after Chris was gone. His father even went on to talk about how much he missed spending time with his son. Now whether this was a ploy by the father to make himself look good or by Krakauer to hide the hard truth, we'll never know. Or it could just be that his father had some hard times but never stopped loving his child. I guess that just goes to show that people can never truly appreciate something until they have to live without it.

You Ain't Intersting If You Don't Spawn Skeptics

 "Such willful ignorance...amounts to disrespect for the land, and paradoxically demonstrates the same sort of arrogance that resulted in the Exxon Valdez Spill—just another case of underprepared, over-confident men bumbling around out there" (Krakauer 73). 

Topic: Inspiration or Fool? 

This was the reader's first glimpse at the skepticism that burdened over this survival story. Many people had begun to question and criticize not only Chris, but Krakauer as well for there exploitation of a "generic, been there done that survival  tale". The question this leaves lingering over the audience is whether or not we should believe that Chris was special. Was he indeed a run of the mill runway with everyday family issues, or had he truly overstepped the boundaries and overcome the impossibilities that had shadowed his past self. One has to wonder whether or not his survival for that long was pure luck disguised as skill and if he was just too cocky for his own good as the man above states. We as readers hadn't even learned the true reason why Chris had left his whole life behind and yet we are forced to come to a conclusion on his sanity and decisions. He presents himself as a punctual and educated young man to others but then rebuttals it with actions such as burning his money and abandoning his perfectly capable car. This shows us that the best kinds of stories are the ones that create questions  that can't be answered with a single glance.