Border-line insane or crazy genius
By Caitlin Johnson
Living with such a privileged life, filled with parents who can give you the best, who would want to give that up? Well, Chris McCandless did. He wanted to turn away from his father’s plan for him to go to an Ivy League school and become a doctor. Most people feel strongly about what Chris did, they think it was brave and courageous. However, some people think that he was crazy and insane. Those people say that it was just not smart to go into the wilderness with practically nothing; they say he was ill-prepared. I, myself, side with the people who think Chris McCandless was brave and courageous.
Most people seemed to be really fond of Chris. However, as soon as Chris had met someone, he told them that his name was Alex. As soon as Westerberg met Chris, Westerberg felt the need to care for him. Westerberg says that, “He conveyed a vulnerability that made him want to take him under his wing”(Krakauer, 16). Westerberg meets a lot of hitchhikers and gives them jobs at the grain elevator that he owns. He gave a job to Chris when he saw him in town two weeks later after Chris left Westerberg’s house. “Usually most of the hitchhikers don’t really want to work. It was a different story with Alex. He was the hardest worker I’ve ever seen. Didn’t matter what it was, he’d do it: hard physical labor, mucking rotten grain and dead rats out of the bottom of the hole. And he never quit in the middle of something. If he started a job he finished it”(18) said Westerberg.
Westerberg continues saying that “Right away you could tell that Alex was intelligent”(18). He also noticed that Alex read a lot. This is probably why he is so smart because he reads a lot. Westerberg says that he “used a lot of big words. I think maybe part of what got him into trouble was that he did too much thinking”(18). Chris tried to figure out the world. He tried to figure out why people were so mean to each other so much. Chris seems so persistent and determined all the time. This was the case especially about his Alaskan odyssey adventure.
When Chris graduated from Emory the family dog, Buck, had just recently been hit by a car. Therefore, he was still recovering. Chris asked his mom and dad if he could take Buck with him over the summer to be with him. However, because of the accident they said no. Carine says that, “Chris didn’t think twice about risking his own life, but he never would have put Buckley in any kind of danger” (128) She still wonders if Chris would still be alive today. Carine thinks that he still would be alive because he never would have put Buck in a dangerous situation. Chis never would risk Buck’s life just like he risked his.
However, there was still a lot of negative mail that the article aroused. Most of the bad stuff was written by Alaskans. A resident from Healy said, “The author describes a man who has given away a small fortune, forsaken a loving family, abandoned his car; watch and map and burned the last of his money before traipsing off into the ‘wilderness’ west of Healy” (71). I can see where they are coming from. It kind of makes sense seeing that he did go into the wilderness “purposefully ill-prepared” (71). I still feel like he was brave and courageous to go. To live off of the land is really hard seeing that he did not really like killing big animals that would go to waste. The only other things to eat when there was not much to hunt for were berries and obviously they can be deadly. For the most part McCandless did a good job of differentiating the toxic from non-toxic plants.
Chris McCandless was brave, courageous, and never gave a second thought about risking his own life. Chris was really smart and intelligent; he also liked to read for fun. Therefore, he knew what he was doing. Even though Chris did not think about risking his own life he probably would not have took as many risks if he had another living thing with him. It is pretty obvious that Chris cared for animals because he felt bad when he shot the moose and could not eat it because maggots got all over the meat and was a waste to kill it. Chris was a hard worker as well, “when he started something he wouldn’t quit until he finished” (18).
this was very helpful for my essay
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