draft #2

Tony Gaffke
Wayne Berg
English 121
Feb. 12, 2007


Imagination

Is Imagination the key to finding ones self? Can someone escape the everyday struggles of life and find their true meaning through dreaming? In John Krakauer’s, Jorge Borges’s, and Wallace Stevens Poem, they all point to escaping the dangers of society by escaping into nature by dreaming, writing, or hiking. Each of the stories deals with the main characters search for something more than what society or the city has given them. Escaping society and searching for ones self, is a common theme between all the authors. Although each author explores the meaning of searching for ones self differently, they all try to escape the grip of society by using their imaginations to think outside the box and to take them to new places.
Krakauer uses the story of Chris McCandless to find the meaning of why he left society to live on his own in the Alaskan wilderness. Krakauer points out that McCandless became restless and tired with the faults and grinds of everyday life and tried to find relief in the Alaskan wilderness. Throughout most of his life, he was consumed with exploring the untamed wilderness of Alaska. Living by himself in the heart of Alaska allowed Chris to feel at home, forgetting the poisoning effects of society. Krakauer refers to Chris’s journey as a soul-flight of the adolescents, a journey that allowed him to find out who he really was (NHR, 306). McCandless felt that he had to be by himself in a place that had no contact with people or the outside world. He accomplished this by throwing out the map. Without a map, McCandless could be anywhere. This allowed McCandless to use his imagination and do whatever he wanted to do. It allowed him to escape and be by himself, in the middle of nowhere away from it all.
McCandless’s story does not go unparalleled. In Wallace Stevens’s poem, “The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain”, Stevens talks about escaping the never ending grasp of society. Stevens’s writes about how his poetry allowed him to flee from the effects of society. His poetry allowed him to use his imagination to become who he actually wanted to be, in a place where he felt whole. Stevens felt that writing poetry allowed him to reflect on his life and reminisce about the events that changed him into who he had become. It gave him a new perspective about himself and the world around him, just as McCandless felt that going into the wilderness allowed him to gain a better understanding of himself and of nature. Stevens’s poetry allowed himself to find his own world, just like McCandless threw out the map to discover his.
Borges approaches this soul-searching idea in a little different way. In his poem “Break of Day”, he refers to society as being tainted. Borges's Poem seems to point to the darkness of night as refuge from the tainted light of dawn. He refers to the light as being infected by the belongings of civilization while nighttime gives relief to the people of society. Nighttime allows people to sleep, which in return allows them to dream and imagine whatever comes to their head. Borges points out that dreaming is a way of evading the tainted light of society so one can explore the deeper thoughts of their imagination. He writes about how those who dream are in a place of refuge until the light comes and the effects of humanity take place. He also goes as far as pointing out that the whole world could be one big dream that is full of mental activities.
In Borges short story, “Circular Ruins”, he writes about a man who escapes into nature to dream. His dreams then take him too many different places and allow him to experience many different things. He dreams to escape the affects society has had on him. He retreats to the jungle to find out more about himself. His dreams allow him to imagine many different things. In the end he realizes that he too, is just a dream. He is just a figment of ones imagination.
Borges refers to the light of day as being the destroyer of the dream of life while dreams offer escape from the effects of society. McCandless too tried to escape the effects of humanity by throwing out the map and letting his imagination take him to new heights. Stevens used his poetry to let his imagination run wild and take him to new places where he could examine his life. Each one of these poems or stories talks about ones soul-flight to find their place in life. Using their imagination has allowed these characters and writers to search for their place and meaning in life.