Essay #1 ruft draft

Tony Gaffke
Wayne Berg
English 121
02/02/07

Selections from into the Wild

Why did McCandless enter the wild north unprepared? Why did he leave all he had behind to live and die by himself in the wilderness? Was it to escape the effects of society, or was it to prove to someone he could do it? These are all questions that the author John Krakauer searches for when he retraces the footsteps of Chris McCandless into the wild, rugged terrain of Alaskan Wilderness. Krakauer begins searching for the answer to these questions by trying to relive and explore the path that McCandless took into the Alaskan wilderness. By following the path of McCandless, Krakauer realizes the grip that nature has on the American imagination (Krakauer, 285). McCandless, consumed by the mysteries of the wilderness, went on this adventure to find a blank spot on the map.
In today’s world finding a blank spot on the map can be quite a difficult thing to do. McCandless though, was determined to conquer the dangers of living in the wild by himself. 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 (Krakauer, 306. McCandless though 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. He could do whatever wanted to, without being bothered by anybody. Krakauer though points out that not having a map led to McCandless’s death.
McCandless’s story though does not go unparalleled. In Wallace Stevens’s poem, “The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain”, also talks about escaping the death grip of society. Stevens’s writes about his poetry allowed him to flee from the everyday struggled of the everyday life. His poetry allowed him to discover himself and be who he actually wanted to be. Stevens felt that writing poetry allowed him to reflect on his life and take a moment to reminisce about his life. 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.












Works Cited
New Humanities reader
The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain