One of the assignments for my Principles of Journalism class is to do a book report. Old school, yeah? I think so. I kinda was hoping I could make a panorama book report, like back in the day. You know what I’m talking about? Where you get a shoe box and put stuff in it that makes you think of the book? The dumb kids (aka the ones who were totally not as awesome as me and would do anything to not write a paper) would ALWAYS choose to do that.
Moving right along, we have to write a paper. Keep in mind, this paper was assigned on the first day of class and like the classic procrastinatior I am, I decided to wait until now to think about. The weight of the paper has really been pushing down on me because the TA keeps building it up FOR NO REASON. It has to be three pages. Double spaced. We have to write about how the book is journalist, provide a summary, talk about the author, etc. She tells us exactly what should be in every paragraph. Really? This is what our semester long project is?
So I chose to read Into the Wild Jon Krakauer and if you don’t know the story of Chris McCandless, or even if you do, you should most definitely read this book. We were allowed to choose a book from a list of like 50 that are considered journalist. I chose it because I saw the film last semester and it was absolutely amazing. It totally captured the essence of who I believe Chris McCandless was, a free spirited young man with idealistic visions in his head that eventually led him to his heart breaking death.
Into the Wild is one of those movies that makes you form an attachment with the main character. They made him out to be the most loveable guy ever. Also, he was (still is, in real life) exceedingly attractive (played by Emile Hirsch), which never hurts. So, I was pretty upset by watching him starve to death. But, the great part of reading the book was understanding everything that lead him to all of his (seemingly) crazy actions after his college graduation.
Where am I going with this? I kind of don’t know anymore…but we’ll go with this:
Chris McCandless story is really sad, but extremely inspiring to me at the same time. Chris was so against the idea of people caring more about money and not enough about each other. He didn’t understand why people did such horrible things to each other and was hurt by how people lost sight of the most important things in the life: the relationships with other people. So, he set off to leave civilization and be with only himself, in what I consider a protest of the problems he saw with society.
Chris makes me want to do something legit with my life. I don’t want to die in Alaska, or be isolated. But I want to find what I care about most in my life and decide what my values are. And I want to live it. Like as much as I can and throw everything into it. Because you can’t have anything unless you have passion for it.
So…thanks Chris McCandless. I’m really glad I read the book and saw the movie. You should too, even if you’re not into the outdoors. It’s not even really about that, it’s so much more. And…to my JOUR prof, weak assignment. We are capable of so much more.
you forgot to puy ‘by’ in between Into the Wild and John Krakauer.
never read the book but one of my favorite movies!
also, based on the movie (i’ve never read teh book) i’d have to say Chris was pretty oblivious to human relationships as well. i mean he developed all these great friendships and decided to forgo all of those, a couple who wanted him to stay with them forever, an old man who wanted to adopt him. all of these people were like, “no dude like totally don’t go on this crazy, hermit trip of your bro! its like ok to forgive your parents man!”
and he’s like, “psh whatever you jive turkeys! my parents suck forever! i’m outta here to alaska!”
jive turkeys, huh? nice.
you do have a point. maybe human relationships is wrong. he cared more about people than money, which seemed to be the big thing for him. like, he hated that his parents wanted to give him money so he could go to law school because he thought it was all part of the regular mold of life, or what people are “supposed to do”. so what did he do? he gave all his money to a charity for starving people (the irony is depressing).
okay but human relationships still makes sense. maybe not relationships with specific people, but the relationship between humans and how they treat each other, his parents excluded. he was very opposed to them and therefore didn’t much care about his relationship with them. it makes sense. he was a great guy to everyone he met on the road and accepted very few favors.
also, i don’t even know if i can take you seriously based on the following:
teh book
its like
but good try!
cool.
so into that. props
he definitely valued human interaction over most things, but he was still fairly ignorant of all of the possible outcomes concerning the friends he made. he was so set on alaska that he missed every other positive thing down the line.
and just because my diction isn’t as professional as you’d like doesn’t make my statement any less valid!
but i’m totally in sync with his inherent rejection of what humans are ‘supposed to do’ with their lives.
Into the Wild is one of my favorite movies. I cried and cried because of the incredible internal struggle and tragedy that Chris faces. But, that is what his story is: a tragedy.
I think Grammarbear is right–as are you Kelsi. Chris did reject the “norm” of life. He didn’t appreciate the tangible and materialistic lifestyle and surface relationships we have. And one reason he left society was because he no longer wanted to be a part of it. However, his other motivation was vengeance. He wanted to punish his parents (primarily) for how they treated him. And Grammarbear makes a point. He meets people on his journey that care about him and love him, but he is not willing to accept their love because he is so driven by the anger he has. They didn’t deserve to be turned down by him.
And what is truly tragic is that when he is finally willing to return to society, because he realizes that happiness comes from the relationships we form in life, he can’t cross the raging river. And then he dies. And we learn later that 1/4 mile down the river he could have crossed easily. Irony.
Like you Kelsi, I do relate to his struggle and feelings. And, I definitely think its a great book/movie to write a paper about.