Into the Wild: Part Two, Prompt One

Specific qualities that a person would have to have in order to pursue extreme adventures in the natural world would have to be a strong love of nature, self-motivation and knowledge about nature in general. Without these qualities, a person could never survive in the wild.

If you don't love nature, there probably wouldn't be a point of going into the wild to begin with. But if somebody didn't love nature and still went into the wild, they would be heading straight towards disaster. You would go out into the wild and most likely be driven to insanity by a mixture of the bugs, weather, altitude (depending on where you were in the world), wildlife in general and several other things. You have to be completely in love with nature before you can go into it.

Somebody who isn't self-motivated cold never survive in the wild because they wouldn't be able to fend for themselves. A lack of motivation can often lead a person to believing that they are incapable of doing certain things, such as finding their own food, setting up camp, even the ability to live. A lack of motivation can lead a person to laziness and if one is trying to live in a strange environment on their own where they have to find their own food and kill it, they might believe that they are unable to find their own food because it's "too hard". This can lead to starvation. If a person lacks motivation but realizes that they still need to eat, they might get lazy and eat something poisonous, which often leads to death.

The last thing that a person absolutely must have in order to survive in the wild would be previous knowledge of how nature works in general. If somebody walked into the woods completely unprepared for what awaited them, there is no doubt that they would suffer and most likely die. Lack of preparation and knowledge of how to survive in the wild can lead to freezing to death because they wouldn't know what equipment to bring for cold weather, starving to death because they wouldn't know which plants were edible and they might not have brought something to kill animals with, or they might end up dying from something such as being crushed by a boulder because they didn't know what gear to bring while climbing a mountain or drowning because they didn't think of the current. You have to understand how nature works before deciding to live in it.

A person planning to live in nature has to have these three qualities in order to survive. If they don't, they will most likely die of something completely avoidable such as poisoning, drowning, and even starving in some cases. A person must not only posses all three of these qualities, but they must be prepared for the worst. They need to realize that there is a strong possibility of something going wrong. If a person believes that they are invincible, getting hurt or sick will come as a shock to them which could cause them to suffer and struggle even more. A person needs to have a certain sense of mortality in order to go into the wild. Without a sense of their own mortality, a strong love of nature, self-motivation and knowledge about nature in general, walking into the wild will surely lead to death.

Honors Writing Four

1) I feel that my time management skills have vastly improved by taking honors humanities this semester. I feel that the blog posts in particular have helped me the most because of the fact that you can see what time a blog post was made. Since we usually only have a short period of time to write an essay in, (shorter than I am used to anyway) it can be extremely obvious if an essay was written at the last minute because of the time that the blog was posted at. I learned very quickly this semester that if I wanted to succeed in humanities this year, I was going to have to schedule time to work on essays and other blog posts. Now, I am scheduling all of my assignments, not just the blog posts.

2) Because I wasn't used to the amount of time we were given to complete large assignments, I didn't do extremely well when it came to revising my work multiple times, which was one of my strengths last year. Over the course of the semester I have slowly gotten used to these shorter amounts of time given to work, so I have gotten better at finding time to draft and revise. If I got the chance to do this semester over again though, I would start the drafting and revising process much sooner.

3) I intend on taking a bit more time with my essays. Over the coarse of this semester, I have definitely improved on my time management when it came to my essays, but they still aren't quite where I want them to be. I want to create more than two drafts of an essay, drafting and revising used to be one of my best skills and I want to start using that skill again because it is so important in writing. Also, I do plan on shooting for an A again this next semester. I received one this last semester, so I believe that as I continue to improve on my writing, I shouldn't have too hard of a time reaching my goal(s).

4) I'm not really sure what I would pick. I have such a broad interest in both history and literature that I wouldn't really know what to pick. I like everything in history from the the American Revolution to Obama being elected president, and I love to read just about anything. If I had to pick a specific time in history to study I would probably look more into the thirties, i.e.. the great depression and WWII. I know that I studied WWII last year and I learned a little bit about the great depression, but that is just the most interesting time of history to me personally. The great depression and WWII both hugely affected my family, my grandma on my mom's side grew up right in the middle of the great depression and my grandpa on my dad's side died of nuclear radiation from atomic bomb testing, (we believe). So the late 20's through the early 40's are a very important time in history for my family in particular that I happen to find really interesting.

Into the Wild: Prompt Two

Christopher McCandless was fully justified in hurting his friends and family by choosing his own course in life because he never intended on hurting anybody, he thought that nobody would even miss him, he was planning on coming home and his family and friends respected what he was doing and were excited for him

McCandless never thought that he would hurt anyone because he figured that nobody would even care if he disappeared. “…And now he’d slipped painlessly out of Ron Franz’s life as well. Painlessly, that is, from McCandless’s perspective-although not from the old man’s.” McCandless clearly believed that he hadn’t made an impact on people, so he figured that nobody would really miss him or feel hurt if he died. This thinking was a bit oblivious and maybe even a bit inconsiderate on his part, he honestly didn’t realize that people loved him so much, so he really wasn’t at fault for hurting them.

McCandless never intended on hurting anyone. Just the opposite, he had intended on coming home to see all of them. “He seemed to have moved beyond his need to assert so adamantly hi autonomy, his need to separate himself from his parents. Maybe he was prepared to forgive their imperfections; maybe he was even prepared to forgive some of is own. McCandless seemed ready, perhaps, to go home.” McCandless had never intended on dying. If he had intended n going into the woods to die then he would have been at fault for bringing pain to his family and friends. He wanted to go home and tell all of his loved ones about his amazing experiences what a wonderful time he had. He might not have always agreed with his family, but that didn’t mean that he wanted to hurt them.

McCandless not only lived his life to the fullest but inspired others to live their lives to the fullest as well. McCandless showed an eighty-year-old man what life could be if he just lived the way he did. Before he met McCandless, Ron Franz was practically agoraphobic. He rarely left his house and seemed completely stuck in the past. McCandless showed him what life could be just by living life himself. “You had a wonderful chance on your drive back to see one of the greatest sights on earth, the Grand Canyon, something every American should see at least once in his life… Don’t settle down and sit in one place. Move around, be nomadic, make everyday a new horizon… he moved out of his apartment and set up camp on the bajada. Franz occupied McCandless’s old campsite, just past the hot springs.”

Even McCandless’s parents, Billie and Walt, understood his decision to live in the woods. His father, Walt, even said: “I didn’t know how I was going to react to this, but now I’m glad we came. This brief visit, he says, has given him a slightly better understanding of why his boy came into this country.” Although they were still hurting, when McCandless’s parents saw the place of their son’s death, they felt strangely at ease. They went into the Alaskan woods and saw what their son had seen, amazing experiences and the magic of self-discovery. If anybody could blame McCandless for bringing pain upon his loved ones, it would be his parents. But not even they could blame him after seeing the place that he loved.

Christopher McCandless lived an amazing life and had experiences that most can only dream of having. Nobody can blame him for wanting to live his life to the fullest, for that was all he was trying to do, live. His death was completely unexpected and unplanned, it was not his fault. He would have gone home but in order to get there he would have had to cross a river with a strong current and he knew that he wasn’t a good swimmer. He didn’t go home because he WANTED to live. He never wanted to hurt his family and friends, that’s why he didn’t go home that day. Christopher McCandless was fully justified in hurting his friends and family by choosing his own course in life because he never intended on hurting anybody, he thought that nobody would even miss him, and he wanted to go home.

Into the Wild: Outline

Question number two: Was McCandless justified in the pain he brought to family and friends in choosing his own solitary course in life? Why or why not?

Paragraph One: Thesis and Opening

-Thesis

*McCandless was justified in the pain he brought to family and friends because:

-He never intended to hurt them, (he was planning on coming home)

-He figured they wouldn't miss him or feel attachment, (check page)

-He helped them live their lives to the fullest, (Ron)

Paragraph Two: Point One

-He figured they wouldn't miss him

*Check page number

-He didn't miss them, (makes him a bit wrong)

-Bad relationship, (father in particular)

Paragraph Three: Point Two

-His story influenced people to live life to the fullest

*Ron left his house and started to branch out

*Author travelled all around Alaska

Paragraph Four: Point Three, Final Point?

-He never intended on hurting them

*Cut himself off on purpose, less personal

*Intended on going home

Paragraph Five: Closing

-Never had the intention of hurting them, so he wasn't wrong

-Never considered other people's feelings, so he was slightly wrong

-Overall, I believe that he was in the right: Explain

Into the Wild

Answering questions 2 and 3

2) I think he wouldn't agree. He seems like the type of person that would find a dangerous task even more exciting once somebody who had different views from him disagreed. If somebody exactly like him but much older that him said not to do something, he might listen to reason. I think that the statement is true personally, especially when it came to him, but I think the fact that an older person said it would immediately make him disagree.

3) I understand what that writer is saying, but I don't entirely agree. I agree that (had he survived) he would have been extremely lucky, but I do understand why he went into the woods and I find it amazing that he actually did it. He wanted to go on a trip of self discovery, and he also wanted to see everything the earth had to offer. I think that it would be amazing to go out into the woods, (and survive). He must have had some of the most amazing experiences possible. I hate what all his family had to go through after he died, but I don't think he was being selfish. He said in one of the final chapters that he was going to go home, but he ate some poisonous seeds, thus ending his life. In all honesty his death was one of the least miraculous parts of his life. I don't think he wanted, or expected, his family to be so hurt over his death. I think he figured they felt as little for him as he did for them. But in the end, even he admitted that he loved them and I don't think he ever expected them to go through that much pain.