Review two examples of Into The Wild essays
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Into The Wild focused revision option (Due December 1): 

Students who earned a 7 or lower are eligible for this assignment; you can earn 6 points added to your essay grade by revising your weakest paragraph. 

The assignment include the following:

1) The original paragraph

2) The revised paragraph with annotated changes (cross-outs and highlighting to show changes; text boxes, comments, end notes to explain changes) which explain how specific changes improved the paragraph/paper.

3) Write a Reflection Paragraph which explains 1) the areas that needed improvement in the original paragraph and 2) how your changes improved the paragraph overall.

English 3 AP Period 2

Mr. Wesley

15 November 2016

Chris McCandless, Brave or Ignorant

            When Chris McCandless first turned up dead in Alaska, many differing opinions of him rose as he got more and more famous. While some thought he was brave, and did incredible things on his adventures before he died, others saw him as just a dumb kid who got himself killed because he didn’t see the danger of the Alaskan Frontier. Jon Krakauer, author of Into the Wild, a story about McCandless ‘adventures, saw Chris as an adventurer, living on the edge on his own set of ideals, and so do I. Chris McCandless was not just an arrogant kid who did not understand the danger of Alaska, but an adventurer born in a time where sadly all of the world had already been discovered.

            Chris’ adventure in Alaska was not a shock to his family, since Chris had always done things his way no matter what people told him. Chris had been living on the edge for years, dating back to when he was eight years old. Chris never thought like most kids, everything that he had that others did not was cheating to him, and so he tried to make his life fair compared to the lives of the less fortunate. “As an eight-year-old, he grew vegetables behind the house in Annandale and then sold them door to door around the neighborhood,”(Krakauer 115). While this one interest as a child doesn’t prove that Chris wants to live in the wild and starve himself, it shows that Chris had always done things unconventionally. As he got older, and moved on to high school, Chris only got more and more enveloped in his ideals. He wanted to do everything himself, and refused help from anyone, often he would do the opposite of what someone suggested just out of spite. “Chris had so much natural talent, Walt continues, but if you tried to coach him, to polish his skill, to bring out that final ten percent, a wall went up,”(Krakauer 111). He was stubborn to an insane degree, and once he was inspired by writers such as Tolstoy, there was no changing his mind. Chris may not have survived his trip to Alaska, but it was not out of ignorance, he simply wasn’t prepared for that adventure as he had been for his others. 

            I believe that Chris McCandless did not die simply because he was a reckless idiot running into the Alaskan frontier, he had been on too many adventures thus far to just get careless and kill himself. After Chris left college, he began his adventures across the country. He travelled all across the west of the country, eventually crossing the border to Mexico with little more than a canoe. While other people his age were starting careers and families, Chris was in a cave in Mexico on New Years Eve. While the adventure was not good for Chris’ health, he snuck back into the country and escaped Mexico with a greater sense of purpose than ever. With every adventure McCandless got more and more confident in his ability to survive in the harshest environments North America had to offer, and Alaska was next on his list. Some say that if Chris was an experienced camper he would have been more prepared for his trip to one of the most dangerous environments on the planet, but that wasn’t Chris’ way of doing things. To Chris, being totally prepared and having a 100% chance of surviving was cheating, and took all the fun out of his adventures. “His gear seemed exceedingly minimal for the harsh conditions of the interior, which in April still lay buried under the winter snow pack,”(Krakauer 5). Chris only brought a small sack of rice, a low caliber rifle, and some cheap hiking boots that would barley insulate Chris’ feet. Many people took this to believe that Chris was just an arrogant kid, who thought that he was invincible because he hadn’t died so far, which isn’t entirely true. Chris did think he was invincible, but he didn’t pack lightly because he thought camping in Alaska would be easy, he did it for the thrill. If he walked into the Alaskan frontier with a full tent, state of the art snow gear and boots, and enough food to last him long after his adventure, it simply wouldn’t be and adventure to him. Being totally prepared for a trip gives you an almost surefire chance of success, and if you know you can’t lose there’s no adventure, he might as well be camping in his backyard. While these ideals may be a little out of the ordinary, they were his ideals, and he stuck with them to the bitter end.

 Courage is standing up for what you believe in no matter how many people tell you that you are wrong, and Chris McCandless is the living embodiment of courage. Everyone told him he couldn’t do it, everyone said he was just a dumb kid, and he stood up for what he believed in and even died for his beliefs. Even the way he died wasn’t an oversight, he just ate something that ended up shutting his system down. “It means he didn’t carelessly confuse one species with another… McCandless simply had the misfortune to eat moldy seeds,”(Krakauer 194). One simple mistake of not eating clean seeds and he was dead, but that doesn’t mean he was undeserving of the media attention he received,(Krakauer Authors Note). When people read the story of Chis McCandless, they should see his story for what it truly was, not another dumb kid killed by his own arrogance, but a courageous young man who died doing what he loved, even if no one else understood why. 

The Challenge of the Wild

            The incredible tale of Chris McCandless produced many different responses by its readers. Some of the responses crucified McCandless as idiotic and naïve, belittling him for what they thought was a lack of common sense. The other side viewed McCandless as a role model, a man who was courageous and intelligent enough to live free and follow his dreams. I agree with the latter. I believe that Chris was ingenious, and the life that not only he wanted to live, but had the desire to challenge himself as a person, a desire that I even see in myself.

            To fully understand the motivation of Chris’s journey, it is crucial to dissect his upbringing. He lived in a somewhat problematic family. His father was extremely smart and wealthy, but in no ways perfect. He had horrible relations with the women he loved, leaving his first wife, having Chris with another woman, Billie, then returning to his first wife to have yet another child. Chris couldn’t forgive his father’s unfaithfulness, and the events “inflicted deep wounds” (121). Also, the McCandless family had many issues within the home. Walt and Billie “ran a real good business together… but they worked all the time” (107). Chris was very hurt by his parent’s absence in his life. Although he respected his parents, he hated the fact that material belongings had such an influence on them. Overall, many aspects of Chris’s early childhood led to his journey into the wild, and shaped the incredible man he was.

            McCandless always had a strong sense of achievement. He had great respect for achievers and people who were successful in moral aspects, not material. Chris looked to achieve more in his life. He hated following a designated path. He hated his ‘safe’ environment in the wealthy suburbs. Ultimately, Chris hated being content in his life.

            I am definitely one to identify with Chris McCandless, and that is most likely why I support his seemingly reckless journey. Like McCandless, I hate being content in life. I never like to have tunnel vision on what my life should be. I love keeping an open mind, and experiencing everything life has to offer. I believe this is how Chris was. We both love challenges, big or small, and we both never back down to any of these challenges. “The only way [Chris] cared to tackle a challenge was head-on [and] right now” (111).

            Chris saw surviving in the wilderness as a challenge, a challenge that may cost his life, but will grant ultimate success. Chris was not stupid to accept this challenge, nor was he ignorant. Chris was hopeful. Hopeful that he could prove himself as the worldly and nonmaterialistic being he strived to be.

            Chris’s physical preparedness is something that is highly debated and argued. Chris left his home with all his few belongings in his small yellow Datsun automobile. Soon later, after the Datsun was rendered useless to Chris after a flood, he “simply abandon[ed] the Datsun and resum[ed] his odyssey on foot” (29). Now walking, Chris could not physically carry all of his belongings, and decided to carry as little as possible to survive. The lack of supplies was just a further challenge that Chris imposed on himself. Like I mentioned previously, Chris wanted to leave his sheltered lifestyle, and dive right into a constant struggle, a constant test.

            Chris kept the rule of little to no provisions all the way along his trip, even to Alaska. “The only food McCandless carried was a ten pound bag of long grained rice-and the two sandwiches and a bag of corn chips that [he had been given]” (162). Chris looked to take on the challenge of hunting and scavenging for his own food, and therefore saw no apparent need to bring any. Many Alaskan critics saw this decision as arrogant, as well as disrespectful to the powerful Alaskan wilderness. I; however, see is as far from disrespectful. I believe that Chris wanted to display unity with nature. He wanted to prove to himself and the world that he could, in fact, survive with nothing but the world around him.

            Many critics have picked apart every single mistake that Chris made along his journey, and therefore concluded that he was fully unprepared. I think this is absurd. Chris achieved his goal, he lived off the land, he escaped the mundane safety of his home. Everything that Chris looked to achieve, he achieved. Chris certainly took his goals to an extreme, but he still maintained a philosophy that many of us could agree with. He created goals and vowed to achieve them, he challenged himself more and more. Whether it was in school, band, or surviving the wilderness, he challenged himself. His death was not in vain. He died doing what he loved to do… challenging himself.