Freedom or Family

"As we continue reading, we find the author giving more examples of men very similar to McCandless. Specifically, Ruess and McCandless both have an immense desire to be in the wild, but they also both have issues with their families. Do you think that their desire to go on these fatal journeys were caused more by their love for the wild or their issues at home? Also, do you think Chris exaggerated his family issues to use as an excuse to leave?"

In my opinion, Chris was pressured to succeed. He was a brilliant student who went to a good school and had everything provided for him. His decision to leave was partially due to a love of the wild, but mostly due to his desire to prove his self sufficience. Perhaps his family exacerbated things and hastened his decision, but I think he was destined to leave even if his family had been caring and conflict free.

Actually, he might have left sooner if they were conflict free. His desire to make a new life for himself was partially driven by his discontent at the complacency he was feeling. But regardless, his free spirit was something far too strong to expect to be content at an easy life. And nothing is more unpredictable than the wild.

Rhetoric

"In writing Into The Wild, Jon Krakauer has obvious opinions about the subject and employs rhetoric to show this. If you were writing the story of Christopher McCandless, how would your rhetoric differ from that of Krakauer? Would it? What types of rhetoric would you use, and why? What might this story be called?"

I would most definitely play up the idea of Chris as living out what he'd always dreamed of. I'd go about the Tim O'Brian way; tell people the story in a way to make you feel the emotions that the character feels. Sure, it would require me to exagerate certain things, some would argue that Krakauer does this already, but I think that the pathos needs to be felt. Too many people dislike Chris because they get caught up in logic - I would point out that yes, Chris was being naive and foolish to think he could survive. Readers need to understand that Chris wasn't making the journey to be an example, or to have a claim to fame. He was doing it to be the novel hero he always wanted to be. Arguably, Krakauer already does many of these things, but I don't think he ever explicitly says that Chris was acting out his ideal escapist novel. I would say that.

Election

"In what ways were you inspired during the last presidential campaign? Do you recall any specific moments where you felt a shift in your attitude towards politics, life, the world? How did those feelings translate into actions? Or, did you find the whole campaign season so overwhelming that you just tuned out? If so, what do you think could be changed to improve the election process?"

I remember, above all, a shift in the topics on everyone's mind. Politics saturated everything, every minute of every day. A full year before the primaries, I was being overrun with slander for candidates I was, in all honesty, quite surprised were running at all. Barack Obama? That dude from Illinois I read about a few years ago? Cool, hope he does better than Keyes did in 2000. Fred Thompson? Are the Republicans that desperate for a new Regan that they'll elect the West Wing dude? Hillary Clinton? Is... is that technically allowed?

In all seriousness, it brought me back into politics, something I had honestly given up since the 2004 election. Who can blame me, I grew up in Seattle! Everyone there was on the left, and any further debate didn't seem to get anywhere. To see everyone in Seattle united against Bush and still fail did an amazing job on my young, impressionable mind. There had to be some form of corruption, I assumed. There was no way that the everyman supported this person.

But watching Obama go from an underground-ish movement, to see the internet (which had become my home in 2008) line up to help him, to see him topple even the powerful Clinton dynasty... It gave me hope, for lack of a less tacky way of using the word.

(Of course, I also learned that not every underground movement works... Ron Paul comes to mind, but frankly, it was for the best that he lost)

Survival

"Do you think you could brave the Alaskan wild? What would you need to bring in order to be successful? What would be your biggest fear while out there? If you don't think you can brave the wild, why not? What if you were with a group of trained specialists? Don't relate too much to the book and Chris McCandless - use your own opinions on this. Make it about how you feel."

During my time as an amateur writer of both science-fiction and fantasy, I have to say that the two most inspirational settings are the desert dunes and the snow-capped mountains. Something about the still, undisturbed beauty of the surface is alluring and feminine, contrasting with the harsh and rugged masculinity of its fauna. The tundra is a land of extremes, where the harsh blizzard winds and the scarce food sculpt a man into the pinnacle of what he was meant to be. The very enviroment is against the survivalist, no trees that willingly yield their fruits like a jungle, just icy earth that seems to shift and strike at the traveler's feet, as though the mountain itself is tossing the human aside.

I believe now is the part where I say my odds are screwed. I have the rare advantage of a military upbringing - my mother always eager to teach me survival and evasion when camping. However, years of sedentary lifestyle have worked against me, and left me quite out of shape to be struggling for my life. While I would undoubtedly last longer than our friend McCandless due to common sense and slight foreknowledge, I would possibly be stretching the truth if I were to thrive. In a group of trained professionals, I would be cheating. I don't want to be a tourist of nature if I'm going to live in it for a while! All or nothing!

In short: the frozen north is a beautiful place to set a novella. However, I don't think that I am terribly suited to brave it.