“It is easy, when you are young, to believe that what you desire is no less than what you deserve, to assume that if you want something badly enough, it is your God-given right to have it. When I decided to go to Alaska that April, like Chris McCandless, I was a raw youth who mistook passion for insight and acted according to an obscure, gap-ridden logic. I thought climbing the Devils Thumb would fix all that was wrong with my life. In the end, of course, it changed almost nothing. But I came to appreciate that mountains make poor receptacles for dreams. And I lived to tell my tale" (Krakauer 155).
Topic: Inspiration or fool?
In this passage, Krakauer expresses his feelings towards Alex's voyage into the wild. He parallels his own experiences with that of Alex's and implies that if he had made it out of the wild, he likely would have ended up maturing; learning to be close to people, to forgive flaws in those he loved, to interact with society and the world in less extreme ways. However, this still begs the question. Was Alex an inspiration or a fool? In my opinion, he is a little bit of both. He was a fool for entering the Alaskan wilderness with very little supplies, expecting to make it out alive but the theme that it carried is very inspirational. Alex did not have a materialistic desire, which was shown when he burned and donated all his money. Alex simply wanted to get the most out of life, in his own way. No rules, just man vs wild. I think that this can be an important lesson in today's society because many of us are caught up in materialistic desires like fancy clothes, fast cars, and money. Alex was an inspiration for breaking from this tradition and embarking on a quest to really live life on his own terms.
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