Friday, February 26, 2010

storytelling

i think that the stories that Krakauer tells in his book gives insight into how he feels about what chris did. when he tells stories of other people failing and killing themselves, he is supporting the opinion that thinks Christopher was an idiot. In his book, Krakauer writes about the story about a man named Gene Rosellini. Rosellini says in a letter, "I began my adult life with the hypothesis that it would be possible to become a stone age native. for over 30 years. i programmed and conditioned myself to this end. in the last 10 of it, i would say i realistically experienced the physical, mental, and emotional reality of the stone age. but to borrow a buddhist phrase, eventually came a setting face-to-face with pure reality. i learned that it is not possible for human beings as we know them to live off the land" (75). I think that putting this into the book gives evidence that he doesn't agree with chris's actions. Rosellini ended up killing himself because he came to the conclusion that he couldn't fulfill his hypothesis. why would Krakauer put this into his book if he agreed with chris's actions?

2 comments:

  1. I think the reason Krakauer used Rosellini as an example was to show that even though McCandless was well aware that he may die in the wild, he was willing to risk his life for something more fulfilling. McCandless was much happier when he was in the wild than he ever was in his life. McCandless was willing to die in order to seek out true happiness.

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  2. I disagree with Mindy to an extent. I agree that Chris knew he may die in the wild, but Krakauer wants to address both sides of how Chris could have been a hero or an idiot. This quote is an example of someone who tried to live in the wild and realized it was impossible to live like this for an extended amount of time. No one is perfect and I believe Krakauer uses this example to show that there is a lot of risk trying to live in the wild because so many have already died trying. Did Chris want to prove to people that this was possible? Who knows...

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