Survival of the Fittest

Survival Of The Fittest

Chris McCandless, crazy or noble? Chris McCandless was a young man who was seeking adventure, he wanted to find himself. Chris was a very bright young man who was supposed to enter Harvard Law School, instead Chris decided to leave everything that he was familiar with behind and head to Alaska with nothing but the clothes on his back, a bag of rice, and a backpack filled with a few things that will help him kill and catch his food. Timothy Treadwell too was gifted yet could not find success throughout his life. He decided the human world was not for him and made up his mind to find serenity protecting the bears. Both men wanted to escape their previous lives, but for very different reason. McCandless wished to prove something to himself, while Treadwell was out to prove something to society.

Though both men left a life they were familiar with, they left for completely different reasons. McCandless was sick of living a life his parents had chose for him. Not once since he was born was he allowed to think and make a decision for himself. It is shown that everything he did was only for the satisfaction of his parents. According to Stuckey, a truck driver Chris spent three days with, McCandless stated, "He didn't want to see a single person, no airplanes, and no signs of civilization. He wanted to prove to himself that he could make it on his own, without anybody else's help" (Pg. 346). The solo Alaskan adventure was something Chris used to determine whether or not he could make it on his own in the wild. Timothy Treadwell on the other hand felt like he did not fit into society and wanted to escape to a place where he felt needed and loved. Living with the bears helped him feel like a success, something he was never able to experience in the human society. Throughout the entire documentary Treadwell tried to be a part of the bears' lives and treat them as if they were human. He stated, "I love them with all my heart and I will die not them," trying to convince the audience as if these are little human infants that he was speaking of.

Chris McCandless saw graduation from college as a degree to leave life as he knew it and create something new. He was born into a financially well off family so money was never an issue growing up and it never hindered his education. Even academically, he was a gifted child and would never come home with anything less than an A. "If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed" (Pg. 351). Chris is trying to say that not everything we do has to make sense; sometimes it's the most spontaneous outrageous actions that have the most impact on our lives. He wanted to live a life that he had chosen for himself. He went to school just to please his parents. Everything he did before he graduated from college was to make his parents proud. Once he was done