Tuesday, August 17, 2010

2 Quotations from Into the Wild

Please pick 2 quotations that you think best characterize Christopher McCandless- in whatever personal state, or in whatever part of his journey, he seems to be. Click "comment," list and write all 2 quotations (include parenthetical citation with page number), and include your initials- first name and last- at the end. **If you see the quotation in the previous comment, then you cannot use it.** Thank you!

19 comments:

  1. "Chris was very much of the school that you should own nothing except what you can carry on your back at a dead run."
    -Around the end of Chapter 4

    "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."
    -Very end of Chapter 15

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  2. "According to the moral absolutism that characterizes McCandless's beliefs, a challenge in which a successful outcome is assured isn't a challenge at all."

    "Two years he walks the earth. No phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road."

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Amy Brlansky

    "At long last he was unencumbered, emancipated from the stifling world of his parents and peers, a world of abstraction and security and material excess, a world in which he felt grievously cut off from the raw throb of exsistence"(Krakauer 22).

    "Hey Guys!
    This is the last communication you shall receive from me. I now walk out to live amongst the wild. Take care, it was great knowing you.
    -Alexander (Krakauer 69).

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  5. "So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun."


    "If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed."

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  6. "I have been thinking more and more that I shall always be a lone wanderer of the wilderness" (91).

    "But this is not important. It is the experiences, the memories, the great triumphant joy of living to the fullest extent in which real meaning is found" (37).

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  7. "Two nights before McCandless was scheduled to head north, Mary Westerberg, Wayne's mother, invited him to her house for dinner. 'My mom doesn't like a lot of my hired help,'Westerberg says,'and she wasn't real enthusiastic about meeting Alex either. But I kept bugging her, telling her she had to meet this kid, and finally she had him over for supper. They hit it off immediately. The two of 'em talked nonstop for five hours." page 67

    Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. I sat at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, but sincerity and truth were not; and I went away hungry from the inhospitable board. The hospitality was as cold as the ices. p 117

    CHM

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  8. "Not much else is happening, but its starting to get real hot and humid down here, say hi to everyone for me." p. 22

    "Alex finds Mexicans to be warm, friendly people. Much more hospictable than Americans..." p. 35

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  9. The only way he cared to tackle a challenge was head-on, right now, applying the full brunt of his extraordinary energy.
    111

    don't settle down and sit in one place. Move aroound, be nomadic, make each day a new horizon.
    57

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  10. "Whatever reason he had for being pissed off, I figured it must have been a good one." (Krakauer, p63)

    "During those four weeks in Carthage, McCandless worked hard, doing dirty, tedious jobs that nobody else wanted to tackle" (Krakauer, p62)

    SMS

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  11. "He was right in saying that the only certain happiness in life is to live for others"
    P.169

    "So many people live within happy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future."

    P.56-57

    DW

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  12. "It was the Wild, the savage, frozen-hearted Northland Wild." (9)

    "No. You don't get it. I'm going to San Diego. And I'm leaving on Monday." (52)

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  13. Great quotes, people! Now, we need to decide whether or not they are indirectly or directly characterizing Chris.

    *Brlansky! You're in 6th period... NOT 5B!

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  14. Remember to put page numbers and your initials as well. Thanks!

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  15. "Look, Mr. Franz, you dont need to worry about me. I have a college education."
    pg. 51

    "Quick--turn on your AM, and listen to Paul Harvey. He's talking about some kid who starved to death up in Alaska. The police dont know who he is
    . Sounds a whole lot like Alex"
    pg. 100

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  16. " It may, after all, be the bad habit of creative talents to invest themselves in pathological extremes that yield remarkable insights" 70

    it is true many creative people fail to make mature personal relationships, and some are extremely isolated. 61

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  17. "He was hungry to learn about things. Unlike most of us,he was the sort of person who insisted on living out his beliefs."
    pg 67

    "We just have to have the courage to turn against our habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living."

    pg 57

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  18. LS

    "McCandless read and reread The Call of the Wild, White Fang, 'To Build a Fire,' 'An Odyssey of the North,' 'The Wit of Porportuk.' He was so enthralled by these tales, however, that he seemed to forget they were works of fiction."

    "'Everett was strange,' Sleight concedes. 'Kind of different. But him and McCandless, at least tehy tried to follow their dream. That's what was great about them. They tried. Not many do.'"

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  19. Good! Everyone is on the blog! Well done, and hopefully these quotations will help you in your journey essays. Thanks!

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