Chapters 11-12Respond to the questions and respond to one of your classmates posts.
1. Summarize (put either chapter 11 or 12, but not both, into your own words) Chris' experiences growing up. Don't forget, summarizing is NOT generalizing, you still need to provide specific details about Chris' life with his parents.
1. In chapter's 11 and 12 we gain insight into what Chris' life was like as he grew up. We learn he lived a very "normal" American life but often butted heads with his father, Walt. Now that you know more about Chris' life prior to his solo adventures, can you better rationalize why he chose to leave Chris behind and become Alex?
Chapter 11 pretty much talks about Chris' death and how people reacted to it. There were several people calling in thinking that Chris was their friend, brother, son etc. and the person taking care of all the calls was getting annoyed that he could not have a solid answer. One guy believed that he knew that it was Chris and offered that he pretty much had his social security number and the search went on with that information until it was confirmed that it was Chris McCandless. It was hard for Sam McCandless to tell his parents that his brother was dead.
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No. Seriously, big deal that he butted heads with his father a lot. I but heads with my father all the time and you don't see me running off into the wild, changing my name and then dying from stupidity. I think that Chris really doesn't know how to cope with things like arguments with parents, being told what to do, being okay with being different, and also with having to deal with society. I mean sure it's a pain, but you get stronger by living out everyday and learning from your mistakes...Not changing your name and running away.
Personally I feel that Chris' actions were rather ignorant and above all, sort of like the easy way out. He didn't want to have to learn to deal with society nor anything that bothered him, like everyone else in the world has to do. So he decided to change his identity and live in solitude. Sounds to me like he had a really difficult time realizing what was real and what was fantasy as well; with his whole obsession of book characters and what not. Role playing is fine, if you keep it that, and don't turn it into your life. I think he may have benefited from seeing a therapist or a counselor of some sort, and actually taking the time to prepare himself for what he was going to do. Seems like such a masochistic way to commit suicide, intentionally making himself suffer like he did. Why not just get it over with the quick way if he was really planning on dying. -Sure maybe he wanted to die, happy in the nature world, but I don't see how starving oneself is any happy way to die anyways. *shrug* That's just my mind-spill about the matter.
1. Chapter twelve of Into the Wild pretty much describes the end of high school and college years of Chris. The chapter starts off by Chris giving his dad a telescope for his Birthday. Shortly after his high school graduation, Chris goes on his first cross country adventure with his new car and then comes back and goes to college. He was a good student throughout his college years with near perfect grades. Chris was mad at his father throughout the chapter because of the discoveries he made on his road trip. Chris then started becoming more involved with himself and school during his final college years. He then Graduated and set off on his adventure into the wild.
ReplyDelete2. I believe after reading these chapters, I can better rationalize why Chris ran away from his old life. He butted heads with his father all the time because his father would lie to him! Chris wanted the truth and the only way he got it was by going all the way to California. This contributed to the fact that Chris ran away because there was so much insecurity between him and his family, he could not deal with them anymore. I disagree with what Autumn said about the fact that he didn't know how to deal with society. I think he was perfectly capable of dealing with society, its just that society expected so much out of Chris, he could not handle it anymore. Going into the wild, the place he loved, was his way of showing people that he didn't have to live the life they wanted him to live just to be happy.
1.) In chapter 12 Chris McCandless starts off as being very thankful and gracious for everything his father had done for him, so Chris gives his father a new telescope. After giving his father the telescope, Chris then left off on a journey to the pacific coast. While on the journey he then learned from family and friends that his father had lived two lives when Chris was younger. When Chris found that out, his perspective of his dad did a 180. Chris became outraged with his father had no longer had respect for him, so through out the chapter Chris becomes angry at everything and everyone not only his father. When he returned from his trip, he was lean and scruffy. Chris carried on through is college years with excellent grades, but the way he felt about the world didn’t change. After graduating Chris donated all his money in his bank account to charity and vanished from his parents lives to go on the adventure that would change his life.
ReplyDelete2.) I agree 100 percent with Stephen! Before reading the chapters, one would think that Chris was an irrational person who set off on a journey for no apparent reason, only thinking about himself. After reading both chapters I can understand that Chris was outranged at his father and felt that he had once looked up to a man who lived his life full of lies. Chris wanted a safe place and found that when he was in society he felt that he couldn’t trust anyone and when he was in the wilderness he could better understand himself and know that he wouldn’t have to deal with his family anymore. When Stephen said that “society expected so much out of Chris, he could not handle it anymore” I feel that could handle it but that he chose not to handle it and go off by himself. Everything Chris did, he chose to do and he had logic behind his decisions. He wanted to prove to people that he didn’t have to live the normal way of life in society to be accepted or to be happy.
1. In chapter 12 Chris graduates from highschool and goes off on his first cross country trip without the approval of his parents. During his trip he comes close to death and it is apparent in the amount of weight he had lost. After his return Chris enrolled in Emory and was very excited to be there, but as the years went by at this school, Chris became more and more distant from classmates and his parents. We find out that Chris is the kind of person to harbor his emotions and that is what he does when he finds out about his fathers past relationship. Chris graduated from Emory and that is when he set off on his two year adventure.
ReplyDelete2. I think I better understand the reason why Chris left his old life behind and became Alex. It seems like Chris was ashamed of the wealth that his parents had and he needed the experience that his mom and dad got by making their own way. I agree with Brooke that Chris was betrayed by his father after he found out about his ex-wife and thought he would never be able trust society if it was filled with people like his dad.
1. Chapter 11 starts off with some examples of reactions towards Chris's death. Some felt extremely horrified to hear about Chris, but mostly concluded Chris as a "A guy who thought he would be able to find the answers to all his problems by going into the wild, but found a bus and mosquitoes." Chris's identity was not confirmed at this point, and the people who read the article kept calling the police that they may know the person, most of them ending up as a different person, except for one caller. The caller believed he knows the man, and has the social security number of the man. After this, Sam McCandless had a hard time telling his parents that Chris was the dead body found in Alaska.
ReplyDeleteChapter 12 starts out when Chris graduated high school. He gives a speech to his father of how thankful he was for him, and gives him an expensive telescope. After graduation, Chris tells his parents that he will go on to his first solo adventure with his new car. The parents gives him a Texas Credit Card and tells him to call them occasionally. Chris's call stops later in the adventure. During this adventure, Chris learns that his father was living a double life during his life, his father was living with another family. During his college years, his respect towards his father turns 180 degrees. After he grauduates college, he donates all his money to charity, and starts another adventure.
2. Now that I know more about Chris's life, I can understand why Chris decided to go into the wild. Like what Stephen and Brooke said, he became outraged with the fact that he kept looking up to a man that lived his life full of lies. He couldn't trust the society because of what his father has done.
Richard Nakagawa
Chapter 12 of Into the Wild was mainly about how CHris lived his years of college. He went on an adventure across the country earlier his freshman year finding out that his dad was having an affair with his ex wife. This made chris become closer with his sister, carine. They talked about how Chris through the years slowly but surely excluded himself from his parents.
ReplyDeleteAlot of people have struggles with their parents as i do everyday. AT the beginning i was not a big fan of this book and chris but now that i have known what is happening i can rationalize with chris and why he is wanting to get away from this misery he is having with his father. I would personally copnfront my father about it not run away.I agree with stephen on the fact of why chris ran away to cali
1. In chapter 12, Chris graduates from high school and then leaves on a trip and almost dies from dehydration. Then he goes off to Emory for college. After one of his trips, Chris finds out that his father was still having a relationship with his first wife and Chris gets angry with his parents. Then he heads on another trip to Guatamala and during his traveling, he changes his mind and heads to Alaska. Then he went back to college to finish up schooling and he very rarely called his parents and his parents worried about him greatly. After he graduated from college, he hit the road and avoided his family.
ReplyDelete2. Honestly, I don't blame him for running away from home. I think I wouldn't mind doing it but I think I would eventually get tired of it and eventually go face to face with my dad and talk to him about the situation rather than ignore it and letting it bubble up inside and then one day explode.
Nice job so far. Interesting that Stephanie was the only one to propose that Chris should have confronted his father. I wonder why he never did? I think that not confornting his father was an irrational thing for Chris to do- among the other irrational things he did. Sure, it is human nature for us to harbor feelings inside for long perids of time, but Chris's family did a lot for him, he could have returned the graciousness by simply communicating with them regardless of whether he agreeed with their lifestyle and choices.
ReplyDelete1. There was high tension with Billy and the family leading to constant arguments and threats of divorce. Walt reveals that the family often took long, outdoor trips and that a history of outdoors and wandering runs in the family. Chris’s grandfather, Loren Johnson was a trucker and never stayed in one place and was a lover of nature. He was a hunter, though he would often cry for the animals he killed. Chris and Loren grew very close while Chris was a child and the two spent a lot of time in the woods.
ReplyDeleteWalt describes how Chris received a single F in his years of High School, for ignoring his Physics teacher’s formatting requirements for lab reports. Otherwise, he was a straight A student. Chris was close to Carine throughout school and thoroughly enjoyed anything that was naturally easy. He, however, did not enjoy things like racquetball in which he could not quite improve.He was the team captain of his school Cross-Country team.
McCandless constantly worried over things like racism and social injustice. He often spent time downtown feeding the homeless and took a homeless man into his family’s Airstream to stay. He was unwilling to attend college, though his parents badgered him until he consented. He never spoke highly of his family though, constantly deriding their financial independence.
2.I agree with Richard, Chris's father couldn't bare the fact of all the lies that were being livin, resulting with chris not really wanting to trust society and go to the wild where he wouldn't have to put up with some people in his live like his father.
1. chapter 11 was talking about how Chris's death and how he was found. the chapter basically talks about how they were trying to identify Chris and how many people were calling it trying to help out when in fact they were doing no good. Chris was later identified because of his social security number that he put on his application for his job.
ReplyDelete2. yes i understand more and I don’t think that Chris was all that idiotic for leaving his family maybe going to Alaska was to far but becoming Alex wasn’t all that bad of a plan knowing his relationship with his dad.
1.Chapter 11 is about the life of walt McCandless which is also known as chris’s dad. Such as “ Walt grew up poor in Greeley, Colorado, an agricultural town on the high, windswept plains up near the Wyoming line.” This chapter leads into talking about chris’s life growing up also and involves his sister Carine. I think what surprised me the most was it says that “money was tight.” Which if he had a trust fund of $25,000 or more how could money have been tight? Although it did make his sister and him closer in the end chris obviously took the route away from his parents still. Chris’s parents also explain disagreements they had, including when chris informed his parents he wasn’t going to go to college.
ReplyDelete2.I think that even though chris didn’t agree with his dad, it wasn’t necessary to go to Alaska to get away from him. Or go give away all his money, and give up his life with a home. I realize chris took these adventures because he was trying to get away from a normal life with his parents, but I believe it was too extreme. It’s almost as if he wanted to prove to his parents that the life they planned for him wasn’t necessarily the right one for him. So in the end of chapter 11 and 12 I still don’t see incite into why his life was so horrible he needed to leave to Alaska.