Connections with "Into the Wild" and what we discuss in class

By reading what I've read so far of "Into the Wild" and based off what I remember reading 3 years ago, and having just seen the movie "Into the Wild" I can see that Christopher McCandless had the type of mindset that we should all have according to our discussions. He virtually leaves all material possessions and cuts himself off from all of societies contact. He is basically relying on nothing but himself and the land. He cuts ties with government, corporations, family, and even modern day conveniences. He takes a leap of faith that ultimately cost him his life, but I can see where he was heading. What he was attempting to grasp was ultimate freedom. Freedom from government, peer pressure, corporate propaganda, and family expectations, etc.

The first thing I truly admire about Christopher McCandless was how he broke free from the materialistic culture we live in and found happiness from nature. We talked about being enslaved to materialism and big corporations in paper two and ways on how we could possibly break free from that enslavement. McCandless tore the shackles right off of himself by giving away all his money, burning all identification he had and by taking off into the wild. He did  what everyone is too scared of doing. He broke free from all the pressures of society, all the customs and, expectations and found his true meaning of life. I believe his true meaning of life was everyones meaning of life back in the day. He erased everything he learned and did in the new culture and created a new life based on old culture principles.

McCandless had a rich education. He read a lot and knew what he was talking about. He wasn't your typical vagabond. Everything he did, he did with a purpose or for a reason. The type of mindset he had was very rebellious and counter-culture. He saw the harm that our ways was doing to us and our planet and refused to be another conformist that conformed to societies expectations. I think the cause of his rebellion came from education and knowledge. If he didn't read or care to study he'd be completely oblivious to our destructive ways and he would just conform with the rest of us.

In the wild McCandless created equity between himself and nature. Today man has completely destroyed any equity we once had with nature. If we want food we buy it. If we want to go some where we drive there. Everything we can possibly want is within our grasp. When he lived off the grid he was one with nature again. He was as equal as every other animal in the wilderness. He had to find food, shelter, water and warmth. Today people don't really realize everything we do that tears down any equity we had with animals and nature. We take everything for granted and I believe we need to see things through the eyes of McCandless in order to truly understand and appreciate everything we take for granted.