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Into the Wild

By Jon Krakauer

(374)

| Paperback | 9780330453677

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25 Reviews

2 people find this helpful

...I'd like to repeat the advice I gave you before, in that I think you really should make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thougth of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet ... (continue)

...I'd like to repeat the advice I gave you before, in that I think you really should make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thougth of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditionated to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one piece of mind, but in really nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of file comes from encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have and endlessy changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, Ron, you must lose you inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning ad its incredible beauty. And so, Ron, in short, get out of Salton city and hit the road. I guarantee you will be very glad if you did. But I fear that you will ignore my advice. You think I am stubborn, but you are even more stubborn than me. You had a wonderful chance on your drive back one of the greatest sights on earth, the Grand Canyon, something every american should see at least once in his life. But for some reason incomprehensible to me you wanted nothing but to bolt for home as quickly as possible, right back to the same situation which you see day after day after day. I fear you will follow this same inclination in the future and thus fail to discover all the wonderful things that God has placed around us to discover. Dont' settle down and sit in one place. Move around, be nomadic, make each day a new horizon. You are still going to live a long time, Ron, and it would be a shame if you did not take the opportunity to revolutionize your life and move into an entirely new realm of experience.
You are wrong if you think Joy emanates only or principally from human relationships. God has placed it all around us. It is in everything and anything we might experience. We just have to have the courage to turn against our habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living.
My point is that you dont need me or anyone else around to bring this new kind of light in your life. It is simply waiting out there for you to grasp it, and all you have to do is reach for it. The only person you are fighting is yourself and your stubbornness to engage in new circumstances.
Ron, I really hope that as soon as you can you will get out of Salton City, put a little camper on the back of your pickup, and start seeing some of the great work that God has done here in the American West. You will see thing and meet people and there is much to learn from them. And you must do it economical style, no motels, do your own cooking, as a general rule spend as a little as possible and you will enjoy it much more immensely. I hope that the next time I see you, you will be a new man with a vast array of new adventures and experiences behind you. Don't hesitate or allow yourself to make excuses. Just get out and do it. Just get out and do it. You will be very, very glad that you did it.
Alex McCandless

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DP81 said on Jan 8, 2011 | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

Into the Wild is the story of the unusual journey of Christopher McCandless. Upon graduating from university in Atlanta, GA, USA, McCandless gave away his life savings, scrapped his car and took off on a two year odyssey around western USA. He hitchhiked and hopped trains, working odd jobs be ... (continue)

Into the Wild is the story of the unusual journey of Christopher McCandless. Upon graduating from university in Atlanta, GA, USA, McCandless gave away his life savings, scrapped his car and took off on a two year odyssey around western USA. He hitchhiked and hopped trains, working odd jobs before travelling to Alaska. In the spring of 1992 he walked into the wild intending to live off the land for the summer. He never made it out.
An excerpt of the book first appeared as an <a href="http://outsideonline.com/outside/features/1993/1993_into_the_wild_1.html">article in Outside magazine</a> in 1993. That article apparently inspired the most feedback the magazine ever received on a single piece. Presently (17 years later) the article still appears on the magazine's list of 10 most popular articles. The book was published in 1997 and inspired a movie by the same name in 2007. The movie is generally faithful to the book.
One cannot resist speculating on what makes McCandless' story so compelling. Krakauer goes to great length to show that McCandless was not just a run-of-the-mill nutcase falling off the deep end into the Alaskan wilderness. Many of the people who McCandless encountered on his journey describe him as intelligent and funloving. More than one expresses shock and sadness at his death. But it is clear McCandless also had another side to his personality. He was very intense, extreme in temperament, and believed passionately in living for his ideals. "Be the change you want to see in the world," Ghandi said -- and so McCandless did.
The book also delves deeply into McCandless' family and relationship with his father. There is some suggestion it played a role in shaping his personality and rejection of social norms. Although the personal story is interesting, McCandless' quest highlights themes like the idealism of youth and struggle for independence and unique experience. McCandless' odyssey distilled these into just two years. Krakauer suggests that the experience in Alaska may have changed him, that he was planning to become a member of the world upon returning. "Happiness only real when shared," he scrawled in the margin of a book. Of course we can never know. Instead his story exists as a caution against recklessness, a testament to the passion of youth and life's infinite possibility.

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€5ʍϵ϶nk said on Jan 16, 2011 | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

Read prior to a trip to Alaska. Stayed at the Earthsong lodge which is on the road to where the final journey in the book takes place.

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LittleBird said on Feb 20, 2007 | 1 feedback

*** This comment contains spoilers! ***

這幾年最愛的電影/小說

印象中好像是第一次會有看完電影都知道劇情了還有衝動去買小說看
還很勇敢的去看英文版... 這樣應該真的算很愛很愛了吧?
先說敗筆小說結尾之前有一段作者自己的故事
那讓我看點有小小沒勁加上已經知道結局了
所以竟然等了將近一年才把尾巴剩下的幾十頁看完
有點可惜因為已經隔差不多一年了很多當下的感動都忘光光了
不過要把一些基本上對於這個故事的想法講出來還是不難的
第一個直覺想到的社會對他的批判是有多麼的殘酷暴力
去大陸豆瓣網逛過一下得分最高的一篇評語就是在罵主角
...然後第二高分的是在幫主角辯護 :P
我相信大多數人都對生活有點疑問也有點意見
但是真 ... (continue)

印象中好像是第一次會有看完電影都知道劇情了還有衝動去買小說看
還很勇敢的去看英文版... 這樣應該真的算很愛很愛了吧?
先說敗筆小說結尾之前有一段作者自己的故事
那讓我看點有小小沒勁加上已經知道結局了
所以竟然等了將近一年才把尾巴剩下的幾十頁看完
有點可惜因為已經隔差不多一年了很多當下的感動都忘光光了
不過要把一些基本上對於這個故事的想法講出來還是不難的
第一個直覺想到的社會對他的批判是有多麼的殘酷暴力
去大陸豆瓣網逛過一下得分最高的一篇評語就是在罵主角
...然後第二高分的是在幫主角辯護 :P
我相信大多數人都對生活有點疑問也有點意見
但是真的敢像主角那樣"離經叛道"的去過自己想要的生活的這種勇氣跟狂氣
我就真的很想請那些旁邊碎碎念的人閉嘴了
如果讓我去選擇說真的其實很想也沒什麼顧慮
只有一個東西 - 親情讓人很難丟下真的是很重的一個包袱
主角那樣的讓自己的父母傷心一輩子
說真的啦我個人過不了這關但也覺得他人沒立場去批評他
每個人的生活價值觀最佳解的方程式都不同
武斷的這樣去批評並沒有意義
我也可以說
也許今天只是主角運氣不好死掉了而已啊
要是她活著回歸文明的話他可能會透過這個方式解開心中的結
最後超感激他父母然後完全修補家庭感情關係啊
當然這我們永遠不知道
每個人有每個人的問題也有每個人選擇地處理方法
我相信以結果論來說方法的確有好有壞
但還是想講人生不是做數學
他是沒有標準答案的請尊重每個人處理人生的答案

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Eddy Yau said on Jan 29, 2012 | Add your feedback

un inno alla vita

Vorrei ripeterti di nuovo il consiglio che gia' ti diedi in passato, ovvero che secondo me dovresti apportare un radicale cambiamento al tuo stile di vita, cominciando con cominciare a fare cose che mai avresti pensato di fare e che mai hai osato. C'e tanta gente infelice che tuttacia non prende l'i ... (continue)

Vorrei ripeterti di nuovo il consiglio che gia' ti diedi in passato, ovvero che secondo me dovresti apportare un radicale cambiamento al tuo stile di vita, cominciando con cominciare a fare cose che mai avresti pensato di fare e che mai hai osato. C'e tanta gente infelice che tuttacia non prende l'iniziativa di cambiare la situazione perche' e' condizionata dalla sicurezza, dal conformiscmo, dal tradizionalismo, tutte cose che sembrano assicurare la pace dello spirito, ma in realta' per l'animo avventuroso di un uomo non eiste nulla di piu' devastante di un futuro certo. Il vero nucleo dello spirito vitale di una persona e' la passione per l'avventura. La gioia di vivere deriva dall'incontro con nuove esperienze e quindi non esiste giia piu' grande dell'avere un orizzonte in continuo cambiamento, del trovarsi ogni gionro sottoun sle nuovo e diverso Se vuoi avere di piu' dalla vita, Ron, devi liberarti della tua inclinazione alla sicurzza monotona e adottare uno stile piu' movimentato che al principio ti sembra folle, ma non appena ti ci sarai abituato, ne assaporerai il pieno significato e l'incrediile bellezza... non fissarti in un posto, muoviti sii nomade, conquistati ogni giorno un nuovo orizzonte.

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mostriciattolo verde said on Jan 26, 2012 about the Others edition | Add your feedback

Chris McCandless, also known as Alex Supertramp, graduated from college, and refused a new car from his parents because he didn't care about "things". This was the start of an incredible journey for him that is documented in the book, "Into the Wild".
Some of his influences include Henry Thoreau an ... (continue)

Chris McCandless, also known as Alex Supertramp, graduated from college, and refused a new car from his parents because he didn't care about "things". This was the start of an incredible journey for him that is documented in the book, "Into the Wild".
Some of his influences include Henry Thoreau and other classic writers. His parents thought he was going to continue his education at Harvard Law school, but instead he donated his entire life savings to Oxfam, to help feed starving people.
Some of my key takeaway thoughts from this book are:
-Happiness isn't only found in human interaction. God put love and happiness everywhere.
-Chris says he had more fun when he was broke
-If you want something in this world, reach out and grab it
-Things don't make you happy. Happiness is only real when shared.
Overall, I thought the book was very inspiring. It's a great look at a person who followed his dreams and didn't care what society expected from him. Unfortunately it led to his death, but I like to think that Chris aka Supertramp would think that this was the way things were meant to be, and that people might be able to take something away from his experience. I certainly learned a few things about myself through some reflection.

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Anthea said on Jun 5, 2011 about the Audio CD edition | 3 feedbacks