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Adam Shepard Analysis

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Christopher McCandless and Adam Shepard are two men who went out on a journey with completely different mind sets. McCandless seeks out to live a life full of adventure and freedom where Shepard’s goal is to prove that the American dream is attainable. Both men started out with almost nothing and did what they needed to in order to make it through each day. Between the two, McCandless’s journey was more admirable and left a larger impact on himself and others.
McCandless came from a wealthy background and had loving parents who gave him everything he needed. He was always a good student and even graduated from college but still wasn’t pleased with the life he had been living. One day, McCandless decided to leave everything behind and go out …show more content…

Many people believe that Shepard set out to pursue the American Dream to show that anyone can do anything they put their mind to. Along the way, Shepard met many new people and made life long friendshps. Along his journey, he started out with $25, went through multiple jobs, and even lived a couple different places along the year. Adam Shepard was willing to make a courageous act by making himself homeless with few supplies only to prove a point to the …show more content…

Both men were praised by their courage, their motive, and their impact. Along each of their journys they met various people with a variety of personalities. However, among the two, they were both not afraid to reach out and talk to people. As for McCandless, he lived life on the road at one point. Chris ended up ditching his car in Arizona and stripped it of its license plates and took off walking on his own. Along his walk he found a man named Wayne Westerburg in South Dakota and immediately began working for his grain elevator company. Chris McCandless ended up changing his name to Alex in fear someone would recoginize him and send him home. Fortunatley, Wayne Westerburg allowed Alex to live with him while he worked which was great considering Alex had nowhere to go. When Chris reached Alaska, he had ended up burning all of his money he had previously earned working for Wayne. McCandless has a mind set to take close to no supplies and live in the Alaskian wilderness on his own without any plan.
Adam Shepard had a similar, but yet a very different story than Chris McCandless. Shepard decided to choose a random city and see if he could make it starting with close to nothing with him. In the beginning he had no plan or anywhere to go, until he ran into a man who showed him to a nice shelter close by that he could stay at until he figured out his plan. Along his way, he met many

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590 Words | 3 Pages

However, after graduating Emory he donated all $24,000 to charity and later stated to his parents “I think I’m going to disappear for a while” (Krakauer 21). Perhaps McCandless’s purpose for this was to once and for all leave behind his parents materialistic values and create values of his own.

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880 Words | 4 Pages

Although some might argue that McCandless should have notified his parents that he was going to take this trip, however, if he would’ve told his family they would have gone out of their way to bring him back home. Furthermore Mccandless did tell his parents that he was going on this trip and didn’t find the need to tell them where he was going minute by minute. He was an adult and understood what the consequences were. Ever since Mccandless was a kid he was isolated, he felt that he didn’t belong in the world he lived in.

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679 Words | 3 Pages

McCandless’s dream was to go into the Alaskan bush and survive away from society for a while. He did this by meeting new people and hitchhiking all the way to Alaska. Along their way there were a couple of people that told him that he shouldn’t do it. One in particular was Jim Gallien, the last one to give him a ride. When he picked him up and learned what McCandless’s plan was.

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909 Words | 4 Pages

After being told many times that he would not be able to survive in the Alaskan wilderness, Chris McCandless had finally proved everyone wrong. He established his bearing in the woods and was successfully making it through the days. At last, he was on the

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610 Words | 3 Pages

Introduction Adam Shepard was a man with a plan. Wanting to prove that the american dream is possible for anyone he set out on a quest to start from the lowest class and work his way up. Through his journey he works ruthless man hours with only a fraction of income to make a new life and prove that the American dream was possible for anyone. On the other hand, Chris McCandless was a man with one goal, to prove that he was self reliant. Issues in his own family and belief that society was wrong, he disappeared without a word or letter to his family, and set out to live off the land.

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630 Words | 3 Pages

Christopher McCandless was a reckless, disregard kid that did what he wanted to do before he died. McCandless had everything, but had nothing. What I mean by that is that he

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765 Words | 4 Pages

In the beginning, McCandless starts his adventure by cutting himself off from all the human connections he had. He severs all ties from his family, including his sister which whom he was previously very close to. He burns his social security card, changes his name, and decides to travel across the country. Throughout his journey, Christopher often accounts for his parent’s wrongdoings for the reasons why he wanted to run away to Alaska. He subsists with a minimalist lifestyle and is disappointed in his parents’ behaviors and their materialism.

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959 Words | 4 Pages

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a biography that follows Chris McCandless and his journey through the wilderness while finding himself along the way. Chris McCandless died in the August of 1992 after a four month journey through places like Mexico and Alaska. Krakauer investigates his actions and analyzes his identity after his death, trying to find meaning within his seemingly unnecessary expedition. Chris McCandless constructs his personal identity as a man who wanted to be challenged and inspired by his actions and interests with people he met on the road, and his beliefs and values as a stubborn person. Chris McCandless’s actions are unusual in many ways; for one, he graduates college with honors, but instead of pursuing a career,

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1376 Words | 6 Pages

He had the courage to give up every bit of money he had by getting “A pathetic little stack of ones and fives and twenties- and put a match on it”( Krakauer 29). No normal person would undergo this process but McCandless did which shows the courage he has in trusting the wilderness. Not only did he give up his possessions but he did infact have the courage to take on a new name he had given himself. “No longer would he answer to Chris McCandless; he was now Alexander Supertramp, master of his own destiny”( Krakauer 23).

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1125 Words | 5 Pages

Chris McCandless abandoned the modern world and chose the wild because he believed that he could improve himself through living in the wild, and found the true happiness of the life. McCandless abandoned his wealthy family because of his complicated relationship with his father, and he was ashamed with his father’s adultery. Therefore, McCandless believed that human relationship was not the only thing that forms happiness, instead a man’s connection with the nature brings joy as well. He also believed the habitual lifestyle was not what people were meant to do, and people shouldn't have more possessions than what they need. For this reason, McCandless traveled with little effects.

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674 Words | 3 Pages

Because he is not prepared, McCandless dies in a bus he finds. Chris had every intention of coming back to civilization, but sadly eats something poisonous and is unable to get it out of his system. Prior to eating the poisonous food, Chris tries to cross the river that he had easily traveled through in the spring. Since it is now winter, he is unable to do so and is forced to retreat back to the bus. Though the book focuses on McCandless, it tells brief stories of other men who have gone into nature and passed away as well.

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646 Words | 3 Pages

I agree with the author that Chris McCandless wasn’t crazy for going out into the wild. He wasn’t a loner; he chose to be on his own. But Chris could easily make friends. He had the right to travel. All he was trying to do was get away from the corrupt world.

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915 Words | 4 Pages

The Alaskan Bush is one of the hardest places to survive without any assistance, supplies, skills, and little food. Jon Krakauer explains in his biography, Into The Wild, how Christopher McCandless ventured into the Alaskan Bush and ultimately perished due to lack of preparation and hubris. McCandless was an intelligent young man who made a few mistakes but overall Krakauer believed that McCandless was not an ignorant adrenalin junkie who had no respect for the land. Krakauer chose to write this biography because he too had the strong desire to discover and explore as he also ventured into the Alaskan Bush when he was a young man, but he survived unlike McCandless. Krakauer’s argument was convincing because he gives credible evidence that McCandless was not foolish like many critics say he was.

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783 Words | 4 Pages

“If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” ―Maya Angelou. Jon Krakauer’s true story titled Into the Wild is about a man who decides to throw away his old life and escape the rules of conventional society. Twenty-two-year-old Chris McCandless came from a well-to-do family in Virginia and, without warning, abandons everything. He changes his name, loses contact with his family, gives away his car and all his money, and begins a two-year long journey hitchhiking to Alaska where he eventually dies of starvation.

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529 Words | 3 Pages

It is also obvious that the disdain he holds for his family specifically his father is a driving force in his rejection of the traditional American dream. Though McCandless rejected human contact by leading a solitary life on the road and in the

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