Into The Wild, By Jon Krakauer

Freedom is the quality of life that all strive to have, such as choosing what to eat or what career to pursue. The Oxford Dictionary describes freedom as “the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint” (Source 1). People have an innate desire to have freedom and to act on whatever they choose. This is not an awful quality for humans to want, but it is essential to ask a question about individual freedom. Is a person pursuing their freedom and the pursuit of their dreams selfish or giving up their life purpose? Though pursuing one’s dreams is innately selfish to some degree, it does not mean using one's freedom to achieve a dream or express oneself is evil. Pursuing one's freedom is good as long as it

However, pursuing one's freedom for personal goals and gain is not insufficient because a person is only in control of their life, so what they do must benefit them, or else they would not be living as or for themselves. The book “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer shows the life of a young man named Chris McCandless who left the civilized world to go into the wilderness to live his own life and find who he was. In a letter, Chris wrote to a friend, “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. You will see things and meet people; there is much to learn from them.” (Krakauer). In this letter to his friend, Chris talks about how much he has learned about the world and himself as he left civil society behind to find himself. Through his odyssey in the wild, Chris learns what he

These writings from Chris showed that as he pursued his freedom, he learned more about himself and what he wanted. This is an essential use of his freedom because he finally learned what he wanted out of his life. However, the price Chris had to pay to learn this was, unfortunately, his death. Still, he individually knew what he wanted out of his life, even if he didn’t achieve it, and this is significant because so many people never try to find what they want out of their lives. For this reason, the use of personal freedom is a fantastic gift because, like in Chris’ situation, he learned about himself and grew as a person, which is the best use of an individual’s freedom. Throughout the recorded history of humans, there have been many accounts of people or groups using their freedom to better themselves and the people around them. One such example is Harriet Tubman. Harriet is a prime example of one who used their freedom to not only better themselves by using their freedom to do amazing things but also help others do as well, building her integrity. A documented event of Harriet’s use of freedom was when she “... led at least 70 enslaved people to freedom...”