Adventures of Chris and Adam
If you had the choice to take upon yourself one of the two following projects, which one would you choose to attempt? Chris McCandless was a white man from Virginia that came from a wealthy family that attempted to reach Alaska by living off of the land and starting from scratch. Adam Shepard was a white man from North Carolina who attempted to see if the American Dream was still alive by starting from scratch. Both men took upon themselves an extraordinary project; yet what Adam accomplished was much more admirable than what Chris accomplished.
Each man had his own goals and purpose for taking upon himself that certain project to accomplish. The purpose of McCandless's journey was he wanted to make it to Alaska without taking anything from anyone. Chris wanted to live off the land and not take short cuts by flying places or in his words anything that was considered “cheating.” Krakauer stated, “Chris McCandless intended to invent a new life for himself, one which he would be free to wallow in unfiltered experience.”(4) Chris wanted to be a whole new person that was free to experience places which he had never experienced before. In contrast, the
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In the movie Into the Wild it shows that Chris ended up alone and dead in the woods after finishing his project. McCandless ended up leaving a big empty hole in his family that could not be filled. McCandless didn’t impact many with his death because he didn’t really prove anything to anyone but himself; he just ended up hurting his family and all those people he met throughout his journey. Krakauer states, “Starvation was suggested as the most probable cause of death”(3). Adam, on the other hand, ended up fulfilling all of the goals he had set and made it out of poverty sooner than he had originally thought it would take. He proved that with hard work and a good attitude, the American Dream is achievable and anyone can achieve