Another Into the Wild Quote Analysis

It is apparent that Chris McCandless had issues with his parents, because he says that they never took him seriously and only pressured him to do things their way. I'm sure many kids can relate to this, myself included, because there just are parents out there who want the best from their kids. Though I think it's wrong when a parent tries to almost live a life through their kid by demanding so much from them. McCandless says "'I'm going to let them think that I'm 'coming around to see their side of things' and that our relationship is stabilizing. And then, once the time is right, with one abrupt, swift action I'm going to completely knock them out of my life. I'm going to divorce them as my parents once and for all and never speak to either of those idiots again as long as I live. I'll be through with them once and for all, forever' (Krakauer 64). McCandless goes as far to say that he wants to utterly cut them out his life by divorcing their family relationship. What may seem as somewhat a small issue (being pressured by his parents), must have really taken an emotional toll on McCandless. This made me wonder if he would really consider being adopted by his friend Franz, who made the offer. Franz certainly would have made an outstanding parental figure, as he does not pressure McCandless into doing anything and lets him be. McCandless' death made a major impact on him. He said that "'I prayed. I asked God to keep his finger on the shoulder of that one; I told him that boy was special. But he let Alex die. So on December 26, when I learned what happened, I renounced the Lord...I decided I couldn't believe in a God who would let something that terrible happen to a boy like Alex' (Krakauer 60)." I had no idea how attached Franz was to Alex. With this fatherly love that Franz felt towards Alex, which was so great that his faith in the Lord was dependent on it, I think Alex may have taken up his offer to get adopted as his grandson.

Is McCandless a Schizophrenic? No

            So a topic that came up during class on Friday was a theory about the possibility of Chris McCandless being a schizophrenic. I find this hard to believe because it is just far-fetched. Even if McCandless has some of the known symptoms of being a schizophrenic, we cannot just jump to the conclusion that he is one. In fact, a vast amount of people in the world have some of these symptoms, which include depression, hostility, anxiety, and the inability to form or keep relationships. This last listed symptom seems to just wipe out the possibility of Chris being a schizophrenic because the book mentions that he kept in touch with his friends. He sent postcards and wrote letters, somewhat frequently. In one of his letters to Burres he says “’greetings from Seattle! I’m a hobo now! That’s right, I’m riding the rails now. What fun, I wish I had jumped the trains earlier…I’ll be in touch (Krakauer 53).’” Most people would not have the guts to blatantly tell someone that he or she is a hobo, which is what McCandles does. He would write about anything at all to keep his friends updated on his progress into the wild. He even deliberately says that he will keep in touch. In fact, if McCandles lived in this age and had a Facebook or twitter, he probably would have kept his friends updated even more frequently. Another known sign of being a schizophrenic is dropping out of activities and life in general. Burres recalls that McCandles “’had a good time when he was around people, a real good time. At the swap meet he’d talk and talk and talk to everybody who came by. He must have met six or seven dozen people in Niland, and he was friendly with every one of them (Krakauer 44).’” In addition to being very sociable with complete strangers, McCandless would play a portable electric organ in front of a crowd. Burres says that “’Alex took it over and entertained everybody all day playing it…he and an amazing voice. He drew quite a crowd (Krakauer 45).’” This act is definitely not something that any old person would take up. Alex enjoyed being around people and used his talent to do so. I have almost no doubt that McCandless was  a perfectly fully functional and normal guy.

quote analysis of Into the WIld

“…he wrote, ‘Can this be the same Alex that set out in July, 1990? Malnutrition and the road have taken their toll on his body. Over 25 pounds lost. But his spirit is soaring (Krakauer 37).”

It seems that McCandless’s ambitious journey into the wild has not been fruitless. Chris McCandless set out for the wild in order to find his true inner self: someone who is not locked up in the safe society inside the walls of a building. He wanted to find something new, and so he set out on his journey to Alaska to live off the nothing but the wilderness. McCandless wanted to test his limits, and though his body took a toll from malnutrition, his spirit was higher than ever before. I personally would consider this a great reward in and of itself. McCandless was living his life to the fullest by seeking thrill and adventure without being so safeguarded by luxuries.

“’He always wore shoes without socks – just plain couldn’t stand to wear socks. But McDonald’s has a rule that employees have to wear appropriate footwear at all times. That means shoes and socks. Chris would comply with the rule, but as soon as his shift was over, bang! – the first thing he’d do is peel those socks off…kind of like a statement, to let us know we didn’t own him, I guess’ (Krakauer 40).”

McCandless is living a new kind of lifestyle, one that includes nothing but pure freedom without being told what to do. His old lifestyle was so heavily based upon orders and rules that he wants to make the most out of his newfound freedom. Though he keeps socks on during work, he takes them off right after as a demonstration of his free will. It may seem like a small thing, but the main idea behind it is it's symbolism. He is the master of his own life, and he does what he wants to do. McCandless has almost completely stripped himself of all attachments to the mainstream way of life, by donating or leaving behind his belongings. He even went as far as to live as a hobo for weeks, and enjoyed it. It is apparent that never before has he experienced true liberty. Some may say that the way he carries himself throughout the journey may be self-degrading (he lives as a hobo!) but I can personally see pride in what he did. He let go of the shackles of the "acceptable way to live" in order to truly live.

goals and progress

            Something that I realized the other day was that having a certain goal makes all of the work needed to achieve that goal much more bearable. A great example of this is me playing the violin and playing the guitar. I personally find that playing the guitar is just more fun while playing the violin seems to me as more work than fun. The reason could be because I am in the school orchestra and practice the violin for a grade, rather than playing to improve for my own enjoyment. If I suddenly started loving playing the violin, I am sure that I would be able to make huge improvements by devoting time for practice out of my own desire. Looking at how long I have played the violin and the progress I have made leaves much to be desired. If I had been more serious about playing the violin with the sole goal of improving for my enjoyment, then all of those years that I have played the violin would have definitely been more efficient. I just started playing the electric guitar today and I absolutely love it. I already have made goals of being able to play certain songs by around when in the future and I actually want to practice scales (the dreaded, painful things teachers make us play) in order to improve. Just today I have already learned most of the song called Sweet Home Alabama (yes, for a boy from New England, I do still enjoy some Southern Rock) and I’m satisfied with the progress I have made in just two days. I expect to be able to play harder songs in the next month or so. This makes me wonder how good I would be at playing the violin if I had put the same effort into it.

Even more thoughts on Columbine

            So last week some immature brick head decided to be a tool and write “Columbine” on the bathroom wall or something. Who even does that? Honestly this kid probably has no idea what Columbine even is, I heard he was a freshman. This was definitely one of those what the bleep moments everyone has when someone does something dumb. They were even considering taking down the book from the curriculum for future years too because of the incident. But while on the topic of the possibility of the book being removed from the curriculum, I think that it is important to weigh the pros and the cons. I feel like the book is really informative and non-censoring because it shows one of the horrible events that have happened in the past. I doubt anyone in their junior year of high school would be really disillusioned or anything of the sort because violence happens everyday, however, the book still is very freeing in that it does not sugar coat anything to make it less horrifying. Of course the con of reading the book would be that it may not be pleasant for some readers because of its violent descriptions. Though, I’m pretty sure that any high school student would be able to handle it. I feel like whether or not the book is in the school curriculum does not really matter much, because it is either we read it for the information and discuss it or we don’t. The book is a nonfiction book, and we as students usually read fiction books, so I feel like breaking away from the old way may be good. The group discussions about the book have certainly been anything but slow or boring. Also, I and a couple others have not had any previous knowledge regarding the school shooting, so I think that reading the book is very informative for us.

Additional thoughts on Columbine

            I wonder if schools have really made much of an improvement since Columbine because I really do not notice much of a difference in the ways schools work before and after the incident. Most schools, at least from the ones that I have been to, do not have metal detectors so I really wonder how we could have made an improvement if a kid walks into a school with a gun tucked into his or her pants. To compare this to another situation, airport security has definitely made an improvement, perhaps even to the point of being called paranoid, about catching bombers. In both cases, whether it is in a school or an airport, lives can possibly be in danger, so why is it that schools are not as strict as airports? Perhaps it takes into account trust toward the students. Maybe schools simply trust that their students would not go as far as to bring a gun to school, even though it has already been done. Using the internet to research how many shootings have taken place after Columbine, I found that there have been sixty three. I think that this number is just way too high, and it makes me question what exactly schools are doing about the situation. However, whatever is being done, I personally do not think schools need to be very strict about bringing weapons to school (to the extent of having students searched every day for weapons), but I feel as though schools are not doing enough to prevent possible shootings in the future. Perhaps metal detectors should be required to be installed in all school entrances as a safety precaution. But, now I wonder if having metal detectors in school will provoke dangerous students to bring weapons to school in some sort of act of rebellion.

General Thoughts on Columbine

While reading the book, I noticed a general aspect about society that I have not given much thought about before. People generally need some sort of a culprit or scapegoat to blame a disaster on to feel secure about the world. In this case, there were two seemingly normal boys who were behind a mass murder of a high school. People needed to know who was to blame, whether it was there parents or some sort of mental problems. I see that people cannot accept the idea of two completely normal and functional people carrying out such a horrible deed without reason. It seems like people do not like what is unpredictable because they want to be prepared for everything. I myself am also confused as to what triggered Eric and Dylan to do such a thing. There is much evidence that shows the possibility of Eric being a psychopath, and Dylan was simply depressed. But what confuses me is how Eric appeared to be such a normal person if he really was a psychopath. I read that psychopaths are masters of manipulating others with lies, so maybe Eric faked his personality? I also find it strange that Dylan chose to follow Eric and join in the shooting if he was depressed. He seemed to lean towards self blame and self loathing rather than blaming others, and I wonder what could have caused this sudden blame shift. Could it be related somehow to his crush? Or maybe he just gave up on trying to please others to make friends and became angry. Whatever the reason, I think Dylan did not really want to be a part of the event, and I think it was an act of blind frustration. They would both take their lives in the end, and Dylan had already been writing about committing suicide in the end. I think Dylan must have thought something along the lines of "whatever, screw it" and just went along with it.

A comparison of Korean and American food

I consider myself a big fan of food, and because I love eating so much, there really is not many kinds of food that I will not eat. Right off the top of my head, I can only think of two foods I will not eat, which are mushrooms and onions. I just can’t stand the rubbery texture of mushrooms, and do not find the taste very appealing. Onions taste bitter unless they are cooked, so I’ll only eat them if they are grilled. Now, being a Korean living in America, I got to have a taste of both cultures. Regarding food, I grew up eating Korean dishes because my mom cooks Korean food. But with all kinds of restaurants out, I got to compare the different foods. First of all, rice is a stable food for Korean dishes, and because I have become so accustomed to eating it, It sometimes bothers me when I eat some sort of food without it, particularly meat. For example, even when I go out to eat steak, I may want rice too. I guess the reason why I like rice is even it is bland, you can mix it with the flavors of other food, and get more to eat. It’s kind of like having a bottle of strong sweet tea, and pouring some water into it to sacrifice a little of it’s flavor for more tea. This may explain why I sometimes prefer quantity over quality. I would much rather eat until I am full than eat just a bit of really good food. Overall, I love food of all types of cultures, and I’ve never been much of a critic because I’m not picky. But to compare American food (which probably is more like a mix of foods from all cultures) and Korean food, I find that American food is generally more focused on bold, strong flavors with the usage of barbecue sauce and plenty of salt. Korean food is generally focused more on a variety of side-dishes to eat with the main entrée.

Culture Differences (New England and Georgia)

Since moving to Georgia, which I consider "the South," I have actually noticed many differences. The first most obvious thing that I noticed was that just about everyone in Georgia dresses very nice. People here seem to put a lot of emphasis on style and trends to express here whereas in Connecticut most people were completely fine with wearing a simple sweatshirt or hoodie and jeans. Even the adults here (not that adults cannot have style) seem to emphasize style a lot more here. I also noticed that many guys here generally have longer hair that the guys at my old school. Maybe it's another part to the style thing I mentioned earlier.

Another different cultural aspect here is what my friends call PDAs, meaning personal displays of affection. At my old school, it was guaranteed that you would see a couple kissing in the middle of the hallways each day. This drove one of my best friends crazy because he would say that they need to keep their affection out of school instead of blatantly kissing in front of everyone in the hallways. But now that I think of it, in the two months that I've been here, I have not once seen a couple kissing in the hallways, just hugging. Someone mentioned to me that our school has some religious influence, which may explain this. Though I know for sure that my best friend back in Connecticut would rather walk in Alpharetta High School's halls!

The last cultural difference that I just have to mention is something that I thought was silly, but I saw that it's in fact true. I did not expect to actually hear people say the world "y'all" with a country accent when I got here, but I've heard plenty of adults do it, even some kids.

Overall, I like it here in Georgia, but that might change once the summer heat comes around.