The latter half of Tuesday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s discussion concerned Jack London’s stories as the impetus for McCandless\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 journey. I disagree with this assertion. London may have paralleled the notion of going \u00e2\u20ac\u0153into the wild\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and the romantic ideals of nature being pure etc. However, I feel that it is Leo Tolstoy, the other author championed by Alex, which was the catalyst for his pilgrimage. The reader is easily thrown off by the emphasis put on War and Peace. Though this is Tolstoy’s most famous work (I personally have yet to muster the endurance needed to read it), other pieces by him, specifically “The Death of Ivan Illych” harbor an ethos that seems more applicable to McCandless and his journey.
\nTolstoy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ivan Illych\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is a short story about a man who is an honest and diligent worker. Illych’s life is spent in attempt to be successful and lead a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153good\u00e2\u20ac\u009d life, which he does \u00e2\u20ac\u201c he becomes a prominent judge and has a relatively happy family life. Through a series of events however, Illych begins to die. As he is dieing, he begins to examine his life and finds it to be superficial and wasteful and embarks on an introspective journey that culminates in his demise.
\nParalleling this, McCandless came from a stable family, went to Emory, graduated with honors, was destined for law school, then leaves it all behind, denounces almost all \u00e2\u20ac\u0153material\u00e2\u20ac\u009d possessions, and begins a journey that ends in his death.
\nIn the same vein though, I feel it necessary to caveat this with the fact that I see McCandless as crazy (as of now), much the same way I see Tolstoy’s outlook as disillusioned. What is crazy anyways? Two definitions given by Merriam-Webster are \u00e2\u20ac\u0153being out of the ordinary\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153being distracted by desire or excitement.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It was McCandless\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 desire to leave everything behind and fulfill a selfish goal that distracted him from an “ordinary” life.<\/p>\n
Coda \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Ironic similarities: Like Into the Wild, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Death of Ivan Illych\u00e2\u20ac\u009d also immediately begins with the main character\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death and then explains the process. Additionally, both characters are involved with the law (Alex was supposed to use the $25K for law school; Illych was a lawyer and then a judge).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The latter half of Tuesday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s discussion concerned Jack London’s stories as the impetus for McCandless\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 journey. I disagree with this assertion. London may have paralleled the notion of going \u00e2\u20ac\u0153into the wild\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and the romantic ideals of nature being pure etc. However, I feel that it is Leo Tolstoy, the other author championed by Alex, … Continue reading “London Calling?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}