Blog 13

In chapter 16 of Into the Wild, we are once again reminded just how powerful and amazing nature can be. Not only do we read of the overpowering affects of water and the way it flows freely, crushing anything in its way, through dips in the untouched land of forests and wilderness, but we also see nature’s unforgiving nature. Given the right circumstances, such as the bright sun, warming the ice and snow capping the mountains just enough to gush down the mountain’s faces, backs, and sides to overflow rivers and lakes. The way nature chooses the precise moment to send out an unsuspecting moose in the line of fire of McCandless’s rifle, and to crush McCandless’s spirits for wasting a life of an innocent moose. Reading of McCandless’s submersion into nature made me think of Adam and Eve and their life in the Garden of Eden. Remember this story from the Bible? This couple “lived off the land” just like McCandless had dreamed of doing. There were differences, though. For example, McCandless planned on leaving nature eventually and settling back into civilization, while Adam and Eve never even considered leaving the peaceful Garden. I can see one prominent reason for this difference, Adam and Eve’s entire world was in the Garden, but for McCandless his world stretched across the United States from the desserts of the western states to the beach homes of the east coast. Giving McCandless a longing to leave nature and return to intelligent companionship.