Post 4

Here is another entry for Into the Wild. Reading McCandless’ journal is awkward because he is writing in the third person. Is it typical of people to write their journals in third person? When I journal, I usually write it in letter form. It seems like McCandless would have rather lived a different life than the one that he was given. I also find it strange how he abruptly decides to stop journaling when his camera breaks down. He could have continued journaling and skimped on the photos. Words can be just as descriptive as photos, despite the saying that pictures are worth a thousand words. I also want to comment on his journal entry on page 37. The last sentence says, “Thank you.” Who could McCandless be thanking? He could be thanking GOD, but I doubt that he would be humble enough to thank GOD for his own experiences. Perhaps he was thanking his parents for conceiving him, and not aborting him as a fetus. I doubt that too, however, because of his strong hate for his parents. The hate McCandless feels for his parents is clearly conveyed in the excerpt from a letter he wrote to his sister, Carine, on page 64. You can almost feel the steam he is letting off as you read those hateful words he wrote against his parents. I find it really disturbing that he could take that anger so far as to killing himself in the Alaskan wilderness (it’s not what he intended to do, but still that is what he ended up doing). It would have been very beneficial to himself – and it would have saved so many people from a lot of sorrow -- to have just forgiven his parents and to just move on with his own life.