Supertramp's Literary Heroes

From the passages that McCandless highlights and responds to in his library of “nine or ten paperbound books”, Krakauer puts together an account of what McCandless is reading and writing about while he is in the wild (162). His library makes up the heaviest weight in his backpack, from literature by authors such as “Thoreau and Tolstoy and Gogol” to “mass-market books by Michael Crichton, Robert Pirsig, and Louis L’Amour” (162). In recounting McCandless’s life, Krakauer focuses on his aesthetic dedication to certain writers; in particular, the literary heroes typically read in University English courses. Using the passages below, analyze how such authors influenced McCandless. Consider the positive and negative powers his self-education had on his own concoction of the American Dream.

No man ever followed his genius till it misled him. Though the result were bodily weakness, yet perhaps no one can say that the consequences were to be regretted, for these were a life in conformity to higher principles. If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragarance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, it is more elastic, more starry, more immortal,—that is your success. All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest reality. …The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribably as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little star-dust caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched.
Henry Davis Thoreau
Walden, or Life in the Woods
PASSAGE HIGHLIGHTED IN ONE OF THE BOOKS FOUND
WITH CHRIS MCCANDLESS’S REMIAINS
Krakauer 47

from Leo Tolstoy's "Family Happiness"
He was right in saying that certain happiness in life is to live for others…
I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one’s neighbor—such is my idea of happiness. And then, on top of all that, you for a mate, and children, perhaps—what more can the heart of a man desire?

Krakauer 169

A written response on the blog will count as extra credit