Non Confidential Confidence

"Chris was good at almost everything he ever tried... which made him supremely overconfident" (Krakauer 118).

Topic: Inspiration or Fool?


Chris had some sort of strange natural talent at, well, everything it would seem. He could pick up any activity quickly beyond belief. This ability led to arrogance beyond what confidence he deserves to have. But this is a special sort of arrogance, the kind you only see once in a generation; it's an arrogance deserved. If Chris McCandless didn't rightfully deserve to wear this arrogance, do you think that he would sport it? Knowing him and his philosophical views, he wouldn't.

So what's so special about that anyways?

Well!

I guess what I'm trying to say is that Chris can actually back up his overconfidence. He walks into a room like he owns the place because if you give him four months or less, he would actually own it by one method or the next. He is the model we tell children to be: "Just follow your dreams and you can do anything!" Well, Chris certainly can do (almost) everything, and if he wants to do it, it'll get done.

And that's inspiring.

Inspirational Idiot

"But for some incomprehensible reason to me you wanted nothing but to bolt for home as soon quickly as possible, right back to the same situation which you see day after day after day. I fear you will follow this same inclination in the future and thus fail to discover all the wonderful things that God has placed around us to discover" (Krakauer 57).

Topic: Inspiration or Fool?

As the age old question rears its head once again, I find myself changing my answer. I thought McCandless was just some careless vagabond with a death wish. Yet, as I read about him more, I get the strong feeling that he knew exactly what he was doing. I still may not know his purpose but I do know that he somehow accomplished what he set out to do, to an extent. It's just some underlying feeling that I get based on what I read of his actions: the way he interacts with people and the things he chooses to say are the not the words and actions of any fool. It must be on this basis of interactions that I see inspiration, because his choice of travel is far from inspiring: going grossly unprepared into the Alaskan wild is foolish beyond belief. So, it's by his casual conversations and interactions with average people, strangers or not that I am inspired.