... life, and that held the same beliefs as him, and judging from this excerpt, that obviously caught his attention because he highlighted it and kept the book with him. In a letter to Ron Franz, a good friend of McCandless, McCandless writes his opinion of how life should be lived. He wrote, "If you want to get more out of life, Ron ... for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy." (57) While I read this letter written by Chris, I felt as though he was writing a letter to himself, telling himself what he needed to do with hi...

• Word Count: 921
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... better, it is poor judgement of Callarman to call McCandless crazy simply because he didn't understand or agree with his ideals. McCandless had a reason for everything he did. He wrote a letter to a friend of his explaining why he felt his choice to begin this journey made him happy and McCandless was even encouraging his friend to do the same. In his ... letter McCandless states, "The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there ... ...

• Word Count: 915
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... occurred in McCandless's life, but he also uses them to characterize McCandless and to add to his complexity. Early in the book, Krakauer includes a letter from McCandless to a man referred to as Ronald Franz, and in that letter, McCandless tells Franz to, "adopt a helter-skelter style of life," and that the, "very basic core of a man's living spirit is ... ...

• Word Count: 800
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Graduate

... which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure fate" (McCandless 57). In Chris' letter to Franz, he attempts to persuade him to leave his current life and live adventurously like him. Astoundingly, the eighty-one-year-old man took the brash twenty-four-year ... ...

• Word Count: 1243
• Approx Pages: 5

... . His arrival and stay was to evoke clarity, without authority and without the advancement of technology. The philosophy McCandless took was that every day should be different, a new adventure. In a letter to Ron Franz, McCandless assures Franz, "If you want to get more out of life, Ron, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security...The very basic core of man ... ...

• Word Count: 473
• Approx Pages: 2

... , and do what it is that I dream of doing, I will never have the chance again. The part of the book that really helped me to see this was in Alex's letter to Ron Franz, on page 56-58. He tells Ron that, "You are still going to live a long time, Ron, and it would be a shame if you did not take ... ...

• Word Count: 770
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School