It is sometimes said that nothing in life that is worth.
separates those who attain their hopes and dreams from.
those who do not is that they possess a certain drive.
and determination to stop at nothing to achieve those.
dreams. Although the two individuals Chris McCandless.
and Frederick Douglass lived in different time periods,.
and grew up in totally different environments, they.
possessed the will to overcome whatever obstacles life.
presented them and achieved the goals that they set for.
themselves. Chris McCandless was determined to live an.
unconventional, nomadic lifestyle like those of his.
idols Henry David Thoreau, Boris Pasternak, and the.
Jules Verne character Captain Nemo. Growing up, he.
waited until the time was right to begin his journey.
across the country and into the wilderness. John.
Krakauer wrote: Five weeks earlier he"d loaded his.
belongings into his car and headed west without an.
itinerary. The trip was to be an odyssey in the fullest.
sense of the word, an epic journey that would change.
everything. He had spent the previous four years, as he.
saw it, preparing to fulfill an absurd and onerous duty:.
to graduate from college. At long last he was.
unencumbered, emancipated from the stifling world of his.
parents and peers, a world of abstraction and security.
and material excess, a world in which he felt grievously.
cut off from the raw throb of existence. (22) Later in.
the book we were again given a glimpse of Chris's gritty.
determination to achieve a goal that he had set for.
himself.
During his travels Chris stopped in the small dusty.
town of Tapock, Arizona. It was there that he noticed an.
old secondhand canoe which he purchased in an attempt to.
float from Lake Havasu to the Gulf of California. During.
this adventure down the Colorado River Chris traveled.
through the Colorado River Indian Reservation, the.
Cibola National Wildlife Refuge, and the Imperial.
National Wildlife Refuge, and across the border into.