Into The Wild & Accidental Asian

Jon Krakauer was a contributing editor for Outside magazine when he came across the story of Christopher McCandless, a white college graduate from an upper-middle class family who abandoned his family, friends, and material possessions to take up a life in the wilderness ala the philosophies of writers like Jack Kerouac, Henry David Thoreau, and Leo Tolstoy. McCandless gave $25,000 in charity to a famine relief organization, Oxfam, abandoned his vehicle, and left behind family and friends to immerse himself in the wilderness as a survivalist. With a bag of rice, borrowed work boots, a rifle, and some film, McCandless rechristened himself Alex Supertramp and took off on his adventure from the Mojave desert to the Alaska bush. One man who dropped him off thought he was drunk on adventure a

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music to winning prizes for his skills at science and editing the school newspaper, in order for him to blend into the mainly white student body. In so doing, he admits that he probably came off as just one more Asian ôoverachiever,ö labeled as an un-athletic, science nerd (Liu, p. 158). When he discusses the label of over-achiever, Liu questions ôOver what? Over whose expectations? What unseen ceilings?ö (Liu, p. 158). Unlike the story of McCandless, Liu does not abandon or reject society in order to find meaning and define identity as much as he tries to figure out how to rise above his own race without abandoning his heritage. We are also provided with more in depth detail about LiuÆs family than McCandlessÆ, including the struggles of his Chinese parents as they tried to assimilate into mainstream American society. Along the way, Liu recounts his struggles to remove himself from being defined by race and ethnicity. He maintains that the moment one feels like they are blending in, someone asks them a question like ôWhere are you really from?ö, underscoring oneÆs foreignness. He longs for ethnicity to be something that comes without cost, remains neutral, and allows for fluidity. Liu hopes to be himself without paying
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1965
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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