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Into The Wild & Accidental Asian

Despite being vastly different in subject and scope, both Eric LiuÆs The Accidental Asian and Jon KrakauerÆs Into The Wild are quite similar in theme. For though LiuÆs work focuses on the assimilation experiences of a second-generation Asian American and KrakauerÆs focuses on the wilderness experiences of an upper-middle class White American, both at heart are an exploration of the protagonistÆs search for meaning and identity. While LiuÆs work is autobiography and KrakauerÆs is a detective-like search to piece together the story of Christopher McCandless, both in effect depict the quest for identity and meaning of Liu and McCandless.

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 and another was concerned that the supplies he had with him were completely inadequate for such a journey, ôGallien was concerned, Alex admitted that the only food in his pack was a ten-pound bag of rice. His gear seemed exceedingly minimal for the harsh conditions of the interioràAlexÆs cheap leather hiking boots were neither waterproof nor well insulated,ö (Krakauer, p. 5). Four months after his journey began, McCandless was discovered by a hunter in an abandoned bus, dead of starvation and weighin...

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Into The Wild & Accidental Asian. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 07:10, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1710882.html