Think Piece

October 4, 2012
This essay for me is an improvement to the past one I wrote because now I try to prove each quotation with evidence from my topic. In this essay you will find my favorite topic, which is morally ambiguity of a character. For me the book Into The Wild made a huge impact in my way of thinking and writing.
I still struggle with basic writing components, like grammar and run onsentences, but I am trying to improve those too. I hope in this essay I wont have many errors as I did in the last one.
The funny thing about this essay is that I first thought the subject was about ambitious characters and wrote an entire essay about it, and then realized the term was morally ambiguous character, so I had to start over and change my ideas again.
I hope you enjoy this essay asmuch as I did, although it still needs improvement.








Maria Monica Martinez
British Literature
Ms. Lora Head
October 3, 2012

Christopher McCandles, a Morally Ambiguous Character.
There are many ways to describe a morally ambiguous character, but in the novel Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer the character of Christopher McCandless; a young man who changes his ideas, thoughts,traditions, and even his name to start a new life into the wilderness of Alaska, leaving every part of his old life behind him.
A morally ambiguous person is someone who lacks morals or changes their morals to suit their needs. This definition has a negative connotation. Immediately we think of maybe a shady businessman or a politician who is involved in illegal activities. This is not the casethough, in this essay I explain the attitudes Christopher McCandless had and changed to fit into another society for good, this change lead him to become a new person and learned to appreciate life from another perspective.
McCandless’ Idealism leads him to walk into the wilderness of Alaska after 2 years of wild journey throughout United States and Mexico. McCandless’ idealism of a perfect journeylead him to give up every thing he had; a great major in Emory University, great financial income from his parents, an old but very loved yellow Datsun, and a diary containing mainly Jack London’s quotes. When Chris decided to commit to a trip that will eventually will lead him to his death, he left all of the precious things he had behind, except the Datsun (he eventually sells it). His ideasof leaving the horrible society he lived in were so strong that he even changes his name to Alexander Supertramp. “I'm going to paraphrase Thoreau here... rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness... give me truth” (Krakauer 78). Rather than money or love he wanted truth, he wanted to find that in other places, because somehow where he was before those things he looked fornever appeared. Christopher was completely sure that in his trip he would find truth. He changed his whole life just to fit into a different environment and ultimately reach his dream.
When Chris left home without any kind of notification he packed some stuff he might have needed like rice, beans, and water and took off. As he started to stop in places to sleep his attitude towards people wascompletely different that when he was home. “I will miss you too, but you are wrong if you think that the joy of life comes principally from the joy of human relationships. God's place is all around us, it is in everything and in anything we can experience. People just need to change the way they look at things” (Krakauer 112). Chris writes this to a very close friend, Ron Franz. We can see thatChris did not believe in relationships nor being attached to someone for a long time. His beliefs changed as soon as he left home. How could someone so nice as him could change too much just to fit into a different society?
While many people who read Christopher’s story thought he was arrogant, selfish and an attention seeker, I would not agree with all these thoughts but what I can say is that...