At first as I was reading this story, I'm thinking I have to get out more and be more adventures. About three quarters of the way through I  realized why I am not that adventures, it's because I like to live. I thought this coarse was about was about survival. Chris McCandless was a survivalist but on this adventurer was to be his last.
           This story is about a young man for filling one of his life long dreams to go out into the wild and survive totally on his own. I was impressed with Chris because he was young and not afraid to go after his dreams.  He seamed like a respectful kid and well raised, even though he was estranged from his parents.  As I was saying  this story started out making me feel like I need to get off the couch,  find some adventure in my life, live a little and take a chance. His journey sounded so appealing to me,  just him all by himself to learn about nature, survival and most importantly himself.  Up until the point that Chris died I thought it sounded like a wonderful  journey. Part of me was saying that he was a young kid and he seamed to be in over his head. He didn't know enough about surviving in the wild. One book that he brought with him could not possibly answer all the questions he must of  had.
           After several people investigated his death they found out that he was poisoned by some type of food. Some felt he did not have enough knowledge of the wild life and he ate something he was not supposed to. It turns out that Chris did know his plants but the book was mistaken on a certain part of a  plant that he had eaten. The seeds on a potato plant were in fact poisonous and the book with held this information. The Doctors say that to starve to death is severely painful. At the nd when you are about to die, they say that you reach a comfortable place and you no longer feel pain and you reach a state of clarity. I think it is tragic that Chris lost his life alone, in pain and while he was trying to make his life better. One of the Doctors that looked over the area that Chris had been living in was surprised that he didn't start a fire to try and signal someone. If I would of thought of it I would of started a huge forest fire, so people would be drawn to the area. I guess Chris might have felt that a fire could have endangered other people lives. I'm sure it crossed his mind as he was slowly dying. Starting a forest fire would go against the entire reason he was on this adventure. His sister later on said, " he would never do that because he cared to much about nature, even if it would of saved his life."
             I don't feel you can say that he should not have went. I know I would not have went in fear of my life. Some might say that I haven't lived. I guess that's up to me to decide. This was something Chris wanted to do for himself and he was achieving a dream. I just can't figure out why these survivalist have to go to such extremes. To live in the wild for months off the fat of the land, is amazing and very dangerous. So many things could go wrong , you could get an illness, you could be attacked by an animal, any type of accident. You could die of a sprained ankle when you are that far away from civilization. It's way to extreme, but if it wasn't they would not want to do it. I have often wondered what it would be like to live off the land, to be a hunter and gatherer. It sounds all hunky dory but I think it would just become to difficult and I would get bored with the idea In the 112 days he was there he never came across one single person. Even though he made his home a bus that was inhabited before by other hiker's. Eighteen days after he died he was discovered by six Alaskan's.