“It is hardly unusual for a young man to be drawn to a pursuit considered reckless by his elders; engaging in risky behavior is a rite of passage in our culture no less than in most others. Danger has always held a certain allure. That, in large part, is why so many teenagers drive too fast and drink too much and take too many drugs, why it has always been so easy for nations to recruit young men to go to war. It can be argued that youthful derring-do is in fact evolutionarily adaptive, a behavior encoded in our genes. McCandless, in his fashion, merely took risk-taking to its logical extreme”(Krakauer182).
Inspiration or Fool?
This passage justifies McCandless's behavior that was labeled unique or unusual. Though he lived in a way that very few people do, the driving force behind his behavior is not unusual. This also reflects the idea that if he survived, he would of been looked at with admiration and considered to have accomplished something very impressive. Because he dies, however, many critics have seen his adventure only as arrogance and stupidity.
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