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How Does Mccandless Act Irrationally

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“Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear” by Bertrand Russell. Many different people try to pursue a goal but get caught up in trying to succeed that they begin to act irrationally. The main character of Into The Wild, Christopher McCandless, has an urge to be out in the wild and begins to act irrationally because he is so focused on succeeding that he ends up making irrational decisions, but despite their efforts McCandless is too caught up in his goal to see the wisdom in their warnings. In the novel, Into The Wild, by Jon Krakauer, Jim Gallien and Wayne Westerberg use their influence over McCandless to urge him to think rationally and prepare for his upcoming …show more content…

McCandless first met Westerberg at a bar called the Cabaret and they had a great time talking to each other. After McCandless met Westerberg, he ended up working for Westerberg grain elevator company: “Before McCandless and Westerberg went their separate ways, Westerberg told the young man to look him up in Carthage if he ever needed a job.” (Krakauer 17) Westerberg is important to McCandless because Westerberg is always there for McCandless and they both always keep in touch with each other. McCandless always had a job with Westerberg and Westerberg only wants the best for McCandless. McCandless isn’t looking for a job or anything or that sort, he is looking for a simply and pure life style, but Westerberg doesn’t want McCandless to not have money or not have a healthy life. So all Westerberg wants to do is give McCandless an easy way back into the real way of life. McCandless and his father have written notes back and forth between each other. Westerberg wants to see and help mend the relationship between McCandless and his father: “Westerberg’s letter conjecture, as it turned out, was a fairly astute analysis of the relationship between Chris and Walt McCandless.” (Krakauer 178) `Westerberg wants to analyze what is wrong with the relationship between McCandless and his father. McCandless is arrogant and stubborn and his father is the same way, so there arrogance and egos clash and they have never chose to try and figure out the problem and they have just been living life without communicating to each other. Wayne Westerberg and Jim Gallien are two key people in Chris McCandless’ life that affect him in a positive way and that have guided him to try to make his life more

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