Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Chris McCandless at Kingswood Oxford

Blasphemy! To think that so many people would be going to a place like this. This is monumental waste of time. Hundreds of kids blinded by the pursuit of knowledge, an idea that they think will earn them something palpable like a diploma just by going to a high caliber school. They think that the only to find happiness in life is through some stupid degree, and that a degree will somehow "achieve" them happiness. I believe that an education should be free, and not require any form of currency. One does not need money for the pursuit of happiness, I'll show them. I'll show everyone in this god awful place.
                 What seems to stump me about this school the most however, is the senior green. Out of all the mundane buildings and simplicity of the campus, there lies just one piece of beautiful nature. A large piece of grass, the greenest grass one can ever hope to see,  dotted with trees and well groomed bushes with a few park benches, lies right in the middle of the campus. And what do they do? They restrict people from even going near it. You have to spend enough time in this hell to be a senior just to enjoy it. Whoever happens to come across this letter know this; one can learn just as much of anything in the great outdoors than another person can trapped in a dull classroom working tirelessly for hours. I think society needs a new school, nature, but for now, I continue my journey further yet into the wild.

- Alex McCandless

2 comments:

  1. Tim, I really like your paragraph especially the quote "One does not need money for the pursuit of happiness." i really feel like this is something Chris would say because of how he distanced himself from materials and chose to explore the world rather than get a job and make money. I also like when you talked about the senior green, which was humorous yet also captured the personality of Chris perfectly as Chris had a deep love of nature and disliked boundaries and rules such as only seniors can walk on the green. As a whole the paragraph was well written and I believe this is definitely something you could find in Chris's personal journal. It was a great read.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Tim,

    As Jake points out, you bring up some key aspects of Chris' personality. You do a good job showing his disdain for money and his belief that education should be free. You could go into a little more detail here. Where and how would McCandless suggest one educate himself? Also, would McCandless be even more critical of a school in 2015 than he would have back when he was in high school?

    ReplyDelete