Reflections

Reflections


The story Into the wild, there are many things that older, more experienced people scowl upon. For starters, the fact that McCandless was woefully unprepared to survive in the Alaskan wilderness. Another is McCandless was a greenhorn to the area, and had, not only, a lack of supplies but also he had the lack of knowledge. These are a few of the complaints of the experienced, seasoned Alaskans. However, I am more apt to agree with Roman when he says, “Sure he screwed up, but I admire what he was trying to do… I’m sure there are plenty of other Alaskans who had a lot in common with McCandless when they first got here, too, including many of his critics… Maybe McCandless reminds them a little too much of their former selves” (NHR 306).
As I reflect on this story, I find myself time and time again agreeing with Roman. It seems that the older a person gets, the more critical of others they get. I know from personal experience, my grandfather is more critical of me now then he was when I was younger. I also believe that this is mainly because I remind him a lot of himself during his younger years. It seems to me that when you become older and a “veteran” of life, you have more time to think about all the things you did in life. When a person thinks back on all the mistakes he/she made, one can not help but to want others not to make the same mistakes in life. Because of this, a person become more critical of younger, less experienced people.
Krakauer quotes a statement by Everett Ruess’s father, “The older person does not realize the soul-flights of the adolescent” (NHR 306). I agree and disagree with this statement. While I do not believe that older people understand us “adolescents”, I do believe that they understand our wants, desires, and needs to be adventurous. They may, however, not understand our degree or extremity; but, if they think of their old days, I believe that they would understand the parallel of their lives with ours. However, I believe that there will always be this conflict between young and old.
A good example of this comes in Circular Ruins, when the first man “dreams” up another man, making the second man exactly how he (the first man) desired. Now the conflict comes when the first man realizes that he is nothing but a “dream” of a different man. This I believe can be paralleled to the earlier discussion because the old seem to have a “dream” of what they want the young to be. Yet they themselves (the old) were simply a “dream” of the previous generation and they of the generation before that, and so on. The point is that no matter who we are or who we think we are, someone, somewhere has a “dream” of who are or who we should be. This may be our parents and for them to understand us means that they must understand their parent’s dreams of them.
As stated before, my grandfather was very critical of me when I was younger. Not only was this because I reminded him of his younger self, but also I know he had a dream of who I should be and what I should do. He didn’t understand what I did a lot of times, because he didn’t imagine me doing what I did. Just as the other Alaskans couldn’t imagine what McCandless did, causing them to be critical of him. Because they wouldn’t have done it, they couldn’t dream of someone else doing it.
What it comes down to is that no matter what we, the young, do, we will always be accosted and critiqued because our parents, the old, have a “dream” of what we should do. Thus making it a never ending vicious circle, for when we grow old, we too will have a “dream” of the younger generation, and will critique their actions. Hopefully the young will continue to learn from the old, so as to not make the same mistakes.



Reference
New Humanities Reader, 2006, Miller R.E., Spellmeyer K.; Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, New York