Escape

Escape
Often times throughout the course of one’s life, a person may go through various stages. One particular stage a person may go through is one in which they feel the need to “free themselves” or escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Today’s society is one where down time and personal time is seldom able to take place. People get so caught up in so many other things that they are hardly ever able to just sit down, relax and enjoy their time. Not only that, but people frequently take part in activities not because they themselves want to do so, but because society thinks they should. There are simply times in which people need to take a break from everything and just enjoy what comes to them and be free.
In Wallace Steven’s The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain, and Jon Krakauer’s account of Chris McCandless’s journey in Alaska, Into the Wild however, men take a path that is not usually taken in today’s culture. In both of these accounts, men take the time to escape, to be free and to simply live off the land. They are doing what they want to do, and not what others think they should do.
Chris McCandless was a young man who set off to Alaska to make it on his own. “He didn’t want to see a single person, no airplanes, no sign of civilization. He wanted to prove to himself that he could make it on his own, without anybody else’s help” (Krakauer 288). Many people dream of doing this, but sadly never get the opportunity to do so.
In Steven’s poem, he felt he needed a place to escape. Escape not only from society, but also from himself. Stevens realized he needed a place “to go in his own direction.” This feeling is understood by all of us. At times life gets us down. We realize that there are certain things that we need to get away from. Stevens used the mountain as his place for him to get away from everything.
All in all, it is evident that both Chris McCandless and Wallace Stevens were two very admirable people for doing what they did. To go to a place one knows nothing about and escape, simply living on there own in solitude, is something that many people wish they had the guts to do, but probably never will. Once again, there are times in life when a person gets down, and people need to merely break away from their daily routine; therefore by doing so, those two men were very honorable.