Beginning of Essay
Beautiful Blueberries Christopher McCandless' last journal entry before dying of starvation in the Alaska bush was simply the words "Beautiful Blueberries". Over the previous two years he bought a secondhand canoe on impulse and paddled to Mexico. Then he lived on ....

Middle of Essay
.... Some people blamed Krakauer, in the magazine article that preceded the book, for glorifying "a foolish, pointless death". But the beauty of Krakauer's writing is that he doesn't glorify Chris McCandless' life or even try to hide his personal weaknesses. Instead, that which becomes evident is a vivid portrait of McCandless' journeys and an examination of why people are attracted to high-risk activities. Krakauer begins the book with Chris McCandless hiking into the Alaskan wilderness to his ensuing death. He does not return to this scene until the next to last chapter, effectively forcing the reader to see McCandless as more than an unprepared misfit w ....