Mccandless: An Analysis Of Burbank's Alaskan Experience

While looking into McCandless’s Alaskan experience, it is clear that he entered unprepared. It is still unclear whether McCandless should be solely looked down upon because of this mistake. Carol Burbank proposes to look at McCandless in a different perspective. She focuses on leadership and the possible leadership qualities McCandless may possess. Burbank seems to have a view that is in between the extremes. She writes “we are always both heroic and foolish, whether we succeed or fail”(Burbank 2). For Burbank, it is important to recognize that “visionary leadership would accept both foolishness and heroism as part of a profoundly human journey”(Burbank 2). Furthermore, it seems as Burbank is support of McCandless when she says “Like McCandless, if we want to follow our vision, we must go to a place we have never been before, in our own way” (Burbank 2). All in all, Burbank believes that risks are necessary to progress in the life, and that we have to be willing to look like fools to eventually become a hero. McCandless, for

Zach Schonfeld, from the Newsweek, writes , “it’s important to balance Chris’s mistakes along with his successes”(Schonfeld). This is true because we need to make we acknowledge that McCandless made several elementary mistakes throughout his journey. It is vital that those who find McCandless to be an idol of some sort realize that they should go out and discover themselves, but with the proper precautions and some sensibility. Finally, it is paramount to look at McCandless’s excursions and understand the positive lessons that can be learned from them. Risks are required for growth and McCandless is simply one who decided to take a risk in leaving behind his troubled past, for the hope of something