The quote from Jack London on page 9, is from his book White Fang. My favorite line from this excerpt is, "There was a hint in it of laughter, but of a laughter more terrible than any sadness..." this captures how mockingly beautiful the wild can be. It shows that nature is amazing and pretty, but it has a much harsher side that can take over. Chris sees this side of nature more than most people and even is attracted to it.
The excerpt from Walden, or Life in the Woods by Henry Thoreau shown on page 47, is also interesting. The best part of it is the end when Thoreau says, " It is a little star-dust caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched." It is saying that he has tasted what it is like to live beyond conformity and our ideas of happiness. He has seen what it was like to live spontaneously off of nature and he always has that feeling in him. Now he has experienced something so wonderful he is not happy with a life that fits into society today. Chris encounters this same feeling, but instead of turning around before it is too late he dies holding onto such a thing.
Theodore Roszak wrote In Search of the Miraculous which is quoted on page 70. "It may, after all, be the bad habit of creative talents to invent themselves in pathological extremes that yield remarkable insights but no durable way of life for those who cannot translate their psychic wounds into significant art or thought." This quote states that we can change the way we think and we can make ourselves close to insane in order to achieve the insight we are seeking. Yet, if there is no outlet for these thoughts it will turn into a real mental illness. this was shown with the story of Carl McCunn.
My favorite quote is probably, "A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song." from Maya Angelou. I like it because I believe it tells us to live our lives for the wonderment of living, not for someone else or even for ourselves. Chris would probably like this quote also because he likes controlling his own life and living independently.
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