Animals In Captivity In Jon Krakauer's Into The Wild

The Native Americans were the first to do many things before the arrival of the white man. One of which was thinking through nature. They believed that the grandmother, Mother Earth, was capable of providing all the answers needed in life. And all you had to do to find them, was to open your eyes and look around. There is an old Winnebago saying that goes like this, “Of all the plants that cover the earth and lie like a fringe of hair upon the body of our grandmother, try to obtain knowledge that you may be strengthened in life”. Years later a movement would arise in the newfound settlers of the land that paralleled those beliefs, transcendentalism. Henry David Thoreau for the commonwealth's wilderness to experience this himself. As did Christopher McCandless, albeit with a far more tragic finale. Both found their own answers to the age old question. But it is up to the readers of their findings to decide what the real answer is.

Animals in captivity have been a staple of human entertainment for many years. However the question of if it is ethical comes up quite often. Is it wrong for people to force animals into captivity from the wild, and effectively prolong their life? Well the same can be applied to our lives. Have the many new technologies enhanced lives, or limited it? It was this question that Chris McCandless asked himself before embarking on his many adventures, whose final story is illustrated by Jon Krakauer in Into The Wild. Chris had left his life in civilization to appreciate what nature could offer him, and he found just that. “one hand holding his final note toward the camera lens, the other raised in a brave, beatific farewell. He is smiling in the photo, and there is no mistaking the look in his eyes: Chris McCandless was at peace, serene as a monk gone to God.” (10, Death of an Innocent). Death was not necessary to find enlightenment however, Thoreau did such and returned to civilization. Thoreau was also aware of the unneeded fabrications of