13. Chris took Thoreau's piece of work, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, as the "gospel" because he wanted to live out the ways of Thoreau in a sense. Chris studied Thoreau throughout college, and developed an admiration for him. He was inspired to the live the ways of Thoreau. "Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?" Thoreau talks about laws being unjust, and that if you think they unjust then you do not have to follow them. He basically says that a good government is no government. "Ignoring posted warnings that off-road driving is strictly forbidden, McCandles steered the Datsun off the pavement where it crossed a broad, sandy wash." In Chris' endeavors, he follows Thoreau's way of thinking by completely disobeying the signs that tell him he is prohibited from driving in that area. The element seen in On the Duty of Civil Disobedience is moral enthusiasm.
14. Krakauer believed that Chris burning his money would do Thoreau proud because Thoreau did not believe in government and money has everything to do with government. Without the government, money would have no value, and nothing could be bought with it. Thoreau also states that the government is like a prison to man. This could reference that a person cannot buy certain material things because they do not have the money, but Chris burning his money would suggest that he did not want any material items, also saying that he thought nothing other than nature was important. And finally Thoreau states in his writing that to live with money, you can not truely live comfortably.
15. The definition of tramp according to the english dictionary as a noun and verb is : 1. to walk long and far; hike. 4. to make ( a journey ) or traverse ( a place ), on foot labriously or wearily. 7. A person who travels on foot, usually with no permanent home, living by begging or doing casual work. I would say after looking at the definition, this name almost perfectly matches Chris, since he is on a journey, he has no home and he is traveling constantly to explore nature.
16. Krakauer is able to tell us about the events that happened during Chris' travels because Chris kept a journal-snapshot album that he later left with Wayne Westerberg.
17. In order to prepare himself for his Alaskan "odyssey" throughout Chapter 4, Chris documented his travels yet far by writing about his personal experiences and taking pictures. He traveled around Mexico and Southwest America. He gained food by sea, and also had already been carrying rice, and last, but not least, he sent any letter necessary before journeying out for good.
18. In this chapter, we learn that Chris' parents haven't heard from him for 2 years. They are greatly worried about him since he never told them where he was going or when he was coming back. They called the police to report him missing and an investigator found out that he had donated a large sum of money to the organization OXFAM. His parents mentioned that his actions were out of character and they could not understand why he did any of the things he did.
19.
1.July 6th, 1990: Chris arrived at Lake Mead and violated the warning signs that said not to drive in that area. He lost his car because his engine flooded.
2.August 10th, 1990: Chris received a ticket because he was not supposed to be hitch hiking. Because he had not real adress it was forwarded to his parent adress.
3.October, 1990: Chris' yellow Datsun was found. His parents could not understand why he would abandon the car when he loved it so much and saved up for it with his own money. The car was later used for drug busts.
4. October 28th, 1990: Chris caught a ride with a trucker up to Needle, California. In Arizona he bought a canoe to cross the border into Mexico.
5. December 2nd, 1990: He reached a dam and Mexican border, he had no identification so he was worried that they would not let him in. He was able to sneak into mexico.
6. December 14th, 1990: set up camp on the beach shore and stayed there for 10 days.
7. January 18th, 1991: Chris was caught by immigration authorities trying to sneak back into the U.S.
8. Febuary 24th. 1991: It had been 7 months since Chris abandoned his Datsun.
20. Chris' journal writing style was a bit peculiar, he wrote in third person as if telling someone elses story. His writing was also very simple, straight to the point, and he did not really opinionate topics in his journal.
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