one's meaning in life

Throughout a person’s journey to adulthood, or maturity, there is much that must happen. Every person completes a new chapter in their life and feels a need to either experience new things in life, or to rediscover one’s self. McCandless, in “Into the Wild,” is a college graduate and wants to remove himself from society, so he decides to travel to Alaska and live on the land alone for some time. By deciding to follow this path he is both accomplishing a great task which in its own would strengthen him physically and mentally, but he is also satisfying his lust for adventure and fulfillment.
Chris McCandless sets out hitchhiking across the Alaskan frontier making acquaintances along the way that could share their story of Chris. According to some of these stories, it seems to me that Chris was so eager to begin his adventure that he never bothered to do any research on either Alaska, nor the necessary actions that would need to be taken to simply live in such a harsh environment. His poor attempt at learning, resulted in a library book never being checked back in, and considering the short amount of time the vegetation would be edible, the book might as well have been used for fuel for his fire, along with the rest of his books. This very observation that Chris set out hastily, shows how necessary it is for individuals to find their place in the world and understand themselves. It shows how forcefully this need will push you and cause you to pursue it, and in Chris McCandless’s case it ended in disaster, but for many it can be either the most joyous experience of all, or the best learning experience, or even both.
In “The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain” this need to pursue personal growth and retribution in ones own eyes is also expressed. It talks of a poem, or something, that someone ‘breathes’ meaning they put their hearts and souls into this object, and that this object is something that they’ve worked so hard to create and form it to just the way they like. This expression of ones self in their work can never be done without a cost, yet the cost in this case is personal understanding and growth. This growth is very similar to the journeys taken like in Chris McCandless’s case.
Both the poem, and the story by Krakauer, express ways of personal learning and growth, both utilize different methods, yet they both leave a person with personal understanding and growth. And perhaps the purpose is not that of personal growth and understanding, but of something entirely different, yet these very points can be pulled out of these texts. No matter what though, people will always pursue things that both excite them, and may perhaps lead to enlightenment, so whether that is the point of these works, that’s irrelevant, because this very thing can be pulled out of many ideas and topics of life.