Bravery

“People glorify all sorts of bravery except the bravery they might show on behalf of their nearest neighbors.” (Eliot)
Chris McCandless’s journey may not have been out of bravery, but there is no way to deny that it was brave. In Chris’s memoir Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, he ventures off into the wilderness to find himself in solitude; he is a modern day Henry David Thoreau. He believes that only in his solitude he will be ably to truly learn to be content with himself and the world around him. He left behind civilization, companionship, and all of the objects that were, as he considered them to be, useless and unessential. He lasts two years exploring the country only finding discontent in every place he sees. He believes that only in the vast wilderness of Alaska he will find true tranquility. He is determined and believes that he can survive the obstacles that are laid before him, but, unfortunately, he is sadly mistaken.
It is not long before he slowly dies of starvation and poisonous vegetation. As courageous as he thought he was, he was still not able to successful provide for himself off of the fruit of land. In his last hours he learns the most important lesson of his life, “HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED”(189 Krakauer). He did not need the thrill of adventure, the solitude of the wilderness, the exploration of the unknown, or the comfort of nothingness. What he needed most was everything he left behind. Not necessarily the material aspect of what he left behind, but the intangible things. He needed companionship, security, and love. He longs to see his family member’s face, to reunited with the many people that he met on his journey across the country, and the love of his nearest neighbors.
Only in death did Chris McCandless learn that loneliness is not living, but that loving is living.

Birds (Not the Alfred Hitchcock Film)

“Then, out of nowhere, a flock of birds flew by the window, extremely fast and incredibly close. Maybe twenty of them. Maybe more. But they also seemed like just one bird, because somehow they all knew exactly what to do. Mr. Black grabbed at his ear and made a bunch of weird sounds. He started crying− not out of happiness, I could tell, but not out of sadness, either”(Foer 165-168).
In literature, movies, and music birds are a common symbol for freedom. Even terrible bands like Lynyrd Skynrd use imagery of birds in the terrible song “Free Bird”. It is not hard to understand why birds are a symbol for freedom. As they sore through the sky they are untouchable. They are elegant. They are courageous. They are free. And it is not hard to understand why the flock of birds flying past the window was the first sound that Mr. Black heard in Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
Mr. Black lived a life of solitude in his lonesome apartment 6A. The doorman Stan referred to him as a ghost. He was lifeless. He fell in love with the woman he would soon marry. He left his life as a soldier to become a husband. But when his wife died he was alone with no purpose in life. But how ironic is it that the purpose he was looking for was one floor below him in 5A.
While Oskar Schell was crossing off names on his list of Blacks he came to the next name. He met Mr. Black and immediately connected with him. They were both lost and alone and they were both in need of companionship. Mr. Black spent twenty-four years in silence. He refused to hear the world around him and turned his hearing aid off. Oskar finally convinced Mr. Black to join him on his quest to discover the secret of his father’s key. Mr. Black chose to reenter the world and experience all it had to offer, including its millions of sounds. As Oskar slowly turned the volume up on Mr. Black’s hearing-aid a flock of birds flew by.
With a renewed sense of freedom Mr. Black joined Oskar to discover a new life. The city was no longer too much for this man of one hundred and three.