He died of stupidity. He went into a strange environment where he had no experience and very little knowledge of what he needed to know. He rejected advice from people who lived in that environment. He went ill-prepared for what he would encounter. And then he died. He most definitely did not "know what was up" The way the story is told, is good though, although the book was better in my opinion.
Burning $25,000 in cash could be thought of as stupid too, but that was part of the attraction. Just being completely free from all the rules and living by the seat of your pants.
The money is irrelevent, as is that he took off alone, as is the fact that he went to alaska... He made choices that killed him before he was ready to die, as is quite clear from his last note. There are many people who have went and did the same thing he did except that they survived and are still off in the wilds of alaska or a thousand other places, living solely off the land. His whole theory right from the start is more then a little wacked... "I don't want anything from society, well except this backpack and these clothes, and this stuff... but nothing else... oh but I'll use this bus that was built in society and left here by people from society on the trail made by others..." If he would have walked naked into the bush and attempted to survive soley off of natures bounty, then I would be all for saying he 'abandoned society and all it represented... but he didn't... he abandonded parts of it, and kept parts, and the worst is that when offered opportunites to have the stuff he actually needed there, he rejected them with all his power. He was a foolish child with half formed thoughts about independance running away from society.... who died before he was ready as a result of his own foolish and silly notions.
Is this what you would like to appear in your epitaph? If you die, then are we to assume you did not know what was up?
I know there's more intelligent ways of planning to live and survive in the wild. I was just pointing out that the story is more about spontineity than planned self sufficiency. It's about a young dreamer with wanderlust.
It wasn't spontaneous though, he had been planning on and talking about this for years. This is twice in a few days that I have seen people calling planned trips spontaneous. If you plan it, it isn't spontaneous. Pretty simple concept.
He'd been wanting to live off the land in Alaska for years, but it was more an idea than a plan. He just hitchhiked to the general location of where he wanted to go and took off into the woods half stumbling across the abandon bus he didn't know was going to be there.
I take it all back... he was the most inspiring guy in the world, and I hope lots of those who feel the same follow his path.
I love that movie. It's one of my favorites. I've read the book as well. It brings up a different side of the whole history, that isn't shown in the movie.
Yes! Private bathrooms! That's why I'm not going to live in the wilderness. I take 1 to 2 showers a day and still wash my hair again in the morning. Do you really think I could live without one?
We're mountaineers With hairy ears We sleep in caves and ditches. We wipe our ass With broken glass And laugh because it itches!