生命的深度-荒野对麦坎德利斯一类人的意义_英语论文

The Depth of Life：Meanings of the wilderness for people like McCandless in Into the Wild

摘要

这篇论文分析了一本叫《荒野生存》的非小说美国书。论文的第一部分，会谈到这本书的主题——人生的意义就是尽可能深刻地探索生命。我们无法无限制延展生命的长度，但我们可以通过努力挖掘生命的深度。本书中的麦坎德利斯家庭殷实，成绩优异，却并不快乐。于是他遁入荒野，寻找生命的意义。荒野通常被看做是荒凉之地，然而，拥挤的城市也并不能代表富足感和满足感。当人们忙于枯燥乏味的工作、身陷无聊的聚会、与他们并不爱的另一半在一起时，他们同样感到孤独。事实上，只有当人们做他们热爱的事情时他们才能感到生命的意义。论文的第二部分，会谈到荒野对几个本书中重要人物的意义，包括克里斯托弗·麦坎德利斯和他父亲，艾福利特·休斯和乔恩·克拉考尔。麦坎德利斯的父亲深深地影响了他对自然的热爱。作为一个拥有复杂矛盾性格的边缘人，麦坎德利斯不得不独处并深思，毫无疑问，荒野是恢复心境的一个完美之地。艾福利特·休斯是一个拥有短暂而充实的一生的年轻人。他跟麦坎德利斯有很多相同点；乔恩·克拉考尔是本书的作者，他讲了自己年轻时登山的经历，试图帮助人们理解荒野对像麦坎德利斯和他这样的人的意义。论文中，会穿插我自己对荒野的感受，包括我去阿拉斯加的原因以及阿拉斯加的荒野给我带来了什么。

关键字：荒野；生命的意义；自然

Abstract

This paper analyzes the American non-fiction book —Into the Wild. The first part of the paper will talk about the theme of the book—the meaning of life is to explore it as deeply as possible. We can see from the book that McCandless come from a rich family and he was always the top student through his school life. Yet neither made him happy. As a result, he entered the wilderness to seek for the meanings of life. Wilderness is often regarded as an isolated, deserted place. However, crowded city cannot represent the sense of fulfillment and gratification, either. People feel lonely too when they are occupied by odd work, stuck in boring parties, surrounded by partners who they don’t love. Actually, people find their life meaningful only when they are doing things that they like. The second part of the paper will analyze the meanings of wilderness for several significant characters in the book, including McCandless and his father, Everett Ruess, and Jon Krauer. McCandless’ father had an impact on McCandless’ love for nature. As a marginal person who had a complex and contradictory character, McCandless had to live by himself to think deeply, and without doubt, the wilderness was the perfect place for recovery. Everett Ruess is a young man who had a short life but lived truly. There are a lot of similarities between McCandless and him. Jon Krauer, the author of this book, told his own experience as a maintainer when he was young to help people to understand the meanings of wilderness for people like McCandless and him. In addition, I will talk about the meanings of wilderness for me – to make me become braver and live happily -- in this paper, including the reason why I went to Alaska and what the wilderness of Alaska has brought to me.

Key Words:  wilderness, meanings of life, nature

Contents

Introduction……………………………………………………………………...........1

Chapter One Meanings of the Wilderness for McCandless…………………………...2

1.1 The Influence of McCandless’ Father………………………………………...…...3

1.2 The Complex Character of McCandless…………………….……………….…....4

Chapter Two Meanings of the Wilderness for Everett...…………...…….……………8

Chapter Three Meanings of the Wilderness for Jon Krauer...…..……………………11

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………14

Bibliography………………………………………………………………….............14

Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………...…...16