After reading Krakauer and Thoreau I learned about an alternative lifestyle that was brought to light by both of these writers. Both of these men write about a minimalist life and an act of self-belief. Through Thoreau's writings about his life in Walden and his essay "Civil Disobedience" and the story of Chris McCandless as told by Krakauer in his book Into the Wild we learn two similar but sometimes very different points of view on the subject. I would like to compare the two lifestyles and show how different McCandless's lifestyle was from Thoreau's and ultimately demonstrate that McCandless's actions were careless and ultimately led to his death in the wilds of Alaska. mentioned minimalists, it is necessary to get an idea of ​​what the term means in relation to these two men. Both of these men at some point decided to move away from the material world and live a life of self-sufficiency. But the media did it in two very different ways. A man left everything he had behind and traveled the country preparing to take his dream trip into the wilds of Alaska. The other planned a two-year experiment that would put him in a cabin he built about a mile outside of town to see if he could survive on his own. Thoreau put those two years on paper as he wrote his book Walden. Thoreau states: "When I wrote the following pages, or rather most of them, I was living alone, in the woods, a mile from every neighbor, in a house I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts , and I earned my living only by the work of my hands. I lived there two years and two months" (7). Through his writings, Thoreau documents his time at Walden Pond and informs the reality...... middle of paper ...... that the life he led was not one of nature and minimalism, but that of immaturity and not being able to deal with the social aspects of life. I think McCandless' goal was more suicidal than self-exploration. I think he knew it wouldn't come out of nature. If his life could be explained in a song, I think Jerry Garcia's words in Brokedown Palace describe McCandless's life. "I go home, I go home, by the river I will rest my bones, I will hear the river sing sweet songs, to shake my soul. Works Cited Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. New York: Anchor Books, 1996. Thoreau, Henry David. Walden and Civil Disobedience. New York: Barnes and Noble Classics, 2003. Conrad, Randall “Indexing a Classic: Walden Key 12 (December 2004): 137-40, 142. Garcia, Jerry. Ruined Palace 1970. Warner, 1970.