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I'm sure you guys and gals have read Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. The book is based on the life of Christopher McCandless and his journey. Chris was a college grad that decided to travel instead of settling down. Chris traveled and spent most of his time away in the wild and had a different stand point on life. He thought that being on your own and living with the wild was something that helped define who he was and overall benefited himself. He then took it amongst himself to travel to Alaska and live on his own for 100 days. While he was there he got stuck and couldn't leave and died of starvation on his 113th day. There is still quite a lot of controversy about how he died. I really liked the book and the view that Chris had. Some people might say that he was stupid for doing what he did and that he was unprepared for what he was doing. The book is a good read either way so I would recommend this book.

Yip, I get that thing about people saying he was stupid doing what he did. I watched the movie with my parents and I had to endure "He is crazy/not normal/stupid story" comments every 5 minutes. People from previous generations are very conservative in their viewpoints and life philosophies, primarily because of their social and political structures at those times. Even where I live (South Africa) we were indoctrinated with the aphorism "werk, trou en kinders kry", which means "work, marry, get children", and if you stray from that path you are not deemed fit for normal society and frowned upon. That is why McCandless's views are so controversial, but fundamentally I tend to agree with him. Especially after I read Walden, which later inspired me to read Krakauer's book. Great story, and if I had half the courage McCandless had I would be a very happy person. 

(And if Eddie Vedder's "Society" is playing - and I get a bit too overwhelmed by commercialism and greed and all the other rotten fruits of society - who knows, I might book a ticket to Alaska and enjoy being immersed in raw Nature!)     

Count me in on that flight to Alaska, I have always wanted to go there anyway. Sometimes you should just take a break from all this madness called "Society" and just walk "into the wild".

Has it ever occurred to anyone that most of the people who make up society want to escape from society?

His impulse / repulse clouded his decisions, and without the common sense to prioritize certain things, he was more than deserving of his death.  His failure to acknowledge his weakness as an individual organism in his choice of environment, for one, was a serious oversight.

In all honesty, all he needed was a knife, but he brought stuff like a rifle and other pre-made supplies that he didn't know how to wean himself off of.  Incredibly bad foresight on his part to not acquire one of the most vital tools humans have had.  He tried to cut corners with tools that required foundations non-existent in the natural world, and paid justly the price for it.

I agree that Chris did not have the knowledge that he needed to live in the wilderness for that long and that he shouldn't have just relied on the two books he took with himself. "In all honesty, all he needed was a knife" But he did have a knife with him. How else do you think he cut up the moose and gutted/skinned all the animals he shot and killed.

He grabbed it by the lips and spent hours pulling the skin apart.