Words they Change us

Tolstoy’s and Stegner's epigraphs hold powerful meanings. To me they both boil down to becoming free. I agree that that one should strive to free themselves and live for them however I believe that a person should not cast away the world around them to do so. We need to be bound to something because being completely free is not as glorious as some might think really it would be quite lonely. McCandless probably thought that these words meant that one should free himself from all things before he can be happy, however by cutting all ties to the world he learned what all humans should learn and that is; we need some bonds in order to survive.