A lot of us are hung up on the fact that this guy took things from other people to maintain his way of life. Kings have done this(and worse) as well and many of them are still lauded as important historical figures. I'm not saying that this guy was completely harmless but any harm he did cause can be mitigated almost completely, it's a negligible detail in this story, it's petty, no matter how many hundreds of times he did it, it was always petty theft. The thing about this guy is he dropped out socially speaking. Not saying a word to a single soul for almost 3 decades, no one to relate to for all this time, not experiencing someones touch. This man for stretches of time experienced what it was like to live without an identity. His sense of who he felt he was had vanished for long periods of time living in the forest. The stillness he says he had discovered, the peace he says he had carved out for himself in that small patch of land is what he admitted he had missed more then anything.
That he lived in a tent in Maine and never lit a fire during brutal winters is impressive, I'd be frozen within the first year if I tried something similar and I'm a resourceful man but this is not as interesting as the fact that he abandoned humanity(socially speaking) totally without blinking an eye, and never wavered in his decision, he was resolute to die in that forest living completely on his own terms. I have to say I wish he'd have succeeded until the very end.
That he lived in a tent in Maine and never lit a fire during brutal winters is impressive, I'd be frozen within the first year if I tried something similar and I'm a resourceful man but this is not as interesting as the fact that he abandoned humanity(socially speaking) totally without blinking an eye, and never wavered in his decision, he was resolute to die in that forest living completely on his own terms. I have to say I wish he'd have succeeded until the very end.