Life is a series of questions that people struggle to answer while desperately trying to provide some value and meaning. meaning to their existence and purpose. However, how to get these answers remains a mystery. A popular misleading belief is that the answers to life's questions begin with the biggest question of all: "Who am I?" » To discover the answer to this and all other questions, people resort to help from others around them. Interacting and building relationships with others not only allows you to get to know these people, but also to discover yourself in the process. The writer Robert Thurman would agree with the notion of the crucial need for humans to be interconnected with their community and environment, conversely he would disagree with the concept of defining and labeling the self as being simply a determined identity, and he defends this argument in his text “Wisdom”. Likewise, in war veteran and author Tim O'Brien's narration "How to Tell a True War Story," he illustrates the imperative role that the bond he shared with his fellow soldiers played during the Vietnam War and in discovering new things about each person's personality. However, writer Jon Krakauer takes readers on an expedition to follow Christopher McCandless' journey into the Alaskan wilderness in his narrative selections from Into the Wild, trying to define McCandless' identity and believes that the Isolation from society can lead to self-discovery. . All three authors examine the importance that self and interdependence have in life. Although they discuss similar concepts, the three authors do not have the same views on these notions. Thurman and O'Brien share similar positions on the self and interconnected... middle of paper ...... the flow of troops during war. Although they do not share the same perspective, all three authors note the imperative role that self and interdependence play in life. The self and interconnectedness are all limitless, flexible and indefinable. All three are fundamental elements of life but possess such complexity that they cannot be understood simply from the surface; instead, they require well-developed investigation as all three authors respectfully attempt. Work Cited Krakauer, Jon. In nature. New York: Villard Books, Random House, 1996. Miller, Richard E. and Kurt Spellmeyer. The new humanities reader. 4th ed. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2012. O'Brien, Tim. “How to Tell a True War Story.” The things they carried. New York: BroadwayBooks. 1998. 67-85. Thurman, Robert. Infinite life: seven virtues for living well. New York: Riverhead Books, 2004.