Analysis Of Chris Mccandless In Into The Wild, By Jon Krakauer

Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, narrates the life of adventurer and free spirit Christopher McCandless, who died August 1992 in the Alaskan wilderness; however, his journey still remains relevant in today’s pop culture due to the unresolved controversy of whether he is a saintly role model or hubristic fool. Krakauer openly states that he “won’t claim to be an impartial biographer” (Author’s Note) due to the parallels he struck with McCandless, and provides a more idealistic approach to the biography. By having this biased point of view, Krakauer readily attracts many critics such as Craig Medred, who wrote the article The Beatification of Chris McCandless: From Thieving Poacher into Saint, which discredits Krakauer’s legitimacy and emphasizes McCandless’s narcissistic personality and naïve nature. He has also sparked many questions including why McCandless’s story is so significant, which writer Laura Moss tries to answer in Why Are We Still Talking about Chris McCandless?. While it is clear that McCandless’s story has affected every reader due to its many interpretations, two distinct sides form: the avid romantics and their counterpart, the pessimistic realists, which provokes the question of which argument is more valid.

Chris McCandless, the subject of Jon Krakauer's“Into The Wild,” whose off-the-grid Alaskan adventure ended in starvation is a hero and an idealist whose sense of independence and adventure inspires us to reach for our dreams. McCandless was a courageous man. He wanted to live a life that was completely different than the one his parents lead. And wanted to submerge himself in the world that we live in and be sequestered from people who take it for granted. However, most students see McCandless as a foolish vagabond whose story should be wrong and not an inspiration, arguing that too many people underrate the dangers of nature. Coming to Alaska and dying because of their ignorance.Chris McCandless followed through with his goals and never

In the beginning of the book “Into The Wild” by Krakauer, Krakauer admits that his bias opinion on McCandless will show throughout the book. This could be seen through descriptions the actions of McCandless. Krakauer portrays McCandless as noble due to his description of the decisions and encounters McCandless faces.

A famous transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau once said, “Rather than love, money, or fame, give me truth.” In Jon Krakauer’s biography Into the Wild about Chris McCandless and his journey to the west coast and up to Alaska, Krakauer investigates the different events that occurred throughout Chris’s life that caused him to reach the point of no return. He finds that Chris’s parents gave Chris many material commodities. With Chris’s significant interest in transcendentalist authors such as Henry David Thoreau and Idealism, he rejected this materialistic and conformist lifestyle forced upon him by his parents. Chris left his family and embarked on a journey out west and would eventually journey to the final destination of his entire life, Alaska. Chris McCandless was an admirable idealist, but lacked the experience necessary to survive in the wild.

In the novel, Into the wild, author Jon Krakauer follows the journey of Chris McCandless. Chris McCandless is a twenty-four year's old boy who graduated from college when he decides to leave his family to go into the wilderness. Although Chris McCandless’s journey proves fatal, he lives on through the ongoing debate whether he was ignorant or not. According to the article, “The beatification of Chris McCandless”, Medrid shares the feelings of many readers who believe McCandless was selfish, arrogant, and ignorant. However, Chris McCandless was not what people thought of.

To most people, Chris McCandless is a brave and courageous man who went into the wilderness at his own will. Jon Krakauer is one of these people. In his book called Into the Wild, Krakauer writes about the case of Chris McCandless. It has multiple findings and interviews from people and objects that Chris McCandless had. While reading his book, Krakauer shows multiple signs of supporting McCandless’s actions. His reasoning comes from the fact that McCandless reminds him of himself. Krakauer feels that he understands the reasoning behind Chris McCandless’s sudden disappearance, making him biased towards the thought Chris McCandless being a noble and inspirational person. This isn’t a bad thing, it just makes Krakauer’s opinion turn more to Chris McCandless’s side. It gives him a different point of view

Jon Krakauer wrote “Into the Wild” to share Chris McCandless’ story. In the book, Krakauer presents Chris’ journey and every detail that Chris wrote in his journal, as well as every person he encountered with throughout the journey. Krakauer traced back every step Chris took to show the world how Chris’ journey went. Although many would believe that Chris’ went on this journey as an adventure, I strongly believe that Chris McCandless was truly trying to run away from the problems he was facing at home.

An individual's identity is how one perceives and differentiates themselves from others in their society. Outside factors such as family, friends, and society can have a major impact on how one views themselves. However, identity ultimately comes down to one’s own personal beliefs. In Jon Krakauer's book Into the Wild, Krakauer investigates the life and death of Chris McCandless, a young man whose actions allow him to pursue a unique identity, but also lead to his untimely demise. In Stephen King’s short story “Survivor Type”, King envisions the affects one’s morals and values can have in grave situations, especially concerning the identity of an individual.

" Into The Wild", created by Jon Krakauer talked about how Chris McCandless was rash, " but wasn't a nutcase, he wasn't a sociopath, he wasn't an outcast." Chris wasn't none of those; he was something else. It was hard to detect what Chris really was, but truthfully he was precisley better than that. McCandless was honeslty a intelligent human being; graduated from Emory University in Atlanta with a 3.72 grade-point average. He distinguished himself to have a history and anthropolgy major.

As Krakauer states multiple times throughout the book, Chris really was an intelligent kid. He performed well in school, had a high GPA, and connected well with other students. Chris didn’t approach his expedition as someone who just wanted to test their abilities, or even as a reckless kid. From finding inspiration in his idols, he created an opportunity for himself to see the world as they did. “It is the experiences, the memories, the great triumphant joy of living to the fullest extent in which real meaning is found. God it’s great to be alive!” (37). This quote from Chris’ journal portrays the purely optimistic nature that he carried with him, after his quest began. He compares it to ‘living to the fullest extent,’ which leads me to believe that he was feeling better than ever, despite his decline towards the end of his life. Perhaps he had truly become the person he had always wanted to be, during the most dangerous part of his life. The danger however, could have been avoided with a different sense of exploration. As opposed to setting his things on fire and burying them, he could have kept them. Or perhaps, planned an escape better, communicated better. He had the opportunity to tell his parents what he was doing, and had a possible backup for the types of situations he encountered, while still getting the rush and experience of the freedom in the wild. Moreover, his intelligence would lead you to believe he would consider another way out, that he would think about his actions in more depth than he did. This is exceptionally confusing when thinking about how long he survived before the issues arrived. “McCandless didn’t conform particularly well to the bush-casualty stereotype. Although he was rash, untutored in the ways of the backcountry, and incautious to the point of foolhardiness, he wasn’t incompetent- he wouldn’t have lasted 113 days if he

Chris had good intentions when he went into the Alaskan wilderness. It was not a suicide journey, like many people believe. When Chris was talking to Gaylord Stuckey after he dropped Chris off at the Stampede Trail, Chris told Stuckey “ his intent was to spend summer alone in the bush, living off the land.”(Krakauer 159) Well Chris obviously planned the leave the bush after the summer disproving the thought that he went in suicidal. Some people still think that McCandless was suicidal because in a postcard he referenced that he could die. Although that is true he went out and did very well for himself, even killing a moose Chris just got unlucky and ate poison potato seeds. Chris even have thoughts of starting a family maybe back in North

This is one reason why he decided to leave home; he wanted to experience the life of not having anything to his name, this is also shown through out the book during his journeys, however this not the only reason why he left home. The ultimate reason why he left home was because of what his father had done. A cab driver name Stuckey whom helped McCandless reach Alaska elaborated that McCandless said that he found out that his father was living a bigamist life and that it went against Chris’s beliefs (159). This was ultimately one of the reasons why Chris left home and had no feelings towards his parents. This exhibits the hatred and no remorseful attitude McCandless had through out the book towards his parents, especially his father. However, this attitude towards his father and civilization is justified completely when he decided to leave home and take on the wilderness.

Finding one's true self-identity may be accomplished in many ways. Some people may find religion, quit their troublesome jobs, or travel the globe. In Into the Wild by John Krakauer, Chris McCandless abandoned everything he had owned to discover himself and find his identity. Even though McCandless had just graduated from Emory University and was on the right track of going to Harvard Law School, he never quite fit in with society. He destroyed all forms of personal identification to start anew.

Additionally, even though it is tragic that he died in the wilderness, it showed how committed he was to his dream and this life, because he chased it to his death. These are the ways Chris shows he is a transcendentalist through his hard work and

At this point in the story, the audience knows little about Chris McCandless, and this passage reveals a little more of his deeper personality than outer characteristics. For someone who did not know McCandless well, he would be described as a strange individual who was very reserved. Here, We not only get the opinion of Krakauer throughout the story, but also of another source who actually worked with McCandless, one of his bosses. He also described that his employees did not remember much about Chris, and that his actions were said to represent that they did not “own him”. This could be interpreted as a sign of self-indulgence, a way to communicate that he did things his own way in order to find his own path. Others viewed him as a nice kid,