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

As Chris breathed his last breath, he was finally able to find his inner happiness through the Alaskan wilderness. In chapter 18, Krakauer notes about Chris’ final photo of himself, describing Chris as, “[he] was at peace, serene as a monk gone to God,” (199). The way he was described in this picture shows that Chris has in fact found the happiness that he was looking for and was able to leave this earth in peace. Then again, in chapter 18, the last words of Chris McCandless wrote, “I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD.GOODBYE AND MAY GOD BLESS ALL,”(199). Although he was in severe pain, from starvation, he was still able to find the bright side of things. He was able to die in the one place that he had desired to be at.

“Their fraudulent marriage and our father's denial of his other son was, for Chris, a murder of every day's truth. He felt his whole life turn, like a river suddenly reversing the direction of its flow, suddenly running uphill. These revelations struck at the core of Chris' sense of identity. They made his entire childhood seem like fiction.” page 103 The way chris found his life to be nothing but fiction made it hard for him to want ot stay around with his family and to do things a normal person

Lastly, Chris Mccandless got to fulfill his dream, live his own life, and now he even got to find his inner self, find out who he truly is. Chris was the kind of person that lived dangerously unlike most people, he was different “It is hardly unusual for a young man to be drawn to a pursuit considered reckless by his elders...Danger has always held a certain allure. McCandless, in his fashion, merely took risk-taking to its logical extreme” (Krakauer, 182). Chris’s true self-was one that was riskful and daring until he could finish the task. Furthermore, he was different from others and throughout his journey, others could see that. In the end that was the kind of person Chris Mccandless was, and this is the person he became after fulfilling his dream and living his own life. In contrast, others did

A majority of the book’s first half is spent as Krakauer follows the steps that McCandless took on his journey from around the Southwestern United States all the way through the Yukon and into Alaska. Krakauer interviews the people Chris spent time and lived with through all the years leaving those who knew him to describe what the boy they knew as Alex was like. Although nearly all those who knew him have to say was positive things, Krakauer didn’t cherry pick it to be that way he included all people were able to give him both good and bad. People such as Ronald Franz who saw him in incredibly positive light and at the same those such as Lori Zarza who just thought he was kind of a bum. As

The story of Chris McCandless has become a pop culture phenomenon. Many are fascinated by his desire to abandon his family and society and “walk into the wild” (Krakauer 69). Newscasts, magazine articles, movies, and books have tried to define what motivated him to give up everything for his Alaskan odyssey; however, the answers died with McCandless. People make assumptions about him without knowing his entire story. McCandless chose to do the unconventional, making people think he was either foolish or brave and determined, but ultimately he was selfish for doing what he did.

One method Krakauer uses is characterization. He uses this technique to draw parallels to himself and the main character. The author convinces the reader just how similar he and Chris are for example, “As a youth, I am told, I was willful, self-absorbed, intermittently reckless, moody. I disappointed my father in the usual ways. Like McCandless, figures of male authority aroused in me a confusing medley of corked fury and hunger to please” (Krakauer, 134). This quote directly describes how similar Chris and Krakauer are. The author’s goal in writing this story was to tell Chris’s saga and give life to a truly eccentric man. He succeeds by describing how both his and McCandless’s journey had a huge impact on their personality and feelings towards society. During much of his trip, Chris avoided close relationships with people and had very little interaction with other human beings. As the reader learns more about the character and his life, we learn that he matured a great deal on his sojourn. Towards the end of his journey, he realizes, “happiness is only real when shared”. (McCandless, 189) By adding this quote, the reader feels sympathy for Chris because he is in such poor condition. At this point in the novel, the reader feels connected to the main character and his exuberant personality. Krakauer

He underestimates the terrain and climate, and, “…came into the country with insufficient provisions, and he lacked certain pieces of equipment deemed essential by many Alaskans…” (180 Krakauer). Chris lacked the necessities, so it made his survival rate drop. Information is key in the wilderness, which, “not only did McCandless die because he was stupid, one Alaskan correspondent observed, but ‘the scope of his self-styled adventure was so small as to a ring pathetic-squatting in a wrecked bus a few miles out of Healy, potting jays and squirrels, mistaking a caribou for a moose (pretty hard to do)…only one word for the guy: incompetent’” (177 Krakauer). Chris lacked the knowledge needed to survive the Alaskan frontier, which dropped his survival rate.

(41) Though he possessed natural talent in many areas such as business, music, and sports, Chris had “little patience for learning the finer points” of any activity. This lack of patience applied to Chris’ survival skills as well. Before his Alaska adventure, Chris McCandless had spent the last two years after graduation traveling around and taking temporary jobs. On of his trips, Chris decided to take a canoe trip from America down into the Gulf of California and almost drowned when a storm came up.” (5) For nearly a month, McCandless subsisted on nothing but five pounds of rice and what marine life he could pull from the sea, an experience that would later convince him he could survive on similarly meager rations in the Alaska bush.” (36) Chris naively believed that the experience in Mexico and his travels in South Dakota and West Coast had taught him the “full repertoire of crucial skills”

Chris McCandless is a person of great strength of mind that is not well used for he became arrogant in his life and stayed stubbornly away from new knowledge that could have helped him. While chris may have ended his life's story with his odyssey he is still one of the few people to actually follow their dreams all the way to their ends even if it meant

When writing in this book, Krakauer appeals to ethos by including several interviews with all the people that knew Chris. In chapter 2, Krakauer is interviewing Wayne Westerberg in Carthage, South Dakota. Westerberg was the first person Chris came into contact to when he left on his journey. After finding about Chris’s death, Westerberg told

Krakauer recalls “the revelation that he was merely human” and like himself, his father had made mistakes in raising him out of love and longing for success from his son. “Two decades after the fact, I discovered that my rage was gone and had been for years” (148); two decades Chris was shorted. That time, though lengthy, had potential to heal wounds inflicted by his childhood fallout with his father. Krakauer contrasts his seemingly insignificant fallout with his father to Chris’ harsh one as a reconciliation is eventually reached. Jon implies that Chris’ isolationism causes minute insanity and uses that as a distinctive difference between the two hinting that his own sanity has contributed to his current livelihood and tolerable relationship with his father. After college and maturing, Krakauer comes to the realization that his father’s actions had been for the best and had Chris not acted so rashly by beginning a nomadic life with little belongings and personal ties, he would not have died in Alaska without contact to his family, whom he had once been close

Krakauer’s interview with Walt McCandless reveals that Chris’ disappearance into the wilderness had a negative effect on his family. Walt expresses his grief when he asks the rhetorical question “How is it… that a kid with so much compassion could cause his parents so much pain?” (104). Chris was portrayed by Krakauer as a caring person, and his decision to leave society was in part spurred by how selfish and greedy people appeared to be. When he abandoned his friends and family without any hint as to where he was going or why, he caused his parents great anguish to fulfill his own quest for purpose. It’s ironic that he displayed the very characteristic that he was supposedly trying to escape from. This question Walt poses is used by Krakauer to criticize Chris’ deeply selfish actions by showing the reader his parents’ point of view of his odyssey.

The author captured pathos in the story by demonstrating Chris frustration and his stubborn attitude. For example, “You don’t need to worry about me. I have a college education. I am not destitute. I’m living like this by choice” (52). Chris wrote this to Ron Franz in a letter he believed that he could survive the harsh conditions in Alaska. Since he believed in being far away from civilization him chosen to get no help from anyone. He wrote this letter to help Ron Franz understand that nature is all around us we cannot walk away from it. They both grew a very close bond between each other in a very short amount of time. Ron Franz was an old man who previously lost his wife and children due to that he grew a very fatherly affection towards Chris. Chris taught him to believe in God and to be go out to the world and think in an optimistic way. Chris was on the hunt to Alaska and when someone offered to help him and tried to make him realize that, it was a stupid choice he would just argue and stay quiet. He chosen to go out to Alaska on his own nobody forced him to. This was his way of departing and having a break from tradition. When Chris McCandless decided to have a complete break from tradition, he was acting like a true Transcendentalist these characteristics are shown throughout the book.

Although Chris McCandless’ controlling and toxic family environment was a major motive for his escape, his deep-seated internal battle was simply an irresistible impulse for discovery and liberty. Chris’ journey shows a new level of freedom; what true independence holds. He set out into nature alone without support of family or friends, searching for a path unlike those of most, and running from a barred cage of conventional living. Unsatisfied and somewhat angry with himself and his life of abundance in money, opportunity, and security, his preceding experiences and determined character lead him to an inevitable flee into no-mans land. Throughout the novel, Krakauer wants the reader to understand that there is more to Chris than his habit of criticising authority and defying society’s pressures. He needed more from himself, and more from life. He wasn’t an ordinary man, therefore could not live with an ordinary life. Krakauer demonstrates this by creating a complex persona for Chris that draws you in from the beginning.

     Chris McCandless to me was a very intelligent but stubborn man. He didn’t care about how his family felt. All along his quest to the stampede trail Chris was kind to strangers and others but neglected the fact that his family back home worried about him. In the end Chris became at one with nature but realized that his surroundings (meaning family