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

In 1990 at the age of 22, Chris McCandless started his journey to travel the country and live off the land alone. He survived well until he hitchhiked to Alaska in 1992. Chris thought that if he could make it there, he could make it anywhere. Four months after going off the grid in the Alaskan wilderness, his decomposed body was discovered by a party of hunters. The nonfiction novel, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, is his story. It has many important themes that define the life of Chris McCandless. A couple themes, for example, are having the feeling of ultimate freedom and seeking happiness through a personal challenge.

He knew that money did not buy happiness and with that perspective, he decided to donate twenty-four thousand dollars to charity. He felt entangled in society and its social norms. He felt like people were holding him back. Chris McCandless felt a desire to venture out of the states as Alexander Supertramp, which was his way of starting a new lifestyle and identity.

​In the novel Into The Wild, written by Jon Krakauer, Chris McCandless departs on a dangerous journey in order to fulfill his dreams. Leaving his past behind, McCandless travels across the country and eventually ends his journey in Alaska. McCandless exhibits bravery and kindness by performing jeopardous tasks and building friendships along the way.

The gripping tale of a young man who leaves all that he has and goes to live amidst the natural world, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer showcases the two years Christopher McCandless had spent journeying throughout the United States before his unfortunate death. After graduating from Emory University in 1990, McCandless disconnected with all of his past relations and abandoned the majority of his possessions. McCandless’ decisions either seem extremely unwise or extremely courageous. He had a comfortable life with few worries yet he still chose to toss it all away and venture into unknown territories. What many wonder is why he would do such an irrational thing. Maybe, McCandless’ was simply trying to run away from his perception of reality.

Many individuals decide to live their life in solitary; though, only a few choose to live in the wild. The book, Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer vividly paints the adventurous trek Chris McCandless went on. From the friends he made, to the hardships he went through, McCandless is portrayed as a friendly, sociable person despite the fact that he was a vagabond. Other than McCandless, there are even more individuals that have taken the risks to live in the wilderness such as, Jon Krakauer and Everett Ruess. All three of them had both similarities and differences between their own qualities as a person and their journey.

Into the Wild is a book about a young man named Chris McCandless and his decision to go off and live in the wild. He decided to walk deep into the Alaskan wilderness and abandon all of his possessions and family. This book is the authors, Jon Krakauer, version of Chris McCandless’ story put together through interviewing and speaking with people who knew Chris as well as by using letters Chris wrote to his loved ones.

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

Into the Wild, written by John Krakauer tells of a young man named Chris McCandless who 1deserted his college degree and all his worldly possessions in favor of a primitive transient life in the wilderness. Krakauer first told the story of Chris in an article in Outside Magazine, but went on to write a thorough book, which encompasses his life in the hopes to explain what caused him to venture off alone into the wild. McCandless’ story soon became a national phenomenon, and had many people questioning why a “young man from a well-to-do East Coast family [would] hitchhike to Alaska” (Krakauer i). Chris comes from an affluent household and has parents that strived to create a desirable life for him and his sister. As Chris grows up, he

     While Chris traveled the country he stopped in different towns and tried to work for some extra traveling cash. He came across a town in South Dakota called Carthage. He worked for a man by the name of Wayne Westerburg. Chris went by his new name Alex and Westerburg comes to find out, Alex’s real name is Chris McCandless. Westerburg says, “He never explained why he changed his name…From the things he said, you could tell that something wasn’t right between him and his family…” By Westerburg stating this it is safe to say that other people can see the difficult relationship Chris has with his family.

Life is about considering others and their feelings, but there are people who only think about themselves, sometimes on purpose sometimes inherently. In the book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer the main protagonist Chris McCandless was inherently selfish in his journey into Alaska.

A quote from William Bolitho states, “Adventure must start with running away from home”. Into the WIld is a true account of an individual who seeks the natural land of Earth to develop a better life for himself. The author, Jon Krakauer, publishes the series of events that lead to the death of a young nomad, Christopher McCandless. The mysterious death of the runaway intellect was investigated by Jon Krakauer, an editor who retraced McCandless’s steps and interviewed everyone that had an interaction with McCandless or his alias, Alexander Supertramp. McCandless left everything behind, including his wealthy and bright future, to start a new life as a nomadic hitchhiker. He intended to begin a life of religious philosophy, connecting with nature, to connect with himself through optimism, self-reliance and nonconformity, a life of transcendentalism. As he traveled around the Western United States, Christopher McCandless lived an optimistic life which allowed him to overlook the dangers and hardships of his journey detached from society.

How can a person escape the pressure of everyday life? In a busy society like the one we live in today, it’s almost impossible to find a serene place where all the worries of the world disappear. Chris McCandless was the main focus in the book “ Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer. Shaun Callarman stated in his argument, “ I think that Chris McCandless was bright and ignorant at the same time. He had no common sense, and he had no business going into Alaska with his Romantic silliness. He made a lot of mistakes based on arrogance. I don’t admire him at all for his courage nor his noble ideas. Really, I think he was just plain crazy.” I completely disagree with Callarman’s argument I think Chris McCandless knew what he was doing; He had a purpose of taking a fatal journey in order to find himself. That’s why Chris McCandless left his prosperous life behind because wealth was nothing to him.

Jon Krakauer in his book, Into The Wild, narrates the story of Chris McCandless. A young man who decides to abandon his lavish lifestyle to live like a character in a story written by Jack London, an author who wrote stories about living in the wild. In his attempt to live this way, trials of the lifestyle seem to take a toll on McCandless’s mental state. People speculate he might have been mentally ill or insane, however his family and the people he met say he was perfectly fine. Chris McCandless was sane but was obstinate in his beliefs and his ability to a fault.

Many people would wonder why someone would go into the wild to escape society. Society contains everything a person could ever want: property, friends, and family. However, for Chris McCandless, the subject of Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, it isn’t enough. Chris McCandless is a free-willed person who loves exploration. On his adventures, he discovers his family’s dark secret that had been kept from him and soon leaves his family because of it. He goes off to explore the continent as he meets new people, overcomes life-threatening challenges, and take on the challenge of finding himself. While society has many problems, such as work, school, and family problems, life on the road allows for people to evade these problems; therefore, people should look to life on the road as a way to distance themselves from society.

The places we visit throughout our lives can sometimes leave a bigger imprint on us than anything else. The novel, Into The Wild, by Jon Krakauer, displays a man, named Chris McCandless, who selfishly goes into the Alaskan Interior alone. The places he visits and the way he connects with the people and places around him before and during the journey help exemplify who he is.