Analysis Of Into The Wild, By Jon Krakauer

In the book, Into The Wild, a journalist who was known as John Krakauer tells the story of Christopher Johnson McCandless, rather known as Alex.

Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer is a biography about the life of Christopher Johnson McCandless. Christopher McCandless hitchhiked to Alaska alone in April 1992. He burned any knowns of his identity including all his money and abandoned his car. He did not prepare at all for his trek and was found dead four months after he had disappeared in a bus he was staying in. Chris McCandless constructs identity through his actions, interests, values and beliefs.

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.

The transcendentalist philosopher Henry David Thoreau once wrote, “Most men even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the facetious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them.” Thoreau advocated simplifying life and the benefits of living in isolation from society in the wilderness to “suck the marrow out of life”. In the non-fiction book titled Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, the young man Chris McCandless’ story is told. McCandless traveled to Alaska to experience the most extreme transcendentalist existence foretold by Thoreau. While in Alaska he meet his end, and many historians contemplate why he took this tremendous undertaking to

Throughout the book, Krakauer documents the intoxicating life and death of Christopher McCandless, aka Alexander Supertramp, a young hitchhiker who embarked on an Alaskan Odyssey to explore himself and the wilderness. Like many before him, McCandless thought that he could give his life meaning by pursuing his “impractical fascination with the harsh side of nature” (Krakauer 85). At a young age, Chris lost his habitude for monotonous security and thus adopted an irrational and impulsive style of life. He believed that suppressing human relationships and deserting the materialistic world would strengthen his bond with nature. Christopher once wrote to his close friend that too many people were unwilling to change their troubling life and debatable circumstances because they were “conditioned to a life of security, and conformity, and conservatism.” Following up his conclusion he stated that this type of “secure future” brought peace to their mind, but in reality it was the most damaging thing that they ccould do to the adventurous spirit, being the very basic core of an individual’s passion (Krakauer 57). Christopher McCandless with his astounding spirit, the aspiration to succeed, and the longing to make things happen was determined to be free. He desired to live by his own moral code, without anyone putting shackles on his psyche. His plans went beyond what anyone could ever

What is it that we find crazy about those who have the courage to do what we won’t? In the compelling novel “Into The Wild” by Jon Krakauer the character and intelligence of the youth in men is questioned. Through the pieced together 200 page novel we are introduced to Christopher Johnson McCandless also known as “Alex Supertramp”. A ripe 24 years of age he chose to question our reality and his meaning of life that is given to us by hitchhiking across America to the Alaskan wilderness, where after four months in the last frontier he is found dead. Krakauer throughout the novel shows that although some admire what McCandless did, others found his final journey “reckless” and “crazy”. Krakauer goes to explain this claim through interviews of those who have encountered McCandless on his adventure and through those who got to know his story.

Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, describes the adventure of Christopher McCandless, a young man that ventured into the wilderness of Alaska hoping to find himself and the meaning of life. He undergoes his dangerous journey because he was persuade by of writers like Henry D. Thoreau, who believe it is was best to get farther away from the mainstreams of life. McCandless’ wild adventure was supposed to lead him towards personal growth but instead resulted in his death caused by his unpreparedness towards the atrocity nature.

Chris McCandless traveled to Alaska in April of 1992 for isolation from society, and unfortunately died in Fairbanks Bus 142 in August of 1992. His death is not what angers readers, but his lack of preparation and arrogance about the wilderness is what proves his “reckless narcissism”. His selfishness to not abide by his parent’s wishes for college and a decent job, his unpreparedness for wilderness survival, and his manipulation and lack of empathy for others is why readers believe he is a “reckless narcissist”. However, many people see him as a “noble idealist” for leaving society and all its amenities to live out his dream of in the wild.

Multiple accounts assumed McCandless was “entering the wilderness purposely ill-prepared…” and “hardly unique…almost a collective cliché” (Krakauer 71). Krakauer refutes this claim by displaying evidence supporting his argument while also acknowledging counter claims that McCandless was rash, foolhardy, but stressing he was definitely competent (85). Krakauer compares and contrasts the journeys of Rosellini, Waterman, and McCunn to that of McCandless defending that McCandless was not incapable or oblivious to survive in Alaska. Later parallels between McCandless and Ruess demonstrate their desires to become connected to nature and strong determination.

In Jon Krakauer’s, Into The Wild, Chris’ discomfort with the world was due to him being born this way, making his case a nature rather than a nuture.

In the book Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer a passage by Henry David Thoreau, “rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth” was taken to heart by chris McCandless because he wrote “truth” above the passage and in the book chris mentions truth a little throughout his travels because he lives by the word truth, because he believes that's the way to live. Truth is one of the biggest words to live by and consider and i feel chris did a good job to tell people what he means and give them a peice of how he thinks.

In April 1992 after almost two years tramping around the Western part of the United States, Chris Johnson McCandless hitchhiked into into the Alaskan wilderness without proper equipment and never came back out alive. Jon Krakauer author of Into the Wild the biography of Chris McCandless’s stated, that Chris’s personality caused him a lot of conflict during his short life. Chris hated being told what to do, yet loved to succeed and create his own path in life. Though some would argue that McCandless’s was childish and ignorant for committing foolhardy actions, he had rather reasonable motives.

In the book “Into the Wild”, Jon Krakauer tells us the story about the life of a young man named Chris McCandless. Raised in a middle class family in Virginia, McCandless lived with his father, Walt; his mother, Billie; and his sister Carine. Chris was intelligent, athletic, extremely well rounded, and had a natural talent for anything he attempted. After graduating from Emory University with a bachelor’s degree, he tells his family that he plans to “disappear for a while”. What Chris does is he abandons his possessions, donates his entire life savings to charity, and hitch-hikes his way to Alaska to live alone in the wilderness. McCandless spent 112 days hunting animals and gathering plants for survival, however, on September 6th, 1992, his decaying body was discovered on an abandoned bus, starved to death. Although Chris made heedless decisions that subsequently drove him to his death, I admire him for his self-reliance, perseverance, and bravery.

The author’s main purpose for writing Into The Wild was to explain exactly what happened to Chris on his trail and find a motive for why Chris decided to do this. Krakauer also wanted to provide reasoning for McCandless's actions, or at least provide more detail about McCandless's personal life. Also Krakauer wanted to motivate readers to do what makes them happy by providing justification for Chris’s actions. A quote that describes this is, “Make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt." ( Page 56 ) Krakauer also explains “many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation.” (Page 57) This doesn’t mean that you should go out into the wild like Chris, unprepared. The author just wants to identify that going to Alaska isn’t a horrible idea, a person just needs to be well equipped and go along with friends because he doesn’t want nobody to go through what Chris had to go through.

Into the wild is a thought provoking book, that later adapted to film, written by Jon Krakauer in 1996; The book is based on the story of Christopher McCandless, a strong willed young man that leaves his life in the suburb after college to go to a trip to Alaska in a search for himself.