Analyzing Jon Krakauer's 'Into The Wild'

Chris McCandless was a very unique individual. In Jon Krakauer’s book, Into the Wild, he tries his best to make sense of McCandless’ journey to the Alaskan wilderness. However, he never really figured out what McCandless’ purpose of the trip was. Looking at McCandless’ life throughout the book, I believe that Chris McCandless went on his journey to find happiness within his own life and did achieve it in the end.

In the beginning of the story Chris has an opening speech about when he was in high school and had to sit and listen to speakers at assemblies and thought it was a

In nature, Chris focused only on himself and survival, rather than his troubles at home, the needs of others, or the standards of society. In a way, he was forced to go into the outdoors because of these poor relationships and inner conflicts within himself. Although Chris sought nature to help him, it destroyed him. He never returned from Alaska to put into practice what he had finally learned about himself and his need for others. Nature and his plan had worked against him, since, he eventually died of starvation.

First, Chris’s arrogance and ignorance is showed in his role in society. In chapter 12, when Chris’s college dorm is described, “Bare, spartan room furnished

Chris also realizes that material things are just that and nothing else in life. Chris

“…the hypocrisy of his parents’ lifestyle, the tyranny of their conditional love. Eventually, Chris rebelled and when he finally did it was with characteristic immoderation” (64).

BP2: Chris lives by his own standards alone in Alaska, rather than face all of the needs of everyday people.

3. Krakauer argues in Chapter 14 that McCandless’s death was unplanned and was a terrible accident (134). Does the book so far support that position? Do you agree with Krakauer? Why or why not?

Chris is a charismatic young man, but takes extensive measures to ensure he does not become too close with anyone. By going out into the wild without so much as a letter to his parents,

and convince them that his death is on their hands. Not only did Chris complete what he was trying to

     During Chris’s journey he never really opens up to anyone about his family. He doesn’t really show any affection towards them and if any it would be toward his sister Carnie. He writes in a letter to her stating that he is going to divorce his parents. The last time his parents saw him was after his graduation. Chris told his parents “ I think I’m going to disappear for a while” and that is the last they ever heard of him again.

In his work “Into the Wild”, author Jon Krakauer tells the story of Chris “Alexander Supertramp” McCandless and his journey across the United States, beginning outside Atlanta, Georgia, and ultimately concluding in McCandless’ death in an abandoned bus in the wilderness near Healy, Alaska. Despite the strong criticism of many Alaskans , Krakauer argues that McCandless wasn’t, as Christian claims, “Stupid, tragic, and inconsiderate,” but instead paints a sympathetic picture of a young man with a profound moral compass seeking a higher truth. According to Alaska Park Ranger Peter Christian “Alaska is populated with people who are either running away from something or seeking themselves in America’s last frontier.” Chris McCandless was doing just that. It all

Another way is because the author wanted his novel to describe the life of Chris in a unique way without him feeling judged from the mistakes he did while on his journey in Alaska, because he’s life did end in tragedy.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a well-written non-fiction piece about a seemingly fearless man named Chris McCandless who hitchhikes his way to Alaska in order to find his inner peace. While different people have various ideas upon what makes writing good, most would agree that the basic aspects of "good writing" include having a strong voice, being straightforward, and connecting to the reader. Krakauer's unique tone and voice accomplish these main goals and are major factors in what makes this book a success.

One decision that Chris made in the movie was that he was going to be a good dad. In the movie we see him being a good dad a lot. One example of this is when Chris and his son are in a store and Chris offers to buy his son a candy bar, even though they didn't have a lot of money. Chris never wanted to scare his son, even when things got bad. When they got kicked out of their hotel room, Chris pretended that they had to hide in a cave from the dinosaurs. Chris even took his son to the beach just to get him away from everything for awhile. This decision helped chris in the long run because if he didn't have his son then it would have been a lot easier to give up.