Chris Mccandless Actions In 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.

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.

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.

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.

In the brighter spectrum of Mr. Chris McCandless, is his deep and intellectual personality, shining through on most every occasion with cynical value or an interesting opinion every now and then. In Chris’s deep scholarly thought he decides to give up many things for his own self righteousness in attemp to make himself free of any evil or distraction as well as anything that may hold him down. As a younger boy in high school he proved his good Samaritan self by spending weekends taking to the the streets, spending nights with prostitutes, the homeless, and the addicts, feeding them and experiencing a little of what they felt. As I mentioned before he gave up what he thought would ruin his dreams and soil his life, he rid his life of luxury and wealth along with long-term relationships with people. As one of the things that he had apparently given up was the desire of sex and all of it’s evils, and proclaimed that his need was much to great for something so petty. Truly I believe traveling as a child with his family engineered a mind set within Chris that made him feel as if familiarity was just a weight holding him down from the flight toward his dreams. He also thought that being lost in such a superficial and trivial society could help no one

“The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.” (Krakauer, 56) In the quote it’s showing how Chris believes joy comes from traveling and gaining new experiences, which is the exact definition of wanderlust. McCandless even says, “The core of a mans spirit comes from new experiences.” (Krakauer, 57) Chris was always trying to find new experiences that would enhance his life. He believed that he wouldn’t truly be happy until he was away from society with no restrictions. All in all Chris can easily be described as wanderlust, because the foundation of his life was the desire to

The plot line of a tragic story is one that enthralls a reader with the rise and fall of a tragic hero. After the death of Christopher McCandless in Alaska over 20 years ago, not only is there still discussion of what was the true cause of his death, but also the widespread debate of a much larger question: was McCandless a tragic hero? Some argue that Christopher McCandless is a selfish coward and ended up giving his whole life and education away due to his lack of knowledge of the wilderness, while others argue that he lived his life through pushing beyond the limits of a normal human being and seeking what is limited to most of society. In the novel Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer describes the travels of McCandless and writes about how past

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.

In the book Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer, Krakauer writes about Christopher McCandless, a young man who drops everything in his life to go travel throughout the states and end up in Alaska to find the truth to his questions. But did Chris find the truth he desperately desired? Some would say that McCandless did, other would say that he has wasted his time and was being ignorant and stupid. I agree with the author, Jon Krakauer, that Christopher McCandless was not a crazy lunatic, a sociopath, or an outcast because he had made lots of friends while traveling, but there were times when Chris was incompetent, even though he managed to stay alive for quite awhile. Christopher McCandless had a pretty normal childhood.

McCandless Essay Some ask if he is admirable and some ask if he is a victim of is own self. He lived free and did what he wanted; he lived an adventurous life and lived it traveling and living off the land. How could someone abandoned everything and disappear ? Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer is about how Chris Mccandless is not admirable and how he's stubborn and hard headed, and how the decisions he made were not smart at all. Christopher McCandless stands out.

McCandless was born in El Segundo, California in 1968. He was born to Billie and Walt McCandless, and had one sister and 6 other half siblings. After Graduating from Emory University in 1990 he disappeared of his own volition. In the following months he drifted from place to place until his death in 1992 where he died of starvation in Alaska. Jon Krakauer published an article on him in 1993 and later in 1997 published a full biographical book on Christopher called ‘Into The Wild.’ He was an intelligent and Altruistic person who excelled in academics, majored in History and Anthropology with a 3.72 GPA, and was noted from others as always being different and free spirited.

McCandless was determined to go to Alaska. He wanted to explore the wilderness. “The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new different sun.” (Krakauer 57). The earth is different everyday, and everyday there is something new to experience and/or explore. In this case, McCandless is talking about the ever changing sun. McCandless also explores the beauties of nature. Connecting what we read to the movie, we see a scene in where McCandless is looking in the distance at the mountains. He is just amazed by the creation. “... the great triumphant joy of living to the fullest extent in which real meaning is found. God it’s great to be alive! Thank you. Thank you.” (Krakauer 37). McCandless has seen the beauty that nature possess. He thanks God for everything that he has given us. McCandless understood that God does everything for a reason and he believed that there was a reason why he was in the Alaskan Wilderness. Chris had committed his life to his beliefs, and I don’t think anything would have taken him out of Alaska even if it was life or death. McCandless wanted to explore the the earth and to experience the beauties of

In the story of “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer tells how Chris McCandless is a very caring, cheerful, fearless, independent, and stubborn person in many different ways. He is mostly determined to do things on his own and he was trying to live a happy and simple life that is free from the capitalism he wanted to prove to others that he was able to make it on his own without expensive things and having money because money won’t get you far. Chris was seeking in the wilderness to first he felt that being out trying something new can bring happiness from experiencing new things. He felt that he didn't need all these new things for himself and the money he had he had donated the money, his credit cards cut them in half and social security burned

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.

It has been very perplexing reading this novel and trying to truly understand the motives one would have to have to make the decisions McCandless made. I am questioning Chris’ motives for cutting ties with his family and travelling all around the country. I think that he truly had a deep love and spiritual connection with nature. It began as a young child when Walt McCandless (Chris’ father) took Chris on many excursions in the outdoors, such as hiking in the mountains. Chris immediately fell in love with nature and all of the pleasures it had to offer. Also, Chris was motivated by his withering relationship with his family. Early in his life his parents worked tirelessly and it was difficult for Chris to spend time and build a solid relationship with them. Throughout his young life he had disagreed with his parents about many aspects of life. It was said that he