Chris Mccandless In Into The Wild, By Sean Penn

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 book Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer explains how Chris was an individual who didn’t have a liking for materialistic things. He was a person who was in it more for the experience and not for the materials he gained from doing things. He wanted to “have an endlessly changing horizon” as he said in his letter to Ron Franz. He thought it would be good to go out and escape the restraints of society and civilization to truly value what life was giving him and what everything else was taking away from him. Many believed that the only reason that Chris wandered off into the wilderness of Alaska was because he was tired of society holding him back and wanted to experience the greatness the world had to offer.

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 novel, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer; people think that Chris McCandless is crazy, but I think he’s just searching for himself before he can live his own life. Callarman stated that “ He had no common sense, and he had no business going into Alaska with his Romantic silliness.” Long, C. (n.d.). I disagree with this because he’s not ignorant. He also mentioned that he doesn’t want to admire him for his courage nor his noble ideas, but people should be he took a risk to try and find his own person.

In 1992, when Chris McCandless abandoned modern society and fled to Alaska to find himself and, in the long run, lose his life, Americans from all over saw his death as a tragic downfall, and his story as a relatable and moving tale of a young man simply trying to make a difference. On the other hand, others looked at his journey to be an inevitable suicide-trip, considering his lack of supplies and overall experience. However, despite the fact that he was unprepared, McCandless, because of his ideas and motivation for a better world, was justified in shunning society in order to pursue his dream life on the Alaskan frontier.

There is no question that Chris McCandless had reason for the courageous, difficult, or some may even call suicidal stunt he pulled. Throwing away your education, giving up your most precious possessions, and burning all the money in your wallet must have a purpose behind it. McCandless was the type of person who would rather give than receive and did not like having things done for him and demonstrated strong characteristics of being independent. Although, out of the thousands of reasons that could have drawn him to make this drastic decision I believe it was literary influences and his philosophical beliefs that impacted his choice the most.

For him, spending a year or two in the Alaskan wilderness was his way of doing that. In my opinion, Chris had every right to go into the Alaskan wilderness and Shaun Callarman had no business questioning Chris’ right to do so. Shaun Callarman talks about romantic silliness. “...going into Alaska with his romantic silliness” (Krakauer, 1997) At what point was Chris trying to be romantic? He was just trying to find himself and escape the life that brought him so much pain. He wasn’t on some grand quest for some romantic journey.

Another one of the reasons Chris left was to pursue a life of adventure. Chris liked the wilderness he probably thought that it was peaceful and a spiritual enlightenment just a quiet place to reflect on life and think or not think at all. Life of adventure was where he can live life differently and explore the wilderness. This adventure made McCandless think about life in a different perspective and when he was in the woods he lived more traditionally, with no gadgets, no making his life simpler. “McCandless was thrilled to be on his way north, and he was relieved as

Callarman’s argument from the book “Into the Wild” is that Chris McCandless made a lot of mistakes because he was arrogant and that he had no business going into Alaska with his Romantic silliness and he says that he was just crazy. I disagree with Callarman’s argument because I think that Chris McCandless (Alexander Supertramp) was not arrogant, I think that he just wanted to learn new things. I also disagree because I think that Chris did have a reason to go to Alaska or else he would not have done it even if it just to go because he likes nature, and I don’t think that he was crazy at the beginning but I agree that he did start to get crazy when he was stuck in the wilderness on the bus.

In April of 1992, a young man of the age of twenty-four, later determined to be Chris McCandless ' body, was discovered in an old Fairbanks bus in the Alaskan bush. Four years after his death, Jon Krakauer wrote a novel titled Into The Wild, the book traced McCandless 's journey around much of the United States, across the West side of Canada, and even down to the boarder of Mexico. Over the many years since his death, speculations have arisen about how death was brought upon him. Most believe starvation was the only reason, but with extensive research Jon Krakauer discovered another theory, that a substance in the seeds that Chris McCandless was ingesting was a contributing factor to his death. Even with this conclusion many around the world despise Chris for his being naive and unprepared when walking into the wild. While others believe he was brave for following his dreams and never letting anyone talk him out of his plans. Chris McCandless was an adventurer who was brave enough to never back down, but in the end his luck turned for the worst and was misfortunate enough to have ate the wrong type of food. McCandless was an inspiration and a lesson to people of all ages, that dreams aren 't meant to be taken lightly and even with possible risks they should be followed. Jon Krakauer 's book tells a marvelous story of a young man who left behind the outside world to do what he loved the most.

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.

The book “Into the Wild”, Describes the story of a young man we know as Chris McCandless, a man who longed for an unforgettable journey. Chris’s arrogance and fantasies soon up rose and took over, leading him to his own planned death. Chris begins to dig his grave each step he took towards his journey. Chris was perusing a dream; a dream who soon enough shattered in his eyes throughout his last seconds of life.

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

This shows that Wayne Westerberg “was both shorthanded and very busy so [Westerberg] asked McCandless to postpone his departure [but] McCandless wouldn’t even consider it.” Westerberg even offers to buy Chris a plane ticket so that Chris would be able to still make it to Alaska by the time he wanted to and still work an extra ten days. Although Chris refuses saying that it would be cheating by flying, it becomes evident that he gets extremely impatient when even the slightest thing delays him even though Chris does not have a set deadline. Chris is very intelligent and well-educated, and his passion for his Alaska trip helps prove to other people that he is just not doing it on a whim.

Throughout Chris’s adolescent years, there was something inside of him that drew him to the wilderness. A desire to leave behind his past perhaps, or just a passion that could only be satisfied through nature. As a young boy, his family would take camping trips every year. This was one of Chris’s favorite memories with his family. Walt, Chris’s father, reminisces and explains, “Chris loved those trips, the longer the better” (108). Everyone recognized his fascination with the wild. A yearly camping trip however, couldn’t fulfill his need to be in the wild. As Chris ventured into the Alaska wilderness, he discovered the happiness he was looking for his entire life. The happiness he was longing for was finally achieved.