Chris Mccandless Journey

Krakauer admits that Chris McCandless was a rash, but he insists he "wasn't a nutcase, he wasn’t a sociopath, he wasn’t an outcast. McCandless was something else-- although precisely what is hard to say. A pilgrim, perhaps" (85). Many thought McCandless was wise and he knew what he was dong, while others disagree, stating his poor decisions contributed to his own death. In my opinion, Chris was indeed wise- he was a young man who didn’t care about labels, brands, big things, or anything materialistic. Instead, he thrived on more important concepts of life like truth and freedom. He believed he would find his true self and relieved of society once he became one with the wild.

As Chris breathed his last breath, he was finally able to find his inner happiness through the Alaskan wilderness. In chapter 18, Krakauer notes about Chris’ final photo of himself, describing Chris as, “[he] was at peace, serene as a monk gone to God,” (199). The way he was described in this picture shows that Chris has in fact found the happiness that he was looking for and was able to leave this earth in peace. Then again, in chapter 18, the last words of Chris McCandless wrote, “I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD.GOODBYE AND MAY GOD BLESS ALL,”(199). Although he was in severe pain, from starvation, he was still able to find the bright side of things. He was able to die in the one place that he had desired to be at.

In conclusion, krakauer has a bias towards chris’s life story. From chris’s life matching his own in many ways to how carine requested some of chris’s life to not be disclosed. Each bias keeps the book from telling a completely truthful depiction of chris mccandless’s

In the author's notes he put “Through most of the book, I have tried--and largely succeeded, I think to--to minimize my authorial presence. But let the reader be warned: I interrupt McCandless’s story with fragments of a narrative drawn from my own youth. I do so in the hope that my experiences will throw some oblique light on the enigma of Chris McCandless”(Krakauer 2). By telling us that he will add some stories of his own make us realize that Krakauer has some relation with McCandless and it make us think that this book is more believable. In the book when he tells us that Chris just died for a simple mistake and tries to relate it to himself by telling the story of how he started to realized that going into the wilderness will change his life he emphasizes“I would go to Alaska, ski inland from the sea across thirty miles of glacial ice, and ascend this mighty nordwand. I decide, moreover, to do it alone. ” Just like McCandless, Krakauer had a lot in common with him, they both went into the wild of Alaska, which gives a lot of experience to krakauer to talk about McCandless death. In order for Krakauer to make McCandless not a crazy kid he made some other similarities between McCandless and some other people that died, with a lot of characteristics similar to McCandless and himself. Krakauer is the ideal person to criticate

One thing he said was “But I believe we were similarly affected by the skewed relationships we had with our fathers. And I suspect we had a similar intensity, a similar heedlessness, a similar agitation of the soul.” Him and Chris had similar experiences with their harsh fathers, they also shared the same hatred of conformity and society. Krakauer really does understand McCandless better than anyone else could because of all these things. You may not believe that Chris was courageous or intellectual, but it’s hard to deny the relationship between him and Krakauer.

Furthermore, Krakauer, in the structuring of his book, presents the reader with great amounts of irony, both dramatic and situational. Fairly early in the story, we know that Chris is dead, and Krakauer uses this to an ironical advantage. By already knowing his fate and his background, the reader is able to see the irony is Chris’ death. By dying in a bus in tandem with dying only a couple of hours from civilization, Chris was not truly in the wild. Once again, Krakauer makes the reader sympathize with Chris, for he died not able to fulfill his dream and escape from society. Like in the bus, he was trapped within society, unable to escape no matter how hard he tried. His use of periodic sentences solidifies this idea. Specifically, when Krakauer travels with Chris’ parents to the place of their son’s death.

Krakauer recalls “the revelation that he was merely human” and like himself, his father had made mistakes in raising him out of love and longing for success from his son. “Two decades after the fact, I discovered that my rage was gone and had been for years” (148); two decades Chris was shorted. That time, though lengthy, had potential to heal wounds inflicted by his childhood fallout with his father. Krakauer contrasts his seemingly insignificant fallout with his father to Chris’ harsh one as a reconciliation is eventually reached. Jon implies that Chris’ isolationism causes minute insanity and uses that as a distinctive difference between the two hinting that his own sanity has contributed to his current livelihood and tolerable relationship with his father. After college and maturing, Krakauer comes to the realization that his father’s actions had been for the best and had Chris not acted so rashly by beginning a nomadic life with little belongings and personal ties, he would not have died in Alaska without contact to his family, whom he had once been close

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

“One of his last acts was to take a picture of himself, standing near the bus under the high Alaska sky, one hand holding his final note toward the camera lens, the other raised in a brave, beatific farewell. His face is horribly emaciated, almost skeletal. But if he pitied himself in those last difficult hours— because he was so young, because he was alone, because his body had betrayed him and his will had let him down—it’s not apparent from the photograph. He is smiling in the picture, and there is no mistaking the look in his eyes: Chris McCandless was at peace, serene as a monk gone to God.”

It is easy for humans to engage in activities of sexual intimacy, however Chris’s disinclination towards them developed his credibility in making important life choices because he had morals. This helps in showing that Chris is in fact a sane person. This is so because Krakauer is showing Chris can make important, (and depending on your own opinion of intimacy), and good decisions. In the interest of politics, Krakauer states, “He delighted in ridiculing the policies of the Democratic Party and was a vocal admirer of Ronald Reagan. At Emory, he went so far as to co-found a College Republican Club.

Krakauer also reveals how Chris’s death affected all the people he met. In chapter 6 Krakauer tells readers when Chris finds Ron Franz. Franz is a man that lost his wife and son in an accident and see Christopher as a grandson. Franz even goes as far as asking Chris if he would like to be his grandson. Chris did not give a solid answer and continued on his journey, telling Franz “We’ll talk about it when I get back from Alaska, Ron” (55). After finding out that Alex died in Alaska, Franz told Krakauer, “When Alex left for Alaska, I prayed. I asked God to keep his finger on the shoulder of that one; I told him that boy was special. But he let Alex die. So on December 26 when I learned what happened, I renounced the Lord. I withdrew my church membership and became an atheist. I decided I couldn’t believe in a God who would let something that terrible happen to a boy like Alex” (60).

Krakauer has the belief that Chris was a hero due to all the brave things he done, and the things that he left behind. Chris was a coward and did cowardly things that a “hero” wouldn’t naturally do. A hero brings joy, and help towards people not disappointment and mournful. “...I don’t know anymore. If Alex was here right now, I’d be tempted to chew him out good: ‘What the hell were you thinking? Not speaking to your family for all that time, treating them like dirt!...” (64) If someone was to define Chris as an hero, the definition of a hero wouldn’t match up to the actions that Chris

If you attempted to talk him out of something, he wouldn’t argue. He would just nod politely and then do exactly what he wanted” (Krakauer 182). Chris did exactly as Carine stated he would when someone tried to stop his trip to Alaska. Chris understood what the trip to Alaska would entail but decided to continue anyway. He was confident in his abilities and constantly felt the need to challenge those abilities. According to Jon Krakauer, “He had a need to test himself in ways, as he was fond of saying ‘that mattered’. He possessed grand- some would say grandiose- spiritual ambitions” (Krakauer 182). Although Chris’s ambition is surely admirable it also could be credited as his tragic flaw. Chris strived for perfection in everything he set his mind to. He refused to listen to individuals who were trying to help him when saying he was ill prepared; instead he ignored their efforts and went into the wild. Chris’s unpreparedness could later be identified as the cause of his death but in his mind, his supporters would like to believe, it did not matter. Chris died doing what he loved, living in isolation with nature being his only companion.

Chris McCandless came from a very different lifestyle compared to that of Perry Smith and the Clutters. He was obedient and listened to his parents for the most part. However, Krakauer viewed McCandless’s parents as too demanding and ultimately implies that part of his death was brought on by his parents. Chris’s relationship with his father was stressed at best and Krakauer equally “believe[s] we were similarly affected by the skewed relationships we had with our fathers. And I suspect we had similar intensity, a similar heedlessness, a similar agitation of the soul" (159). Chris was a highly opinionated and willful young man with little room for negotiation with his father sharing those same qualities. His criticism towards his parents eventually turned to outright anger, and after his father’s secret double life is revealed Chris begins viewing his father as a

124). He furthers this by describing how Chris’ parents sent a letter saying” You have completely dropped away from all who love and care about you. Whatever it is—whoever you’re with—do you think this is right?” (p. 124). According to Krakauer, Chris saw this “as meddling and referred to the letter as stupid when talked to Carine” (p. 124). At this point, Krakauer is clearly pointing out Chris’ flaws and how he seemingly didn’t enough about his family to bother contacting them for long periods of time. He builds upon this when mentioning how Chris went on trans-continental journeys through the Mojave Desert and various places multiple times without saying a word. He even goes as far as to describe how in July 1992, 2 years after Chris left Atlanta, his mother awoke one night with tears rolling down her cheeks screaming, “I don’t know how I’ll ever get over it. I wasn’t dreaming. I didn’t imagine it. I heard his voice! He was begging, ‘Mom! Help me!’” (p. 126). Krakauer could have deliberately left out such disheartening details that portrayed Chris in a negative manner, as someone who would make his mother suffer in such a way, but he included them in order to give the reader as much perspective on Chris as possible.