Christopher Mccandless Paradox

Chris McCandless “had been raised in the comfortable upper-middle-class environs of Annandale, Virginia” (Krakauer 19) so growing up, McCandless lived a considerably privileged life and because of that, he never experienced hardships in terms of economics. Ironically, McCandless is a man who puts little to no importance into material items and or wealth. To some, McCandless’s decision to give all of his money away, abandon his family, and give away all of his belongings as something only a “nut” or a “kook” would do. However, growing up, McCandless grew up with the ideology that his economic privilege was “ shameful, corrupting, [and] inherently evil”(Krakauer 115) which led him to become ashamed of what he had. McCandless put strong emphasis on his belief of equality. He would always try to “make sense of the world” (Krakauer 18) and why things were the way they were and why people did the things they did. So, as a result

McCandless was trapped in a society that created an illusion of his own fake happiness while he was looking to discover himself. He possessed a desperate need to find the true meaning that only he could answer. McCandless quotes “I'm going to paraphrase Thoreau here... rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness... give me

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 was a hero to many people throughout his life and he was often considered a hero to most. But, a lot of people criticized his errors along the journey. When Chris died, his impact on society was mostly positive, and the people who he met remembered his accomplishments that he has made in their life. His passing let people remember him for what he has done to help others along the way. His mistakes and flaws added up from the first day he started this path of life. Throughout the story, Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, Chris McCandless is claimed to be a hero by many of the few he met across his journey to Alaska. However, a

Jon Krakauer, fascinated by a young man in April 1992 who hitchhiked to Alaska and lived alone in the wild for four months before his decomposed body was discovered, writes the story of Christopher McCandless, in his national bestseller: Into the Wild. McCandless was always a unique and intelligent boy who saw the world differently. Into the Wild explores all aspects of McCandless’s life in order to better understand the reason why a smart, social boy, from an upper class family would put himself in extraordinary peril by living off the land in the Alaskan Bush. McCandless represents the true tragic hero that Aristotle defined. Krakauer depicts McCandless as a tragic hero by detailing his unique and perhaps flawed views on society,

McCandless does his work in fashionable manner. He was a hard worker, very neat and kept everything orderly. Westerberg talks about McCandless interaction with people saying he was very shy and it was harder for McCandless to be around people. McCandless opens up about his family and how him and his dad are both very intense people and need everything to go their own way. This caused a lot of tension between McCandless and his dad eventually McCandless snapped.

Into the wild by Jon Krakauer is about a man named Chris McCandless who had a rough childhood which could be blamed for his foolhardy and rash behavior. Due to growing problems in the family Chris decides to ditch them by leaving society and hitchhiking to Alaska to live alone in the wilderness, from a literary point of view Jon Krakauer made it seem like Chris was a hero for following his dreams. But McCandless could have made better decisions in many of his outdoor pursuits and the way he dealt with his family. While many of the underlying principles by which he tried to lead his life are indeed admirable, I don’t believe he can be called hero due to one important reason;The distinction between whether an individual is to

This expresses how McCandless was a dreamer we all were because he abandoned everything in order to escape the problems he faced in his home. For instance, his family was verbally and physically abused by his father at a young age and was not able to do anything about it. As a result, in order to escape from the tension at home, he decided to seek a safe place away from the abuse in the wilderness. McCandless also decided to hit the road because he hated how his parents lived a very materialistic life, so when his parents tried pushing that life onto him he grew more and more distant from them. I believe McCandless was seeking for a gateway from the materialistic life and the abuse, so he went into the wild where money does not play much of a role and he wouldn’t get too attached to people he met along the

He could care less of what people thought of his actions towards his future. McCandless states that “[he’s] a hobo… and rode [the train] all the way to Oakland”(McCandless 53). Again, he listened to himself and only himself. Nothing else mattered to him other than doing what he really wanted to do and that takes a lot of courage. This tells the readers that he is very brave especially knowing that he’s not well equipped. McCandless was able to have a great life and do what he wanted to do but decided otherwise once out of school. It’s said that he “...purchased [a] yellow Datsun when he was a senior in high school”(Krakauer 21). This allows the reader to get some knowledge on the fact that he had money as well. His foolish decisions don’t mean that he was poor, like he ended up being after going to live in the

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a story about a young man named Christopher McCandless who decided to give everything in his life up and venture out to the wilderness of Alaska. He wasn't content with his life. His mission was to truly find himself so he abandoned his family and society to do so. He ended up living 112 days alone in the wilderness of Alaska until he died of starvation. Many people would say the Christopher McCandless was a hero for going against society's norms to find himself, but I believe that he was not a hero and that he was foolish. He abandoned his responsibilities, never told his family his plans of leaving to Alaska and burned his money; these are

He left behind comfort and security in favor of the unpredictability, and self reliant nature of living off the grid. McCandless embraced the transcendentalist way of life, much of which he already believed, and accepted as his own methods. McCandless lived his early life thinking minimally, and wanting to help people, carrying this over into his adventures in his twenties. He felt that wealth was not necessary to be happy, that you didn’t need fancy things to make a go of life. Transcendentalism was how McCandless tried to live his life from the beginning, but it took full force later on.

McCandless can be described as a Caterpillar breaking through the unbreakable cocoon and spreading his wings to fly. He loved the life he lived and for him it went from all negative to positive by leaving home. The reasons why McCandless left home were exceptionally justified. McCandless became tired of being around self centered rich people whom only cared about their possessions in life. He grew tired of being around people who were not connected to nature and the real world. This is evident when Billie says, “Chris started

McCandless views the world and nature around him.He is different from other people’s perspective and he does not want anything to do with the current generation.How everyone around revolved around money or thinking they need the newest thing to fit in.An example is in

I feel like this passage is important because I feel like this is a defining quality of McCandless. I also think that many people can relate to this, including myself. This may have been one of McCandless flaws. I also think this quality is part of what set him on his journey. Obviously one of the main reasons that McCandless was driven out of his house was his toxic childhood, but i believe that this also was a reason. I believe that McCandless thought to hard about the world, life, and society. I think that he kept on thinking, and the more he thought, the idea of society and conforming to it made less sense to him. As McCandless began to grow this idea began to show, and people could notice, Westerberg for example. This along with the toxic childhood he grew up in eventually pushed him out of his house and out into the wild, on his quest for true freedom.

He is very stuck up in the beginning, abandoning his beloved Datsun, just to focus on his journey to freedom, “Instead of feeling distraught over this turn of events, moreover, McCandless was