The Wild : Are Mccandless 's Actions Justified?

No individual had the same family background and early experiences in their lives. Each individual also had their own personalities. Chris McCandless was a young and successful college graduate with a job and had money. Oddly, he decided to disappear in response to his father’s misjudgment, giving away his money and overall, became homeless. McCandless could no longer

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

Chris McCandless hated the idea of materialism. He didn’t accept gifts from anyone including his parents. This is shown when his parents wanted to buy him a car and he got mad at them. He wanted to work hard for what he earned. He did not believe that possessions could give him happiness. Even on the way to the woods, he did not accept things like clothing and unnecessary items from other people. Before he left on his journey he donated most of his money to charity and burned the rest. He also threw away his I.D. and credit card.

In Into The Wild Jon Krakauer described the life of a non-conformist that traveled across North America; his name was Chris McCandless. McCandless believed in passion and how it was a must since it gave purpose and happiness to a person. One of these examples is when McCandless got rid of his whole past and started to recreate the future. He did this by giving “$25,000 to charity, abandoning his car, and burning all the cash in his wallet” (Krakauer). This showed that Chris was willing to drop everything to follow his dream and that his passion drove him in making his decisions. Chris also didn’t tell his family where he was going which shows that he left his family behind also. “ I just don’t understand why he had to take those kind of chances,’... ‘I just don’t understand at all” (Krakauer 132). This quote was Chris’s mom talking about the chances he took whether it be about going to Alaska or just leaving all together. To me it felt like his mom felt bad about his death

While Siddhartha had a fairly happy, positive upbringing (At least, from what we can tell.), McCandless had a very negative one. McCandless had two wealthy parents who were, to the outside eye, near perfect. However, this was only a façade. His parents were simply putting on a mask in front of others so as to hide their real problems. First off, Chris’s father, Walt McCandless, was not indeed faithful to Chris’s mother, Billie McCandless. He had

The biggest belief that Chris McCandless has is that trust is essential to have a relationship with someone. This idea became clear to me in chapter twelve when I saw the quote that McCandless had highlighted in his book saying, “Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. I sat at a table where rich food and wine in abundance, an obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not; and I went away hungry,” and then the author mentions that McCandless wrote the word “truth” at the top of the page (page 117). From the fact that McCandless wrote and highlighted these words means that the quote is important, and the word truth was significant to him. Therefore, I can see that McCandless agrees with this quote and values truth more than any amount of money or love. Truth is something obviously something McCandless cant live without and I think this is because of his relationship with his dad. McCandless’s father wasn’t truthful with his family in chapter twelve when the author said, “Long after falling in love with Billie, long after she gave birth to Chris, Walt continued his relationship with Marcia in secret, dividing his time between two households” (page 121). In this quote we can see that

Despite how well off Christopher McCandless seems to be with easy access to money and a high quality education, but his life wasn’t always perfect. He went through a dysfunctional family while growing up, which was possibly a key cause in why he went into the wilderness. Also he showed signs of philosophical beliefs by how he didn’t follow anything hardly of the law. McCandless was strongly against the fact of being controlled, he made that clear by stating to Gallien when he asked if he had a hunting license “Hell no, how I feed myself is none of the government’s business. Fuck their stupid rules” (Krakauer 6). This is possibly another problem that convinced him to go out on his own away from the two issues he had.

The actions of Chris McCandless has stirred a huge controversy to the general public. Similar to that of American politics, opinions of McCandless vary in a wide spectrum. There are people that herald him as a champion who follows his dream and ideals. At the same time, critics condemn his actions as reckless, moronic, and narcissistic. Although it is easy to pick a side and argue for that cause, I believe that Chris McCandless was an imperfect, complicated human being whose troubled childhood caused him to seek enlightenment through a personal pursuit of nature, simplicity, and experience in Alaska.

Mr. Chris McCandless was a man who felt he needed to escape the “world,” that he was brought up in to find his purpose. His purpose not only in his life, where he fits in with the rest of this conformist world. From what I have gathered from Chris McCandless life is. That he was a smart, Well educated man, and very ambitious for leaving to go on a self-serving quest to find himself. He could have gone on and gotten a well paying job with his college degree.

He also spurned the generosity of those who helped him throughout his journey. Furthermore, Chris abandoned his family and old friends for his own obstinate reasons. McCandless was inherently selfish for journeying to find “ultimate freedom” because of how much

“The hardest thing to find in life is happiness- money is only hard to find because it gets wasted trying to find happiness.” (cool funny quotes) Chris McCandless lives in a high class home with his sister mother and father. He graduated high school and went off to college that his parents paid for, they also tried to buy him a new car but he wouldn't take it. He was different from other kids he didn't like when money was just handed to him.

As he gave up his possession, he decided to be walked into the wild. In the wild he found a magic bus. He used the resources he had with him to survive. He also started hunting birds and rats. At the beginning he was happy. On the way to the wild he worked many places. During this time, he gets to know a few people rather closely, and everyone admires his intensity and willingness to live completely by his beliefs, but he avoids true intimacy. About two years of itinerant travel McCandless plan to go to Alaska and truly live in the wilderness, completely alone, and with very few supplies. The people he met and tells about his plan, they all warned him that he needs to be better prepared, or should wait until later in the spring, but he was

Some people would never consider leaving behind everything and everyone they care about to live in the wild. In the movie Into the Wild, a man does just that. Into the Wild is a movie where a man named, Chris McCandless (aka Alexander Supertramp) ventures out into the world to go to the Alaskan Wilderness. For two years he has been building relationships with people, goes through different jobs, while also hiding from the authorities and his family. He left behind his home, family, friends, and society to explore the wildlife. Despite Chris McCandless 's adventurous, confidence, and fearlessness, he should not have left because he was unprepared, naïve, selfish, and he could have made better choices.

In the book into the wild Chris McCandless is trying to escape reality, and be free. You can never put a price on freedom especially Chris’. In Chris’ attempt to escape reality he finds himself all over again. I agree with the author that Chris McCandless wasn’t a crazy person, a sociopath, or an outcast because he got along with many people very well but he did seem somewhat incompetent, even though he survived for a while.

The story of McCandless may leave some people with many questions, but for me, I feel like everything I learned about the man just from the story of “death of an Innocent” by Jon Krakauer makes sense. The story of Chris involved leaving unexpectedly, very random and spontaneous. 24-year-old Chris left everything behind after he graduated from Emory University and received his bachelor’s degree in history/anthropology. He gave all his money to charity and then was never to be seen by his family again. He traveled through some of the lower 48 states, and finally made his way up to Alaska. This was part of his plan to live off the land, and be just free.