Christopher McCandless, the protagonist of the novel and film Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer, is not your average guy. Driven by his minimalist ideals and hate for society, he challenged the status quo and embarked on a journey that eventually lead to his unforeseen demise. A tragic hero, defined by esteemed writer, Arthur Miller, is a literary character who makes an error of judgment or has a fatal flaw that, combined with fate and external forces, brings on tragedy. Christopher McCandless fulfills the role of Miller’s tragic hero due to the fact that his tragic flaw of minimalism and aversion towards society had lead him to his death. In the beginning, McCandless starts his adventure by cutting himself off from all the human connections he had. He severs all ties from his family, including his sister which whom he was previously very close to. He burns his social security card, changes his name, and decides to travel across the country. Throughout his journey, Christopher often accounts for his parent’s wrongdoings for the reasons why he wanted to run away to Alaska. He subsists with a minimalist lifestyle and is disappointed in his parents’ behaviors and their materialism. In a letter penned to Wayne Westerberg, McCandless writes, “My days were more exciting when I was penniless” (Krakauer 33). He gets a thrill out of not knowing what will come his way each day. Being “penniless” furthers the sense of uncertainty. He even argues that, “Nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future” (Krakauer 40). In a way, everyday is a new adventure for Chris. This is why not only did he …show more content…
As investigator Ken Sleight stated, “That’s what is great about him. He tried. Not many do” (Krakauer 67). He lived out his dreams and in the end, his journey is what killed him, forever making him a tragic
Chris McCandless was a young, determined man whose goal was to escape society’s values that he believed deprived humanity of it’s true happiness. In the book Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer he describes how people label McCandless as ruthless and careless for not knowing the basics of surviving in Alaska and for abandoning his family. However, McCandless was an educated, intelligent man. He wanted to live in peace in order fulfill his life with happiness he thought was correct. McCandless saw many flaws in society.
McCandless came from an upper middle class family. His father had a good job at NASA that allowed the family to move to the nation's capital of Washington D.C when he was a teenager. He had a big family consisting of one full sister and 6 step siblings so it was a mystery to his friends why he would drop his college education from Emory University, donate twenty four thousands dollars of “his college fund to OXFAM” and proceed to burn all the cash he in order to move off the grid for the rest of his life (Krakauer 31). After burning his money, he ditches his car and travels the Mojave Desert on foot with a few guns, a bag of rice and a few smaller miscellaneous items that all can fit in his backpack. Chris’s ability to take risks is allowed him to “invent an utterly new life for himself” in the wilderness away from his family (Krakauer 23).
A trait simply described as the overestimation of oneself can be a quintessential element in understanding a character’s downfall. People such as Chris McCandless, Oedipus and Tiger Woods are key examples when trying to relate, understand, and analyze what we know today as “Hubris”. The connections that can be made between each of these characters describe the very nature of how a hero will ultimately meet their bane as a result of being blinded by their own flaws. The death of Chris McCandless was an extremely controversial subject that involved many different people. The justification of his death can be argued in a way .
Mccandless sense of self confidence while trying to find his identity helped him to progress in life, but was also his greatest downfall; Into the Wild demonstrates self confidence as not an unacceptable trait to have, but the significance of the negative or positive effects it can possess. Confidence played a big role in Mccandless life, so much that he created relationships with his family and other people that caused him to go on his adventures. Throughout this book Mccandless expresses his hate towards his parents. When he was old enough to realize that his dad had cheated on his mom this particular aspect changed him.
Krakauer’s purpose throughout the story is to get to his readers, and tell the story about a young man that had it all but shows us that money wasn’t everything. Chris McCandless went to one of the best schools he and his family were living a good life but that wasn’t what Chris wanted anymore. I think what the author really wanted us to focus on is that money can’t buy your happiness. Chris didn’t want to be there anymore he didn’t want to be living that lifestyle. Therefore he gave up everything he had and donated most of his savings money to charity and went off into the wild.
The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. 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”? Chris McCandless is portrayed to be determined, free-spirited
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”- Henry David Thoreau. Transcendentalism is an American philosophy that revolves around self-reliance and independence, commonly in nature, a Transcendentalist wants to find the true meaning in life. I believe that Chris McCandless was a Transcendentalist because he was able to leave his whole life behind and take on a minimalist lifestyle while having a strong relationship with god. However, I believe that I am not a Transcendentalist, but simply an adventurer.
Krakauer completes gaps in Chris’ story; but loses objectivity as he intertwines Chris’ experiences and emotions with his own. Though Krakauer’s details about Chris provide insight, his emotional involvement in Chris’ life becomes an
Into The Wild portrays a man who went on a fatal unforgettable journey through the alaska wilderness. Chris McCandless was a man with great courage and the ability to live on his own made him more of a hero going on his fatal journey. Many would say he was foolish or not thinking right, but that is not the case. The case here is simply a man with courage wanting to fulfill is beliefs through his journey. One may ask what is courage.
When on his dangerous climb, Krakauer is truly convinced that this experience will change his life. Krakauer creates a narrative parallel between himself and Chris. Throughout the book, Krakauer has kept to a journalist point of view. In this chapter, he slightly abandons that perspective and is more up front with his own personal experiences. Because of his sharing of his own into the wild experience, the reader can grow more sympathy towards McCandless and the actions that he
Anyone can have a story in their life and can turn it into a book. Jon Krakauer wrote Into the Wild on what happened to Christopher McCandless and turned his story into a novel. Jon Krakauer´s structure his novel to let the reader have their own opinions on Christopher McCandless by stating the book is on his bias viewpoint, putting it in non-chronological order, and wrote about his own background life story, which is all important to strengthen Krakauer 's motive of writing his book. Into the Wild, focuses on the young individual named Christopher McCandless who hitchhiked to Alaska. Along the way, in his journey, he met new people and traveled in many places.
What really drove Chris McCandless into the wild? I believe the top three of the countless reasons that drove McCandless into the wild was the emotional damage from his parents, rebellion of the youth & risk taking tendencies, and his hubris and detestation against authority and/or someone telling him what to do. Some may believe that Chris McCandless went into the wild because of his literary heroes Leo Tolstoy, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau , and Jack London but the real reason he left everything was because of those reasons. In this essay I will elaborate on why I believe those are the reasons that drove McCandless into the wild.
“If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” ―Maya Angelou. Jon Krakauer’s true story titled Into the Wild is about a man who decides to throw away his old life and escape the rules of conventional society. Twenty-two-year-old Chris McCandless came from a well-to-do family in Virginia and, without warning, abandons everything. He changes his name, loses contact with his family, gives away his car and all his money, and begins a two-year long journey hitchhiking to Alaska where he eventually dies of starvation.
Doing everything flawless with no agitation and finessing the trip to Alaska to fall short to a poisonous plant. The only thing that McCandless could have done to survive would probably be not crossing the river because that was the main complication that got him stuck. To conclude, I would agree with Shaun Callarman at the end because there was plenty of evidence on how inadequate Christopher McCandless’s decisions were and how unpredictable his situation was. There was no other way this journey could have ended for McCandless except if he just stayed home from the beginning. Overall, he was amateurish and incompetent person that could not accomplish his dream, but did inspire endless people to follow their dreams and achieve nature tranquility.
When McCandless graduated from college, he found the possibility to go away for a while, “He had fled the claustrophobic confines of his family” (Krakauer 55). McCandless could finally go away looking for a journey full of adventures, but he wasn’t going to five stars hotels or luxurious places. His journey was precarious and wild, that was exactly what he was looking for. Places that were difficult for someone to reach and loneliness was abundant, the only interaction was with nature and savage animals. Happiness engulfed McCandless when backpacking anywhere, it was his joy.