Miller states in his article “Tragedy and the Common Man” that to be a tragic hero, one must fit into certain criteria. One of them includes the hero’s primary struggle to search for their sense of dignity and identity. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a book about Chris McCandless who abandons his current life to explore the world in search of his real self but dies in the process. He fits this particular criteria about being a tragic hero because he abandoned everything he had som he could go find himself. McCandless did not think this decision through because he had no idea what he was getting himself into and as miller says the protagonist cannot be stupid, insensitive, or incapable of overcoming obstacles. Although many people believe Chris McCandless was just another dull-witted young man, it is arguable that, to an extent, he is a tragic hero because even though he impulsively went on a dangerous journey completely unprepared, he went for something he believed in, to find out who he really was.
Chris McCandless did what most people are too afraid to
…show more content…
Danger has always held a certain allure...McCandless, in his fashion, merely took risk-taking to its logical extreme” (Krakauer 182). There was no way to stop him from getting to Alaska, he lived in the Fairbanks city bus 142 for 112 days which is now commemorated in his honor. Most people see McCandless as an idiot who took on challenges he could not handle and dies in the process but from a readers point of view McCandless is a man brave enough to go on a voyage to find himself something most people cannot