Cold. Bitter cold, seizing up your nerves and clouding your judgement. An open area in the wilderness, danger at every corner, alone. With only your mind, body, and conscience to guide you; struggling to survive as you fight off the inevitable. Death is looming near, and you are very well aware of this blatant fact. Even if you beg in the back of your mind for it to come swiftly and ease your suffering, it would only laugh and mock your sad attempts along with the living. What would you do in this dark situation you find yourself trapped in? What would you do if you were in his shoes? This follows the tragic story of “Alexander Supertramp”, better known as Chris McCandless. At first glance of the novel “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer, it would appear that the main driving forces, or at least most of the main evidence for Chris having …show more content…
My life thus far has been good, and I wouldn’t claim it to be otherwise, I can only express my sorrow for his poor soul in words, and maybe that is not enough... but still I offer my condolences. Again, I must emphasize that this is not the only reason for Chris having left, but I still believe that it was, in some manner, one of the main points towards this. Chris had wanted to cut all ties off from his family, leave his past where it belongs, and prove he could make it on his own. Most would still find the way he went about his travels to be foolish and naive, under-prepared, and his death well deserved. Well I’m here now to encourage a different way of thinking. Do not forget Chris due to others critiques of him, he should be remembered in some manner, and hopefully not as much for the negative aspects. What he had done was admirable, foolish yes, I won’t rebuke that statement entirely; but when a brave soul travels into the wild, we must hope all we can for
“Actions speak louder than words” is a centuries-old idea that, in recent times, has been famously said by both Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain, and I think this idea should be the core of any look into the life and actions of Chris McCandless. However, I believe that this idea was hardly considered in Jon Krakauer’s interpretation of Chris McCandless in his book Into The Wild. Into The Wild is taken by many as the complete truth of Chris McCandless’ story, but many people seem to forget that Krakauer tells us in his author’s note at the beginning of the book that “[he] won’t claim to be an impartial biographer.” This means that any judgment of Chris that only uses this book is inherently flawed by Krakauer’s own views.
Due to his lack of experience and knowledge of living in the wild, he passed away. His body was found by a couple who were from Anchorage. Chris’ death was reported to be starvation. This ties into the fact that he gave the rest of his college tuition to a charity that helped feed starving kids. All of these actions committed by Chris exemplify what a romantic
Into the Wild Essay In 1992, 24 year old Christopher McCandless abandoned his possessions and decided to hitchhike to Alaska and invent a new life for himself. Chris had just finished college and many thought he was going to further his education but instead he took a fatal trip into the wild. There are many questions still unanswered to why he felt he needed to go on this trip and people will never know the real reason why Chris McCandless hitchhiked to Alaska by himself with insufficient equipment.
In August 1992, a decomposed body, presumably died of starvation, was found inside an abandoned bus beside the Sushana River in Alaska. Shortly thereafter, the dead person was identified as twenty-four-year-old Chris McCandless, who was from an affluent family in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. A tragic story, with a mix of a young man, his well-off background, and happening in the most precarious but highly noble place, always had an emotional pull on people’s minds and stirred up people’s curiosity and perplexity. The question, often asked by the people with desire to grasp the truths, was why Chris with a privileged life would have gone to Alaska’s wilderness to face the ultimate challenge of his life. Was he in search of something
He was a confused soul that had been lost for many years luckily on his journey Chris had found independence, and self-reliance he was able to create a new life for himself even if it was towards the end of the line, that life was filled with meaning, purpose, and, “the raw throb of existence” (Krakauer
Chris McCandless: A Reckless Idiot Chris McCandless was a reckless idiot and there is no denying that basic truth. Chris McCandless was a man born into a middle class family. Chris had parents that loved him, a roof over his head, and food to eat. Despite all those riches he had, he threw them away. Chris was a very selfish man.
This statement, made by Shaun Callarman, pertains to Chris McCandless’s trek into Alaska that ultimately led to death by starvation. Since the recovery of Chris’s body, there has been much speculation about the prevention of Chris’s death and the possible causes. Despite Callarman’s plea of craziness, there have been both eye-witness accounts showing that Chris was sane and prepared when leaving for the Alaskan wilderness, many natural
I believe that this sudden burst of freedom was a major deciding factor for Chris. He hadn’t felt this free in years, so he was ready to hit the open road as fast as humanly possible. However, abandoning the people who raised him, and the sister for whom he had formed a special bond with, does not seem to be a particularly easy decision for someone to make. Yet it seemed as if Chris did things on a whim.
Going out into the wild all by yourself can be nerve wracking and lonely. Jon Krakauer makes Chris McCandless seemed like a noble person who took the initiative to try to go out and live into the wild. The book Into the Wild written by Jon Krakauer, is about a teenager named Chris McCandless leaving society and traveling to Alaska by himself with nothing else but a bag of rice and a small .22 caliber gun. Chris is heroic because he went to Alaska by himself without any knowledge of Alaska and didn’t know any of the dangers of Alaska. One way Krakauer make Chris seem noble is when Chris is about to enter Alaska he tells Gallien “ I’m goin’ to get on up there live off the land,go claim me a piece of the good life” (Krakauer 4).
Chris lived in a way most of us will never get to experience. He lived his life to the fullest, and more importantly he lived the way he wanted to. This alone should be some solace to his family. Really Chris was a nice person who people loved to be around. Just talking to him for a little while would show this.
He wanted to ditch his old life so maybe he was trying to cut off ties to the world as well. If you take that the wrong way his death may seem like suicide suddenly, but from many other papers that is not implied. The majority think that it was just an unfortunate few events that led to his death. If Chris would have taken a few more resources his life possibly would have lasted longer than it did, and using his story wrote an inspiration book. But he died, so there’s no reason to play the game of “what-if” because it could go an infinite number of ways.
“Really, I think he was just plain crazy,” I do agree with Callarman because I think Chris was a little crazy for doing these actions. He was a very courageous for doing this because not many people would take a random trip to the wilderness because people would rather be in
Christopher McCandless, whose life and journey are the main ideas of the novel “Into the Wild”, was about an adolescent who, upon graduating from Emory College, decided to journey off into the Alaskan wilderness. He had given away his savings of $25,000 and changed his name to Alex Supertramp. His voyage to Alaska took him two years during which he traveled all across the country doing anomalous jobs and making friends. He inevitably made it to Alaska were he entered the wilderness with little more than a few books, a sleeping bag and a ten pound bag of rice. A couple months after his first day in the wild, his body was found in an abandoned bus.
If someone has not suffered a similar inner turmoil, it would be easy for them to misunderstand his actions and assume that he was just an uneducated, crazy man. Chris McCandless despised the phoniness of the world around him and wanted to escape it by engaging in a, “climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual revolution” (pg. 112). These thoughts are similar to those experienced by people who struggle with depression. Chris McCandless felt that he was living in a world full of superficial beings whose only concern was what other people thought of them. His solution was to journey into the wild where he would, “no longer answer to Chris McCandless he was now Alexander Supertramp, master of his own destiny” (pg. 18).
I can tell you that because of meeting Chris, I am an entirely different man. Ron Cox said the same thing. He said he didn’t fear death anymore,/ because he knew Chris would be there waiting for him. ”.(wish.org). Chris passed away three days later.