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.
Into the Wild Essay Most people go into the wilderness to go camping for a week or less than a week, then leave. Some stay for more than a week. Chris McCandless was in the wild for at least one hundred days. “ I’ve decided to live this life for some time to come. The freedom and the beauty of it is too good to pass up.”(pg.92)
We have all made mistakes, for some they are small mistakes that do not impact anyone. For others, they are of mammoth proportions and have a preponderant impact on how people think, or say about them. In the book Into the Wild it tells about the journey of Chris McCandless who died in the Alaskan wilderness. Chris McCandless was definitely one of these people who made a big mistake. People around the globe have mixed feelings about this twentieth century adventurer. Some view him as a hero whose ideals should be embraced, while others see him as an arrogant, stubborn, and reckless vagabond whose dreams led to his demise. With numerous opinions about who he was, it is up to the reader to choose their ideas of who he was. To me and many others
Into the Wild was about a guy named Christopher McCandless. He was a top student and athlete who came from a wealthy family. After he graduated college, he told his parents that he was going to spend his summer traveling. Chris then sent his final college transcripts and a letter to his family but little did they know that would be the last time they would hear from their son. Before Chris left for his adventure he cut up all his credit cards, burned his social security card, and donated his life savings to a charity. He was traveling by car until a flash flood happened causing him to abandon his car and travel by foot. After that he burned his remaining cash and began to go by the name Alexander Supertramp.
Into The Wild was a tremendous story which Shaun Callarman did not have many positive things to say about Chris McCandless, the main character. He went on this adventure to find out what life is all about in his own eyes. He wanted to see how different living in the wild really was compared to society because he was not satisfied with his living arrangements and household. Shaun’s quote says that he thinks “Chris McCandless was bright and ignorant at the same time. He had no common sense, and he had no business going into Alaska with his Romantic silliness.
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.
In Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, he focuses on one main person, Chris McCandless. Krakauer explains most of Chris's life and even, at times, puts his own input into the pages of this book. Chris McCandless (a.k.a Alexander Supertramp) was from Chesapeake Beach, Maryland. Chris had a father, Walt McCandless, a mother, Billie Mccandless, and a younger sister, Carine. Chris's obsession with nature and high-risk activities was believed to start when "Walt took Billie and his children from both marriages to climb Longs Peak in Colorado."
Chris hated that. He hated the thought of his parents, especially his dad, having had near total control over him. He never showed any signs of it, but by the end of college, Chris McCandless was dying to get away. Throughout the story, Chris showed he had a determination to get to Alaska.
Into the Wild is a story about a passionate, very gifted athlete, and scholar named Chris
A common thought among adolescents is the dream to finally leave home and discover who they are; I certainly share this dream. Though the concept is common, the reasons are unique; The differences in character and circumstances define who a person is. What may appear reasonable to some could very well be completely irrational to another. The story of Chris McCandless as reported by Jon Krakauer in the biographic novel Into the Wild is no exception. From the events in his childhood to the conflict with his father, we can see that Chris McCandless, a young man still discovering himself, became disillusioned with the structure of society and desired nothing more than to “no longer be poisoned by civilization” (163). Although McCandless had an adventurous, independent nature, it was his darker past, the conflict with his family, that influenced him to seek refuge in the wild.
Although many may argue that McCandless past served as primary motivation for his adventure, there is more evidence showing that he had his own differential feelings and has a different act to his everyday decisions that were chosen for himself. Starting off, how Chris McCandless’s childhood life probably had an affect to him to his life choices when he went into the wild. Referring back to documentary how not only did he have spoken about his past, but his siblings did along with his parents about him to how he was and the decisions he made and how it impacted him as to if what he chose to do. He knew that some even his own family would put their own view about himself as being a selfish person because he was just doing what he wanted for
He wanted to go in there without really anything so that he can make things that were in the nature. “Chris didn’t think twice about risking his own life…”(Carine McCandless 128). I absolutely think that this quote about Chris is very true because he was so into finding new adventures to take, to enjoy and be happy with
He was a bit selfish, narcissistic, and extremely egotistical. Be that as it may he was searching for a sense of purpose just as most people his age often do. While some may go backpacking through Europe or maybe experiment with illegal substances Chris knew the path he needed to take to find purpose was a nomadic one where a new sunset lay on a different horizon each night. Chris tried to convince others that this was the way to find true meaning in life. He wrote to a friend saying, “Once you have become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty.”
He was reckless when it came to how his friends and family would react when he left because their emotions didn’t seem to matter to him when he made the decision to leave them. His narcissism, however, did not show solely through his recklessness with the feelings of others, but also through how unprepared he was. His stubbornness stopped him from accepting help, and his ignorance prevented him from realizing what he needed to do to survive. Chris’s decision to leave was his equivalent to Evel Knievel’s decision to try to jump over a box filled with rattlesnakes and lions. With that stunt, Knievel had put others at risk for the sake of his own personal goal: money and
Kevin Sun Mrs. Cohen English 2CP --D February 22, 2018 Another Perspective The film Into the Wild is based on the life of Chris McCandless, a young man who rejected the consumerist society of America in order to live a more simple life. Through his travels, Chris carried essays by Transcendentalist philosophers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, suggesting that McCandless is impacted by Transcendentalist ideals. Two key tenets of Transcendentalism that clearly influenced McCandless’ choices are the value of simplicity and the importance of self-reliance.