Into The Wild Chris Mccandless Relationship

In the non-fiction piece, Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, the audience follows young Christopher McCandless through his journey across the American west to his inevitable death, dragging Krakauer in the narrative throughout. In a story about the life and death of the young boy, Krakauer continuously interjects his own experience and beliefs regarding Chris’ travels relentlessly. In this way, the author represents a perspective on Chris contrasting many criticisms of the young man, though Krakauer carries his own criticisms of the young adventurer. Jon Krakauer, author of Into the Wild, inserts himself into the text through his personal experience and connection to Christopher McCandless and his beliefs effectively providing contrast to those

Throughout the book we establish a rocky relationship between Christopher and his parents. They argue in values, morals, and conduct patterns leading Chris to hold a particular distaste for his father after learning of a cheating scandal in his first marriage. Although we don’t get to learn nearly as much about Krakauer and his familial relationships, one section in particular in Chapter 14 leads me to draw these conclusions. Krakauer declares that the ‘guesses’ he makes regarding Chris’ whereabouts, thoughts, and feelings come from personal experience: “but my sense of Chris McCandless’s intentions comes, too, from a more personal perspective… Like McCandless, figures of male authority aroused in me a confusing medley of corked fury and hunger to please” (Krakauer 134). Later, Krakauer goes on to describe that he lacked McCandless’s intellect and ‘lofty ideals’ but shared ‘intensity’,’heedlessness’, and “a similar agitation of the soul” (Krakauer

Many, particularly Alaskans, tend to criticize and judge McCandless for the path he chose, make guesses about his intentions, even assume he decided to end his life in the bush purposefully. That is the beauty of Jon Krakauer’s narration as we see a perspective of Chris from someone who chose a similar life path. Throughout the book Krakauer, I believe, does a wonderful job in balancing both positive and negative associations of McCandless. Though I believe the reader gains the most from a particular section reflecting on the theory that Chris entered the bush to end his life, the idea that he never intended to walk back out. Chapter 15 follows the narration of Krakauer’s experience on Devil’s Thumb, facing death head on as a 23 year old himself- only one year older than Christopher McCandless when he died in the bush. Krakauer even goes as far as to say that the only reason he survived Alaska and McCandless didn’t was simply luck. “Eighteen years after the event, I now recognize that I suffered from hubris, perhaps, and an appalling innocence, certainly; but I wasn’t suicidal” (Krakauer 155). The author goes onto describe the fleeting, temporary thoughts on death by an average twenty year old- it never seems to feel finite so young. He describes the yearning one feels to look over the edge of death and see what it holds, asking readers to see McCandless for a curious young boy- not someone with a death