Into The Wild Essay

“Into The Wild” by Jon Krakauer is the story of Chris McCandless’s life and journey. In 1992, this young man, Chris, from an average family in the East Coast decided to cut off contact with his family and give up all his possessions so that he could hitchhike into the Alaskan bush. A main reason many believe Chris went into the wilderness was because he was in search of his identity. From reading this book I have come up with my own opinion of what type of person he was. The conclusion I have reached about Chris is that he was a distant and ill-prepared person who had a very strong will.

Chris seemed to become someone who was untrusting of others. I think this was caused by his parents. Chris never really saw eye to eye with his parents especially his father and after Chris learned of his father’s past double life his relationship with his parents had begun to deteriorate. A quote from his mother said “‘He seemed mad at us more often, and he became more withdrawn-no, that’s not the right word. Chris wasn’t ever withdrawn. But he wouldn’t tell us what was on his mind and spent more time

I think his best quality was that he had a strong will. In the book it says “He had not seen or talked to another soul in thirty-six days. For that entire period he subsisted on nothing but five pounds of rice and what marine life he could pull from the sea,...” (Krakauer 36). He was able to stay alive for quite awhile and I think that was because he wanted achieve what he set out to do and that was to get to Alaska. Another quote that represents his strong will is “By mid-April, Westerberg was both shorthanded and very busy, so he asked McCandless to postpone his departure and work a week or two longer. McCandless wouldn’t even consider it. ‘Once Alex made up his mind about something, there was no changing it,...’” (Krakauer 67). Nothing could get in his way of getting to Alaska he set out to get there and he