Krakauer's Portrayal Of Chris In The Wild

Here is a quote from the book in which Krakauer demonstrates his personal opinion of McCandless and uses his own personal past actions he made as a young man to help show the connection between his younger self and Chris and why he has these opinions about Chris. This quote shows that Krakauer believes based on his own experience that Chris did not want to die and was not on a suicide mission. Along with this opinion proven throughout the book through observations and personal experiences Krakauer continues to be a presence and incorporates other opinions and factual things to disprove the people who are against McCandless and prove what he thinks is right. He disproves the thought that Chris might have been on a suicide mission. He disproves

"Tramping is too easy with all this money. My days were more exciting when I was penniless and had to forage around for my next meal." (Krakauer p. 33) Although these two shared similar relationships towards nature they lacked connection with the purpose they sought for. The leaving for Chris was an escape route, a disappearance from an illusion that slowly took over his world, but mostly it was a spiritual and mental cleanse due to his disturbed mind.

Chris was struck by disaster multiple times, and that resulted in heartbreaking notes detailing how he felt. Krakauer includes these notes because it makes the audience feel bad for Chris. For example, when the river floods and Chris is trapped, he wrote “‘Disaster…rained in. River look impossible. Lonely, scared’”

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)

I am in agreement with Krakauer on the fact that Chris McCandless was not a sociopath because he was intelligent, socialized very well, and was able to take care of himself, but he did have his flaws. Being able to be independent, his achievements and his friends all prove the “outcast bush causality” stereotype wrong. Since Chris was a human, he did have his faults. In some cases they were extreme, but they were rooted from an anger that makes it hard to label as “sociopath”. In the end, however, his stubbornness and tendency to dream big left him for dead.

He made a lot of mistakes based on arrogance. I don’t admire him at all for his courage nor his noble ideas. Really, I think he was just plain crazy,” shows that Shaun believes Chris had no common sense in his doing for leaving society for the wild. I agree with Callarman’s position of thinking “ he had no common sense” and that he was “bright and Ignorant” because Chris thinks he did not have much to offer in his society, ditched all his possessions to take a trip into the Alaskan Wilderness and did not have much common sense or survival skills. Chris McCandless was very courageous for ditching all his possessions to take a trip in the wilderness.

Page 52. “Franz grew increasingly fond of McCandless. ‘God, he was a smart kid,’ the old man rasps in a barely audible voice.” This piece of information given by Ron Franz helps give background on Chris and provides some insight on how he affected people.

The problem with showing the viewer that Chris is this wonderful person all the time is that it’s fake. Showing the character’s his faults makes him more relatable. On top of that Chris is very intriguing on his outlooks of the life he lives adding a sort of mysterious enigma to his character. “Some readers admired the boy immensely for his courage and noble ideals; other fulminated that he was a reckless idiot, a wacko, a narcissist who perished out of arrogance and stupidity—and was undeserving of the considerable media attention he received” (Krakauer – Author’s Note).

He understood that Chris was a well educated and arrogant man, leading him to be full of himself, while ill equipped. Gallien described “[his] gear [as] exceedingly minimal for the harsh conditions of the interior” (Krakauer, 1997, p. 6), and rather than listen to the advice of others, Chris moved forward with his plans. He clutched onto the knowledge he gathered from the society he ran from, in a weak attempt to find individuality, which resulted in his death by starvation and late realization that “happiness [is] only real when shared” (Krakauer, 1997, p. 129). It’d be easy for someone to accept starvation as a cause of death in such a scenario, but Jon saw beyond that, allowing the reader to analyze Jon ’s own analysis of the journaling that Chris did.

He was a nice kid” (Krakauer 22). Jan also said, “ He was a really good kid. We thought the world of him” (Krakauer 23). If Chris could earn the respect and love of people who he had just met, this shows a lot about his character and who he was. However let us not forget the fact of the kind of person he was on the inside.

Throughout the novel Chris repeatedly did things that endangered his own well being. Even though it is illegal and even after he got ticketed for doing so, Chris hitchhiked across the country. Chris also burned most of his money along with his birth certificate and assumed a fake name while travelling. When Chriss’ body was found in Alaska, It took quite some time before he could be identified because he had not told his family where he was going and had no identification. Chriss’ lack of responsibility could have been due to his determination and bravery which would have made Chris throw caution to the wind more often than he should have.

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.

"I think that Chris McCandless was bright and ignorant at the same time. He had no common sense, and he had no business going to Alaska with his Romantic silliness. He made a lot of mistakes based on ignorance. I don’t admire him at all for his courage nor his noble ideas. Really, I think he was just plain crazy."

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

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