Understandably, most would agree that one of the most important aspects of being human is forming connections and relationships with people. In fact, it is one of most people’s greatest desires to make connections and form relationships with people as a result of those connections. However, Chris McCandless seemed to want the exact opposite of that. Chris wanted something bigger. He had a desire that, for him, no kind of relationship with any other person could satisfy. Chris decided to cut off all connections not out of selfishness, but because of his burning desire to experience life in its simplest beauty. Moreover, he was not the only one who set out on a journey like this—others with stories similar to that of Chris’ help explain the true …show more content…
One of the most important stories of these is that of a man named Carl McCunn, who travelled to a fairly secluded area in Alaska with the intention of staying in the wilderness for several months to take photos of the wildlife. However, he forgot to arrange for someone to pick him up, and as a result, he lost his life. The author includes words from a coworker of Carl’s, and his personality can obviously be compared to Chris’. Krakauer quotes from this coworker, “’Carl was a friendly, extremely popular, down-home sort of guy,’ Stoppel recalls. ‘And he seemed like a smart guy. But there was a side to him that was a little bit dreamy, a little bit out of touch with reality’” (Krakauer 81). It was this kind of personality that drove both McCandless and McCunn to venture out into the wild. They both wanted to experience the wilderness with minimal interruptions. Although there are clearly significant differences between the two, the similarities help one to develop a better understanding of the thoughts behind Chris’ decision to travel to Alaska. One of the biggest similarities between Chris and Carl is that they both had a desire to live a certain kind of life out in the wild. Nature in its simplest form brought them joy that could not be felt elsewhere. Of course, there are other important stories that help better explain McCandless, and Jon Krakauer is sure to mention these. He states, “There are similarities among Rosellini, Waterman, McCunn, and McCandless. … Like Waterman and McCunn, he displayed a staggering paucity of common sense. … And unlike McCunn, he didn’t go into the bush assuming someone would automatically appear to save his bacon before he came to grief. … And he wasn’t a nutcase, he wasn’t a sociopath, he wasn’t an outcast. McCandless was something else…”
In the book ‘’Into The Wild” (1996), by Jon Krakauer the author described the journey of a young man named Christopher Johnson McCandles. Who traveled different states of the United States as Alexander Supertramp. Jon Krakauer traces Alex’s journey into the wild by providing information from a third person point of view and also shares the comments of people whom encounter Alex throughout his journey that ended when Alex decided to hitchhiked to Alaska and travel by foot into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley . The highest mountain in North America, with a summit elevation of 20,310 feet above sea level. Alex body was found four months later frozen and decomposed by a moose hunter.
Jon Krakauer attempts to understand the inner-workings of a man named Chris McCandless, who goes on an outrageous journey into the Alaskan wilderness, in his book Into The Wild. Krakauer romanticizes McCandless’s reckless venture by telling of his own escapades, however, McCandless’s mission should not be idolized. McCandless had overestimated himself and underestimated the wilderness when he went on his deadly adventure. McCandless went around a large portion of the lower half of North America and survived with little help. He believed because he could survive without provisions in these areas, he could also do so in Alaska.
Krakauer never met Chris personally; therefore, he relies on interviews with people who encountered Chris throughout his travels. He also depends on documents such as letters and postcards that Chris left behind. Krakauer wants to provide an extensive insight into Chris’ story because of the resonance he got after he published his first article about Chris in the Outside magazine. Many people criticize Chris’ behavior being reckless, selfish and they suggested that he might have been mentally ill. Furthermore, people ridiculed his behavior by saying that he should have paid more attention to the Boy Scout’s laws which say that one should always be prepared.
Chapter nine of Into the Wild, is about the comparison made by Krakauer between Chris McCandless and Everett Ruess- a legendary artist and adventurer who vanished into the loneliness of David Gulch. At the beginning of the chapter, Krakauer quotes the last letter Everett wrote to his brother, Waldo, and proposes that it could’ve been written years later by another nomad: Chris McCandless. For instance, both McCandless and Ruess changed their names, along with their identities, to leave society behind and surround themselves with a greater beauty. In fact, Ruess went by many different names and referred to himself as Captain Nemo- a fictional character that flees civilization in a Jules Verne novel. As a matter of fact, that was the last title
Krakauer most likely came across the story and became fixated with Christopher “Alexander Supertramp” McCandless. The way he had shut everyone out, went off on his own into the wild, and how and could go for months on end without writing any of his loved ones. He didn't write the this book because of the outdoorsy elements that he's known for, he wrote it because he had a fascination with McCandless. Krakauer went from state to state interviewing people for this book. Throughout the text, you see countless
Krakauer made the life of Chris McCandless an extremely educational and shocking book. It is extraordinary how you can transform the life of a young person into such a decent book with a huge differ in the information and enchanting advice about the adventure of that man in the wild. McCandless was youthful person who settled on a decision which horribly and lethally for him, it did not work out. Also, there was no plot or a story because there was nobody to fault. “In 1992, however, there were no more blank spots on the map-not in Alaska, not anywhere.
Have you ever wondered what it is like to live in the wild, and become a whole new person, or what it is like to live in the wild to find yourself? Well if you have then I recommend that you read the book titled ¨Into the wild¨ written by Jon Krakauer. In this book there is a man named Chris McCandless who left society and went into the wilderness of Alaska and cut off all contact with the outside world. He wanted to find himself, and become a better person. Some may believe that Chris went into the wild to escape a toxic relationship with his parents, but the real reason he left everything was he wanted to find himself, and he felt as if he could function without everyday things.
Written by Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild (1996) is non-fiction story that addresses the matters of how to be recognized by humanity and how searching for one’s identity occasionally clashes with being an existent citizen in the society. Chris McCandless left to discover some kind of illumination. Also, he tried to discover his way into the woodlands with very little physical belongings because of the belief that it can make the flight more gratifying. His life-threatening adventure was the hubris that ultimately caused his demise.
Krakauer shows evidence of this in chapters 14 and 15 of Into The Wild when he uses these chapters to compare and contrast himself from Chris McCandless. The biographer touches heavily on their common ground, including unfortunate family history. Indeed, throughout later chapters of the book, Krakauer allows his audience a glimpse of what he believes to be true of McCandless and his unfortunate demise, particularly when he states, “When the adventure did indeed prove fatal, this melodramatic declaration fueled considerable speculation that the boy had been bent on suicide from the beginning, that when he walked into the bush, he had no intention of ever walking out again. I’m not so sure, however”(Krakauer 134). Consequently, this writing style is far from unbiased and continues to prove the idea that biographers cannot maintain
Most people look down upon Chris’s lifestyle and find it foolish, although this lifestyle has its flaws in the long term, this way of life carries a sense of beauty and nonconformity that most people will never understand. This lifestyle is not only full of beautiful and adventure but it gives life experiences that are worth more than money could buy. When Jon asked about Chris to one of his former co workers she replied with, “When he talked, he was always going on about trees and nature and weird stuff like that. We all thought he was missing a few screws” (40 Krakauer). Although Chris may come off as “missing a few screws” he was actually very intelligent
By relying on himself instead of others, Chris managed to embody one of the most important pillars of transcendentalism; to only focus on what he needs, not on what society tells him is
The idea of having committed relationships is extremely relevant today. Some people like Chris want to leave their family behind because they may have differences with them, but what would be best to do is never leave them behind. Many people, like Chris, in society think that maintaining friendships and relationships with their family is too difficult to do. In reality, one may struggle to maintain certain relationships, but it is the only way to feel content in life.
After reading Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, I wondered to myself why I should even care about Chris McCandless. I can see how some think Chris McCandless was an idiot and he was trying to kill himself. After I dove deeper into this question, I learned that Chris McCandless story teaches us important life lessons. Chris McCandless teaches us to get out of our comfort zone. Ronald Franz was an older man who encountered Chris McCandless and gave him a ride from Salton City California to Grand Junction Colorado In Chris’s last letter to Ronald Franz, he says “So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation…
How are the epigraphs related to the chapter? The two epigraphs Krakauer states in the beginning of chapter fourteen are related because they both provide what McCandless wanted, the desire of wanting something and to see the beauty of life. During the chapter Krakauer provides the last postcard McCandless wrote to Wayne Westerberg which quotes his adventure to Alaska. The first epigraph talks about the want of something more and when it is seen, he pursues it.
Based on a real story, Into the Wild can make us think from different perspectives about what the main character Christopher McCandless did. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a dramatic but also remarkable story from a young, newly graduated, college student that escaped for a long wild journey but never came back. As time passes throughout the book, the reader may notice how the main character interacts with society and nature, finally McCandless dies in the wild but even though he was struggling for survival he died happy. Some people never get out of their comfort zone, others are tired of it and retire from their comfort zone to have different experiences in life, some are good enough or some are terrible.