Essay about The Search For Happiness in Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild

Christopher McCandless, also known as Alexander Supertramp, was brave and adventurous. Chris was not an outcast, or an incompetent person. He was an elaborate man, who risked a lot to walk Into The Wild. He achieved serenity, and accomplished his goals. His expedition proved fatal, but purposeful.

Chris went through the burdens of everyday life while hoping for a more peaceful alternative. He refused the cognizant about the world around him and refused to involve himself with what he finds trivial. Instead he created his fantasy world in order to empower

Chris McCandless’s personality traits can described many different ways, and his actions of going into the wild can not always be interpreted. Why did go into the wild, what was he seeking is a question for many. I believe that McCandless went into the wild to start a new life. After reading the novel, “Into the Wild” I strongly believe that Chris McCandless is adventurous, rebellious, and overconfident.

This shows that although Chris was glad to be alone in the wilderness by himself, we was not truly happy, as he was not able to share that love with anyone. Chris did have plans to return back to civilization, and this was in order to try and share his love of nature with others. The fact that he was alone made him unable to be truly happy. On the other hand, however, it is obvious that Chris feels a great deal of exultation throughout and after his journey into the wild. This is shown in Chris McCandless’ dying letter, which says “I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANKS THE LORD” (Krakauer 199).

Chris lived a meaningful life and sought happiness through living honestly and freely. Chris wrote in his journal and listed off his essential basics in life. “Positivism, the insurpassable joy of the life aesthetic, absolute truth and honesty, reality, independence” (McCandless 168) this quote shoes just how much Chris valued living freely and honestly. Chris’ yearning for truth shows his emotional pain from his

I believe Chris had started this journey in order to both espouse a minimalistic lifestyle and escape from his parents. Chris was probably exhausted of living his life as someone who was granted all these objects; he wanted to live in nature, with nature. Chris was said to have lived as a monk during his final year at Emory, with “little more than a thin mattress on the floor, milk crates, and a table” (Krakauer 22). After completing his undergraduate degree at Emory University, Chris decided that in order to be “emancipated from the world of abstraction and security and material excess,” he was going to travel all the way to Alaska. Chris once had said that he “would no longer give or accept gifts” (Krakauer 20), mainly because he did not

This adventurous personality is what caused Christopher to travel across the states in his Datsun and disappear shortly after. Although Christopher died in a horrific way, it was lastly noted how content and happy he was after a living a not so typical life away from the common extravagances people usually crave. In the last portion of the book it quotes, “He is smiling in the picture, and there is no mistaking the look in his eyes: Chris McCandless was at peace, serene as a monk gone to God. (199) Christopher can be seen in the picture at his most piteous but utterly courageous moment in life where he had chosen to live his

He desired to find his authenticity and, like many philosophers before him, went into the wild. Emerson states, “In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages” (“Nature” 1). It is no wonder that Chris went looking for wholeness in the wilderness. He too thrived in the wild in ways that he never could have back home. In a letter to his friend Ron, Chris writes: “You are wrong if you think Joy emanates only or principally from human relationships.

The book Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, is a fascinating story about a young man by the name of Chris McCandless who brings his life to a halt in order to journey across the country looking for a simpler way of life. Throughout the course of the book, there are many interesting facts that are gathered about the way Chris grew up, his motives for his “odyssey”, and his final days living alone in the harsh cold of Alaskan territory. Interestingly enough, the book does not fully include an answer to whether or not Chris’ intentions were to end his life or if he had bigger and better intentions that would satisfy his longing for something more, leaving the answer open to interpretation. People who read the true tale of Chris McCandless and

Chris’ story ends inside an abandoned bus in the Alaskan wilderness, the hero of his own tale gradually withered after battling against ideology and compromising his own security this is the first principle of tragedy, plot. Aristotle once said: “A man cannot become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall” (“Aristotle and the Elements of Tragedy”) this evidence finalizes Chris’ role in the tragic story. In order to complete a tragedy, a beloved and genuine character such as Chris must die. It was because of his tragic flaw that he met his end, although it was not until the very end that he realized his mistake. In his own and final words: “Happiness only real when shared” (Into the Wild). Recognition is an integral element in relating to a fictional character, it humanized them, unfortunately this was too late for McCandless. Into the Wild is an impressive modern tragedy that perfects the aura of emotional suspense in Chris’ final moments, invoking a unique sense of sympathy.

We are all seeking that one thing that we are missing in our lives; love, lust, fame, fortune etc. Chris is out in the wild to seek his chances to find what he has been missing throughout his life. Happiness and Freedom. With various family problems arising, Chris found this as an opportunity to find himself and to see who he really is on his adventure to Alaska.

“The very basic core of man’s living spirit is passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.” (Krakauer 57) John Krakauer, the author of the book, vividly made it clear to readers that the relationships between Chris and the many people he met along the way, were all very special. I am going to be explaining many ways in which Chris was easy to get along with, qualities that made him memorable, and how Chris kept people at arm's length.

However, Chris decides that the path his parents have set out for him is not the one he wishes to follow. Instead, Chris follows his American Dream to escape his parents’ expectations, and leaves his former life behind to lead a new, nomadic lifestyle, eventually virtually disappearing into the Alaskan wilderness (Krakauer 164). Chris later describes his meandering odyssey in his journal, “So now, after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure...No longer to be poisoned by civilization, he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild” (Krakauer 163). Though almost everyone he met criticized his choices, Chris had the freedom to roam across the country and into the wilderness, living in the manner of his choice and following his own, unique American Dream.

What caused Chris to embark on his journey into to wilds of Alaska was his interest in books by the likes of Leo Tolstoy and Jack London. He fantasized about these author's books and what they meant to him. To him he thought the books were his way to see what life would be like without a government. As we learn in the book Chris did a lot of illegal things such as he hunted without a licsense, he drove without a liscense, and he didn't have insurance on his car. This journey was Chris's way of seeing what life would be like if he was in complete solitude.

Chris Mccandless a young reckless idiot whose path has always been lead by his selfish and arrogant behavior one of which would be fundamental and change his life forever. In August 1992 Chris Mccandless anonymously stepped outside to begin a new journey into the woods and off to alaska looking for an adventure and a different lifestyle. A lifestyle that would help Mccandless see the world in a different perspective and one in which he hoped to survive following his instincts from his ignorant mind who always seemed to leave himself towards a dangerous path. Chris Mccandless decides to run away to Alaska in order to find himself explore the outside world no matter how dangerous it can be, Mccandless’s courageous mindset has always intervened in his arrogant decisions and because of his wealthy lifestyle Mccandless was tired of experiencing his type of lifestyle so he wanted to feel the sensation of what life into the wild had to offer. Chris Mccandless’s personality was always that of getting what he wants no matter what the obstacles would be. Because Mccandless’s young mind was perhaps not the most normal and fully developed, the young man had goals and living off in the wild was perhaps one of them, he wanted to see the world in a different point of view far more different than what he was used to “He was an extremely intense and young man and possessed a streak of stubborn idealism that did not mesh readily with modern existence” (Krakauer 2). Mccandless felt as he had