Chris Mccaandless Analysis

Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, describes the adventure of Christopher McCandless, a young man that ventured into the wilderness of Alaska hoping to find himself and the meaning of life. He undergoes his dangerous journey because he was persuade by of writers like Henry D. Thoreau, who believe it is was best to get farther away from the mainstreams of life. McCandless’ wild adventure was supposed to lead him towards personal growth but instead resulted in his death caused by his unpreparedness towards the atrocity nature.

Happiness is not easily achieved in this life and sometimes it will make you pay high prices for it. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a book talking about an adventurer named Chris McCandless that lost his life looking for his happiness. Chris was a smart boy that had the potential to go to Harvard law school, but he left his family, friends and education to go to Alaska. Krakauer wrote about McCandless’ journey to provide clear the reasons McCandless went to Alaska and why he did it and what he went through because Krakauer saw In McCandless. Krakauer wrote about McCandless’s journey while including some detailed reasoning and excuses for McCandless actions. Krakauer’s purpose of writing Into the wild furnish to the writing style

An example Thoreau relates towards having a simple life is, “Simplify, simplify. Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion.” (Thoreau). This quote relates to Chris McCandless because he wishes to live a life in the simplest way possible. These quotes show that McCandless wishes to live a life secluded and in its simplest

In Jon Krakauer's novel Into the Wild, the main character, Chris McCandless, seeks nature so that he can find a sense of belonging and the true meaning of who he is. However, it is the essence of nature that eventually takes his life away from him. At the end of his life, he is discovers his purpose and need of other people. After Chris McCandless death in Alaska, Krakauer wrote Into the Wild to reflect on the journey that McCandless makes. Krakauer protrays McCandless as a young man who is reckless, selfish, and arrogant, but at the same time, intelligent, determined, independent, and charismatic. Along with the irony that occurs in nature, these characteristics are the several factors that contribute to McCandless death.

As the reader begins to understand McCandless’s state of mind more and get to know his character more, they find him to be a very spiritual, in the sense of his soul, and intelligent, for the most part, young man on an adventure. The author of Into The Wild, knowing that Chris McCandless had the same values, quoted Thoreau when he said “All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them” (Krakauer 47). Thoreau believed that nature was unappreciated and people did not know what they truly had. This mindset was very similar to Chris McCandless mindset and the themes within the book. Chris retreated to the wild and wanted to escape the confines of not only his parents but society as well. Furthermore, Into the Wild is very similar to Thoreau’s teachings because it focuses on knowing ones true self and giving up the other parts of life for it. The author, Jon Krakauer, again quotes Thoreau when he says ”I'm going to paraphrase Thoreau here... rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness... give me truth” (Krakauer 142). Instead of having love, human connection, money, and popularity, the author focuses on only needing the truths of the world and of one’s own mind and soul. Therefore, Thoreau’s teachings and values are very similar to the themes and values found in Into The

Both Chris McCandless and Henry David Thoreau relate to the concept of transcendentalism. Transcendentalism’s main ideas revolve around the concepts of self-wisdom, nature, and social reform. Both McCandless and Thoreau embrace two of these three ideas, but they both also show individualism very strongly. People can see this when they read Into the Wild and Thoreau’s excerpts from Walden. By reading these passages, the reader can see similarities between the lives of McCandless and Thoreau.

“Wilderness appealed to those bored or disgusted with man and his works” (Roderick Nash). Chris McCandless, a modern transcendentalist, sent out on an adventure to find his true self in the wilderness of the North American continent. In the two years he was away, he met many individuals he called his friends and explored the extent of the American West. However, Chris was found dead in an abandoned bus on the Stampede Trail in the deep wilderness of Alaska in early September 1992. Chris believed he could live his life without the disruption of others. Henry David Thoreau believed that individuals can strive for themselves without government interruption. Chris McCandless, in Jon Krakauer’s documentary Into the Wild, believes that living off the land and life to its fullest without help from others compares to Henry David Thoreau’s beliefs in his writing “Civil Disobedience.”

McCandless's lifestyle of having reduced dependence on property was demonstrated frequently throughout the book. When McCandless's body was discovered, his family had to retrieve his ashes and belongings from the coroner stationed in Fairbanks, Alaska in chapter 13. His belongings included a rifle, binoculars, fishing rod, a knife, his plant book that his journal was written in, and a camera with film. For having lived in the wilderness for months on end, he had very few belongings. It is clear that he reduced his dependence on property over time. This idea can be paralleled with the essay Walden, written by Thoreau (pg.406). Thoreau describes how living simply or deliberately alongside nature can cause someone to learn and feel things they would never discover otherwise in their lifetime. McCandless lived both with limited belongings and pushed himself to become “one with nature” per say during his time in the Alaskan wilderness.

    In his creative nonfiction piece, Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer explores the themes of living with purpose and living without it and how falling into society’s trap of “existing”, whether aware of it or not, can be the hinderance of a life with meaning. This implied binary is not only explored throughout Chris’s narrative where he ventures into the Alaskan wilderness, but through Krakauer’s own experiences while climbing up Devil’s Thumb and being lonely, exhausted, and at the brink of death. Krakauer consistently juxtaposes conventional living with living in the wild, and while Krakauer initially appears to be presenting a personal struggle and failure in his Devil’s Thumb journey, he is really bringing to light a deeper sense of meaning and release that can be found when breaking away from monotony.

For those who recognize these societal confines, they are often driven to reject society all together in hopes of achieving meaning in what seems like a meaningless life. This renunciation of American values is Chris McCandless so desperately attempted to do in Jon Krakauer's biography of the boy, Into the Wild. In an attempt to rid himself of the constricting culture, he embarks on a transformative journey to the Alaskan Tundra, “The trip was to be an odyssey in the fullest sense of the word, an epic journey that would change everything. [McCandless] had spent the previous four years, as he saw it, preparing to fulfill an absurd and onerous duty: to graduate from college. At long last he was unencumbered, emancipated from the stifling world of his parents and peers, a world of abstraction and security and material excess, a world in which he felt grievously cut off from the raw throb of existence” (Krakauer Chapter 3) Chris, captivated by the mysteries of life, sought refuge from the world of materialism and acquiescence by shedding his former self. For him, engrossing himself in nature was the only way to ponder this existential questions and a complete rejection of society was crucial to grasping this

Chris McCandless admired Henry David Thoreau, author of “Walden,” and adopted many of his ideals as his own. McCandless sought for simplicity and desired to stray from social norms and cliché material goods. Although Thoreau’s book was found in Chris’ trailer, he did not live step by step how Thoreau did. He ventured beyond these transcendentalist ideals, taking them to unheard of heights.

Both Henry David Thoreau and Christopher McCandless ventured out into the woods to get away from the dreariness of everyday society and to find themselves. Only one lived to tell the tale. What was the fatal flaw of the man who didn’t continue on? The only way to find this is to analyze the differences and similarities between the two. McCandless, while embracing some of the same values as Thoreau, was ultimately a different man. While they led very contrasting lives in very distant times, both McCandless and Thoreau sought a type of freedom that can only be achieved when immersed in nature. Thoreau’s entitlement and cozy cabin in the woods is a far cry from McCandless’s constant struggle during his expedition, however, certain parallels

A young man, living in a comfortable civilized environment leaves society and all the benefits that he had behind him to build a new life. The novel Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer tells the story of a young man, Chris McCandless who had always believed his life ritual was based on mental knowledge. The existential mind of McCandless seemed to prove this statement true. His effort he put into his work was nothing compared to what would lie ahead on this so called “journey” of his. He loved the fact that each day he had the possibility of being exciting, different, or even dangerous. Chris was different in the way he wanted to experience life. He wanted to be alone and took no joy in the

In Walden, Henry David Thoreau remarks, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived” (61). Thoreau is a man who is known to simply live by restraining his necessities; in order to thrive on and live life to it’s utmost potential. Unsatisfied with his life, he comprehends that there is an extraordinary purpose to live on Earth. Merely abstracting himself from a urban society to seek out principles in which to live a refined life, he proceeds an odyssey inside of nature, in which he self-built and lived in a log cabin. In all respects, his two years of living nearby Walden Pond,

Henry David Thoreau’s Life In The Woods is a self-experiment that supplies a perfect opportunity for Thoreau to discrete from society and to live “several more lives.” This short story is a narrative of Thoreau’s journey as he finds his true self while attempting to live a life of purpose and intentions in the woods. As Thoreau describes it, his scrutiny of his two years and two months of living in an isolated cabin was simply to try new experiences. Thoreau says, “I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one. It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves.” Furthermore, Thoreau began to follow a common procedure and he saw this as nonessential, now that he is conscious of this routine, he began to acknowledge the fact that it was time to commence a new life.