Many readers of the book “Into the Wild,” have different opinions of Chris McCandless. Some say he was an idiot, crazy, adventurer, inspiration, ignorant, rash, and many other titles that people could label Chris as. I believe that Chris was a smart, competent, and for the most part an adventurer. Although he was emotional, rash, and daring, this didn’t help him at all probably led to his demise on his trip to Alaska. Chris was a very smart man who graduated from a very prestigious school named Emory in Atlanta Georgia. Chris never cared about many materialistic things. At one point he told both of his parents he doesn’t want to give or receive gifts from them. Another example is when Chris graduates from college his parents want to reward …show more content…
Chris buys a canoe to ride it down the Colorado River in Arizona where there are roaring rapids that can swallow his small canoe easily. That’s not even the part that makes Chris daring; Chris does this with zero canoeing experience and with the river patrol after him because he is canoeing illegally. Chris’s whole entire trip is showing all of the readers just how daring he really is. He leaves his perfectly stable life with a prestigious college degree and he decides to get rid of all the money he has to travel by road from Georgia to Alaska. This all also explains how adventurous he is as well. He mentions in the book how much he loves what he is doing with his life at the time being and he uses deep emotional meaning to support the way he feels.” Don't settle down and sit in one place. Move around, be nomadic, make each day a new horizon.” This shows just how strongly Chris believed that traveling was his way of life that made him happy in life. Another characteristic of Chris was that he was very emotional. The reason why he left off traveling to Alaska at the time he did without telling his family, was because he wanted to escape his family, specifically his Father. Chris found out that his Father had cheated on his Mother with his ex-wife. He was mad at both of them because he felt like his father betrayed the family and that his Mother was too weak to divorce his Father. That was the fuel for
In the book Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer explains how Chris was an individual who didn’t have a liking for materialistic things. He was a person who was in it more for the experience and not for the materials he gained from doing things. He wanted to “have an endlessly changing horizon” as he said in his letter to Ron Franz. He thought it would be good to go out and escape the restraints of society and civilization to truly value what life was giving him and what everything else was taking away from him. Many believed that the only reason that Chris wandered off into the wilderness of Alaska was because he was tired of society holding him back and wanted to experience the greatness the world had to offer.
People considered Chris’ search for happiness crazy and insane, but that is just their opinions. Other’s opinions didn’t mean anything to Chris because he did what he wanted, and no one was going to stop him, no matter how crazy his goals were. He wasn’t just searching for happiness but as Krakauer said, “McCandless went into the wilderness not primarily to ponder the the nature or the world at large but, rather, to explore the inner country of his own soul”(183). Chris went into the wilderness to learn who he was and why he was that way, and in his search for his identity, he had to search for his happiness, as that is what he lives for. Chris went into the Alaskan Bush in order to live the way he wanted.
Chris foolishly made bad decisions while his mental health was unstable. After Chris found out about his father’s affair, his parents noticed that he was acting differently. “He seemed mad at us more often, and
Shaun Callarman takes a stand and says she believes Chris McCandless is ignorant even though many believe he was brave for pursuing his transcendentalist ideas. Callarman says that McCandless had no common sense for believing he could survive in one of the most harsh places on Earth all by himself. He’s ignorant and Callarman says “ I don’t admire him at all for his courage nor noble ideas”. Quite simply Callarman thought Chris was crazy. Throughout the book Into The Wild there are many things that prove this stance on Chris McCandless.
In the novel, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer; people think that Chris McCandless is crazy, but I think he’s just searching for himself before he can live his own life. Callarman stated that “ He had no common sense, and he had no business going into Alaska with his Romantic silliness.” Long, C. (n.d.). I disagree with this because he’s not ignorant. He also mentioned that he doesn’t want to admire him for his courage nor his noble ideas, but people should be he took a risk to try and find his own person.
“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, 56) In the quote it’s showing how Chris believes joy comes from traveling and gaining new experiences, which is the exact definition of wanderlust. McCandless even says, “The core of a mans spirit comes from new experiences.” (Krakauer, 57) Chris was always trying to find new experiences that would enhance his life. He believed that he wouldn’t truly be happy until he was away from society with no restrictions. All in all Chris can easily be described as wanderlust, because the foundation of his life was the desire to
Christopher McCandless was an adventurer no doubt. He spent the last few years of his life living purely off the land and exploring, doing what he felt called to do. However, to venture off on such an intense, dangerous, and wild journey, a person most likely has some deeply thought out reason as to why he or she is embarking on the mission. Chris himself seems to have had some reasons, besides his curiosity, as to why he explored. However, he made a decision to leave without truly thinking about just how dangerous his journey was going to be. Due to his rash actions, Chris eventually died in an abandoned bus out in the wild. Now, some folks today think that Chris was a hero for doing what interested him and for doing his own thing without worrying about the trivial things in life. However, I have reason to believe that Chris was indeed not a hero. Instead, I believe that Chris McCandless’s journey into the wild was rash, ludicrous and foolish.
Chris McCandless was just a victim of his own obsession. The novel "Into The Wild" written by John Krakauer revealed the life of a young bright man named Chris McCandless who turned up dead in Alaska in summer 1992. In the novel, John Krakauer approached carefully McCandless's life without putting too much authorial judgment to the readers. Although Chris McCandless remained an elusive figure throughout the novel, I can see Chris McCandless as a dreamy young idealist who tries to follow his dream but failed because of his innocent mistake which prove to be fatal and irreversible. Still, Chris McCandless's courage and passion was something that we should all be proud of.
Chris McCandless can be described with various words and terms, arrogant, stubborn, incorrigible, bright, intelligent, go-getter, and over-achiever are just a few to describe the young man. But, crazy, crazy shall not be one of those descriptions. In the novel Into the Wild, written by Jon Krakauer, the untold story of Chris McCandless is told as he embarked his mission to live in Alaska. Many people have said that the young man is crazy for his doings including Shaun Callarman, as he describes McCandless as “bright and ignorant at the same time” and clearly states that he doesn’t admire him instead he thinks “he was just plain crazy”. I on the other hand have to disagree with Mr. Callarman as I think McCandless wasn’t crazy at all but just
Chris McCandless was a very unique individual. In Jon Krakauer’s book, Into the Wild, he tries his best to make sense of McCandless’ journey to the Alaskan wilderness. However, he never really figured out what McCandless’ purpose of the trip was. Looking at McCandless’ life throughout the book, I believe that Chris McCandless went on his journey to find happiness within his own life and did achieve it in the end.
Into The Wild was a tremendous story which Shaun Callarman did not have many positive things to say about Chris McCandless, the main character. He went on this adventure to find out what life is all about in his own eyes. He wanted to see how different living in the wild really was compared to society because he was not satisfied with his living arrangements and household. Shaun’s quote says that he thinks “Chris McCandless was bright and ignorant at the same time. He had no common sense, and he had no business going into Alaska with his Romantic silliness. 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 for thinking “ he had no common sense” and that he
On the other hand, for those he did care about, he left a positive impact on their lives. Chris was raised in an environment where“...hideous domestic violence hidden behind a mask of prosperity and propriety” (Mcalpin). While some believe that going to Alaska was a way to take revenge on his parents, it is hard to imagine those actions taken by Chris who is someone independent and holds neoteric ideals. It is more presumable to suppose that Chris just wanted to cut off ties to those he thinks contravenes with his ideals and ambitions. On the other hand, for everyone he met on the journey, he built a positive relationship; he maintained those relationships up until his death, even telling Wayne, “‘Till then I’ll always think of you as a friend” (Krakauer 33). He consistently sent postcards and shared his current status and new thoughts to Ron, Wayne, and Jan Burres. In his long letter to Ron detailing his pilgrimage, he gave heartfelt thanks and sincere hopes to see him again, writing “Ron, I really enjoy all the help you have given me and the times that we spent together….But providing that I get through this Alaskan Deal in one piece you will be hearing from me again in the future” (Krakauer 56). What makes this letter so special is the fact that Chris
The Book “Walden” by ,Henry Walden Thoreau, contains within it a chapter “Where I live and what I live for”. This chapter contains three main points which certainly have heavily influenced Chris into delving into the treacherous wilderness alone and attempting to exclude himself from any frequent form of humanity. A point Thoreau brings up is how repetitive life is once we have lived in an area after an extended amount of time as we remember every little detail of the area that we live around even up to the point of miles away. Thoreau also states that he go out and builds a new home as a reenactment of god creating the world and is a way of rediscovering god miracles. Thoreau finally point is once we get away from civilization you truly
Introduction: Throughout the book of Into The Wild Chris McCandless is known to be a wacko reckless idiot, and is also known to be courageous and heroic. However does a courageous person go out into the wilderness knowing that the outcome will be fatal? People viewed him from different perspectives and also have broad range of opinions of this young man. Some deemed him to be incredibly dim-witted or a man that simply just followed his heart. Evidence shows that Chris McCandless is actually a mix of both. The first opinion that described McCandless was brainless, idiotic, and extremely foolish. Many passages from Into The Wild can support this outlook.
Into the Wild shows Chris McCandless’ journey to Alaska in search of enlightenment. Chris graduated college feeling disconnected, and felt life was meaningless. In his pursuit of happiness and enlightenment, he left his family and went across the country eventually ending up in Alaska. Chris McCandless should be considered as a modern day transcendentalist because he is self-reliant, a free thinker, and appreciates the importance of nature.