A person can ponder the meaning of life for hours, days or an entire lifetime. A student can write an entire critical essay on the topic of the meaning of life and not truly understand it, but you will never understand the true beauty of life until you completely immerse yourself in it and experience it for yourself. The story about Christopher McCandless in the book, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, gives the reader Insight on how Christopher McCandless searched for his soul through living one with nature. Everybody has their own set of needs, wants, and desires. But it isn’t until you go out and finally do the things that you’ve dreamt about, that you really discover what you love, and most importantly who you are. McCandless wanted to find …show more content…
The little money he did have he would hide it so that he would not have access to it for a certain amount of time. And before he went off into Alaska, he put his Social Security number on the last work paper he ever filled out, something he never did. This makes Chris’ story so tragic, because he knew that this was a journey to find out who he was, and he planned on returning back into society to start a family and tell his story, but he was unable to. He acknowledged the fact that he may or may not return, he embraced it to the fullest, because continuing life would not be worth it or even a choice until he entered the wilderness of Alaska and completed his journey. When Alaskans found out about Chris’ death they did not understand his story, and found him utterly stupid and disrespectful, because of his unpreparedness and little knowledge of the land. The significance behind this is that they did not know that he was challenging himself to grow. Chris kept journals and photographed himself to keep track of himself transforming into the person that he desired to be, the person he was supposed to be. A book that was found with Chris’ remains had a highlighted passage in Thoreau’s Walden, “If the day and night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more
2.In my perspective, it seems as if he could not accept any kind of authority, on page six he explains, “How I feed is none of the governments business. Fuck their stupid rules.” and that included his parents. McCandless saw society as a penitentiary, where all he could do was follow the guidelines given to him by those authorities and he wanted to break free of that.
After all McCandless has been through, he probably never did figure himself out. In my opinion, I believe that he did his extravagant, dangerous, and also stupid adventure to truly find himself and to get away from the judgmental society of back in the day. His death may not be at an all lose due to the fact that he found out what it really meant to live without the knowledge
He was the kid that was alone but was happy. People relate to this because everyone has been alone and sad, but Chris was happy. When Chris was younger his mother and father would get into fights, his dad would beat his wife, they would even call the kids into the room to see(PBS). the pine we hear from the story has a hit of underlining pain and reason for Chris to walk into the wild and we as readers connect to the pain that Chris was forced to watch. Chris had prepared for his trip by playing along with his parents and even told his sister his plan to "divorce them as his parents"(PBS).
Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India once said, “We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm, and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if we seek them with our eyes open” (Nehru). In the book Into the Wild Jon Krakauer introduces the reader to Christopher McCandless’s, a young man from California with a heart yearning for adventure and a head beyond his years. The reader learns there is no one quite like Chris McCandless, but many people have sought out to seek the “more” from life. Jon Krakauer uses pathos and quirky but also thrilling anecdotes throughout Into the Wild to separate how Chris McCandless perceived himself and how others perceived him.
Chris did not like that idea, he wanted to go out and learn the about life in an unusual and spontaneous way, and that was going into the wild. When Chris went into the wild, he was not prepared for what was coming his way. In many opinions Chris had a positive impact and most likely still does. He had a journal in which he mostly wrote about what he had to eat that day not about the sights he saw.
Many people traveled around the United States to escape from the life they know, but not many actually leave to find the meaning of their life. Into The Wild is about the story of a man named Chris McCandless who was an man that through his journey found friends that helped him get to his final destination of Alaska where he died. Christopher McCandless stands out because he left all his money, family, and bright future to live a life of constant traveling, being hungry, and sleeping most nights only having the stars as company on lonely nights with no home. This character can be described as having a thrill seeking, defying and even unstable life which shows in the story.
In Jon Krakauer’s nonfiction book, Into the Wild, we follow how humans love the wilderness, the strain of father son relationships, and for the majority of the book a young adult named Chris McCandless. We see mostly through Chris’ eyes just how much the wilderness can entice young adults as well as how important crushing news of one’s father can change your life. McCandless was an angry pseudo adult who couldn’t handle a sizeable change in his life. He was too stuck on it being his way that he rarely could bring himself to accept help and improve his ability to actually survive. However, there was some good about McCandless. His search for himself and the truth were great intentions despite the flawed approach.
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.
There are an infinite amount of unique responses to the question “What is the meaning of life?”. However, the majority of people will agree that the true meaning of life is to find happiness and what is really important to one’s self. In Jon Krakauer’s, Into The Wild, Chris McCandless conveys this idealism through his life’s journey as he bravely defies all limitations. Chris McCandless isolates himself from society in his Alaskan Odyssey as a way to defy accepted expectations and to begin discovering the meanings of life without any corrupted influences.
Throughout history, people encounter a stage in their lives where they feel the necessity to assert their independence and challenge their abilities and self-worth. In the book, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, the author shares his understanding and kinship with the main character, Chris McCandless, a young man who thrusts himself into a life of solitude and a harsh environment during his search for meaning to his life. Krakauer depicts himself and McCandless as modern day transcendentalists with an abundance of competency, resourcefulness and skills as naturalists. Although McCandless chose to experience a life of solitude and face the hazards that nature presents, his lack of preparedness prevented him from completing his endeavor successfully.
As Chris ventures into the Alaskan wild he was able to find the happiness he was longing for. It was a type of happiness that he could only experience when he was with nature as seen throughout his life. As he laid in his death bed, he never spoke about any regrets he had,
I think he just wanted to pursue life in a different way. Chris was not seeing life the way anyone else was so he decided to brush off into the wild and be free on his own. Though he did not survive he was still a very bright, arrogant human being. Shaun Callarman states, “He had no common sense, and he had no business going into Alaska with his Romantic silliness.” Chris knew going into the wild that he did not have much survival skills but that did not stop him from doing what he wanted to do because he did not care about society and was just completely over everything which was why he made the move to the wilderness. This clearly shows us that Chris did not have much common sense. If he had better survival skills and common sense he probably would have known not to eat that poisonous berry. It was his dream to be in the wild and he decided to pursue it. I respect his decisions and i personally believe it was a good decision other than the fact of him dying. He made the infinitive decision to do all of this so why stop
Seven billion people in the world, all with unique personalities, on this earth to serve a purpose in their own life, or someone else’s. Chris McCandless was a man with unique qualities, and served to please himself and coincedently others as well. In the book “Into the Wild” the author, Jon Krakauer, explains the adventures and mishaps Chris McCandless went through in his life. Krakauer admired Chris for his personality, and his ability to be determined and hardworking at everything he did. Chris McCandless was an admirable man, with his individual view on life, and the way he could touch a person’s life and impact them forever.
If you attempted to talk him out of something, he wouldn’t argue. He would just nod politely and then do exactly what he wanted” (Krakauer 182). Chris did exactly as Carine stated he would when someone tried to stop his trip to Alaska. Chris understood what the trip to Alaska would entail but decided to continue anyway. He was confident in his abilities and constantly felt the need to challenge those abilities. According to Jon Krakauer, “He had a need to test himself in ways, as he was fond of saying ‘that mattered’. He possessed grand- some would say grandiose- spiritual ambitions” (Krakauer 182). Although Chris’s ambition is surely admirable it also could be credited as his tragic flaw. Chris strived for perfection in everything he set his mind to. He refused to listen to individuals who were trying to help him when saying he was ill prepared; instead he ignored their efforts and went into the wild. Chris’s unpreparedness could later be identified as the cause of his death but in his mind, his supporters would like to believe, it did not matter. Chris died doing what he loved, living in isolation with nature being his only companion.
To begin, living freely, being one with nature, and not conforming to society is what Chris McCandless shows through his actions. Living freely is what the meaning of life is to Chris McCandless as shown through his actions.This quote is from one of his letters he wrote to his friends, “ This is the last communication you shall receive from me. I now walk out to live amongst the wild. Take care it was great knowing you” (Krakauer 69). This is an example of him living freely by cutting off all his communications with his friends and going to live in the wilderness. Furthermore, Chris McCandless finds it important to become one with nature and to be one with it. By going into the wild he is surrounding himself with nature and nothing else,“The beauty of this country is becoming part of me”(Krakauer 91). What this means is that through living in the wild he becomes closer to his surroundings and finds out what life really means. Lastly, the final meaning of life is to not to conform to society as Chris McCandless did. He did this through not listing to people who just wanted to make him better, “But if you tried to coach him, to polish his skill, to bring out that final ten percent, a wall went up. He resisted instruction of any kind”(Krakauer 111). This shows nonconformity by him not accepting advice from anyone to make his skill the best he is resisting giving into what everyone wants him to do and not conforming to society.