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Into The Wild Chris Mccandless Character Analysis

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The plot line of a tragic story is one that enthralls a reader with the rise and fall of a tragic hero. After the death of Christopher McCandless in Alaska over 20 years ago, not only is there still discussion of what was the true cause of his death, but also the widespread debate of a much larger question: was McCandless a tragic hero? Some argue that Christopher McCandless is a selfish coward and ended up giving his whole life and education away due to his lack of knowledge of the wilderness, while others argue that he lived his life through pushing beyond the limits of a normal human being and seeking what is limited to most of society. In the novel Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer describes the travels of McCandless and writes about how past …show more content…

He does this in order to question the status quo of society, ultimately coinciding with Miller’s third criteria of a tragedy. Miller defines that a tragic hero’s struggle “must enlighten the reader by questioning the status quo of our society and pointing out that which limits humankind’s realization of dignity, identity, and freedom”(Miller). McCandless’ personality has a strong effect on drawing in others to be interested in his aspirations. Krakauer paints this emotional grip through the story of Ron, an 81 year old man who meets Chris McCandless and becomes drawn into his lifestyle. Being heartbroken when left without notice by McCandless, Ron is brought into this daring lifestyle when he receives a letter from Chris, saying “we must have the courage to turn against our habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living. My point is that you do not need me or anyone else around to bring this new kind of light in your life. It is simply waiting out there for you to grasp it”(Krakauer 57). Before meeting McCandless, Krakauer illustrates Ron as an individual who has a routine focus of working from night until day, and bases life off of monetary value. The new type of lifestyle that Ron sees through Chris leads to him having the desire to recraft his whole vision of life …show more content…

This perspective goes against him being defined as a tragic hero—it conflicts with Miller’s criteria in which the “protagonist’s primary struggle needs to be the search for their sense of dignity and identity [and] find their rightful place in society”(Miller). However, Krakauer refutes this belief through stating that his childhood lifestyle was controlled through the harshness of Christopher’s father. He says, “given Walt’s authority through high school and college to a surprising degree, but the boy raged inwardly all the while. He brooded at length over what he perceived to be his father’s moral shortcomings, the hypocrisy of his parents’ lifestyle, the tyranny of their conditional love”(Krakauer 64). McCandless’ years up to high school had been a blinded lifestyle in which he had to follow the routine of his authoritative father. It is not until university where he is able to truly seek out the freedom of being able to choose what he wants to pursue in his life. By the time he graduates, he already makes the choice to take a journey into the wild, meaning that he had no past experience of getting a job, making money, or having a set routine life as other college graduates. Krakauer uses this situation to strengthen his illustration of McCandless as a tragic hero, as it shows that he truly does not have a rightful

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