Into the Wild: Christopher McCandless' Escape From the Confines of Society

The story of a young man’s journey, told through interviews and acquired letters and journal entries, is interpreted and analyzed by Jon Krakauer in his novel Into the Wild. Chris McCandless, the combatant of his own story, embarks on an adventure around America after graduating from Emory University. When McCandless finds himself in the Alaskan wilderness with only a rifle, ten pounds of rice, a camera, and a few extra books and journals, he dies of starvation after a mere four months. In the novel, Krakauer successfully uses concrete diction to create complex sentences, apostrophes, and anecdotes to analyze the few interactions McCandless has leading up to his death and to drive the reader to question the role of an individual in society and if Chris McCandless deserves his eventual death.

At first, Chris McCandless attempted to return to a life of normality. In Bullhead City, Arizona, McCandless found a job working at McDonald’s. With this job, Chris almost deserted his original plans and stayed in Bullhead City, but the job required socks and a clean manner. Chris did not believe in these things, and the bearing normality forced Chris to quit his job and return to his plans of going into the Alaskan Wilderness (Krakauer, 38-41). When Chris McCandless was about to leave into the Alaskan Wilderness, he encountered Jim Gallien. Jim Gallien was a man who knew the dangers of the bush and how treacherous the land can be. McCandless didn’t want any supplies or help Gallien had to offer, but Gallien was pleading for McCandless to take the supplies that would help him. Chris McCandless did not know how far he should push his judgement on how life should be lived, further worsening his circumstances in the wilderness without many supplies (Krakauer, 4-8, 164-166 and 189). Chris McCandless did not know when to turn back home and mentally, could not overcome a dangerous task. McCandless, “Satisfied, apparently, with what he had learned during his two months of solitary life in the wild, McCandless decided to return to civilization…” (Krakauer, 168). This thought came with an over challenging obstacle, the Teklanika River was a raging water source that was difficult to pass, and McCandless was stuck on what to do. With a weak swimming ability, McCandless decided to turn back rather than crossing the dangerous waters, thus isolating him in the wilderness, leading to his death (Krakauer, 168-170). In addition to constant internal conflicts, McCandless had numerous conflicts with nature along his journey that lead to his

As a kid, he was athletic joining sports and wanted to join without the fact of learning how to do it. As he grew older, he joined his cross country team in high school. His father Walt states, “He resisted insisted instruction of any kind” (111). When McCandless sets a goal, he was going to achieve it,no matter the consequences . For example he chose to run away from his parents and society in his trips he made during summer.

Chris McCandless was a very educated person who wanted to go to Alaska. He gave away his trust fund to a charity it was around $25,000 that he donated. He came from a wealthy family, but only saw money as a dangerous object. McCandless didn’t tell his family that he was leaving so it was a really big surprise that he left. He drove his old rusty car as far as it would get him and then he started walking. Chris McCandless did not have a purpose of why he wanted to go to Alaska. McCandless was going to do whatever it took to get where he needed to go. When he started his journey he burned the rest of his

To understand the reasons why Chris McCandless proceeded with his actions, one must know his personal background. Chris grew up in a wealthy family, raised by his highly educated parents. He became very passionate about his schoolwork and read several novels from Leo Tolstoy and Henry David Thoreau. While attending Emory University, McCandless was seen by others as a man with a promising future. Even though he was wealthy and successful, however, he was still unhappy with his personal life. Chris’s family was constantly fighting, which motivated Chris

McCandless was a wealthy son from the East Coast. His father seemed to expect a lot from him and wanted him to do something great with his life. His parents put

After graduating from Emory University in Atlanta, McCandless’s parents offered to buy him a new car as their graduation present. Contrasting what most teenagers would feel about this news, McCandless was shocked and offended, he “couldn’t believe they’d try and buy me a car” (21). McCandless did not believe in the idea of tangible gifts, he explained to his sister that “he would have to be real careful not to accept any gifts from them in the future because they will think they have bought [his] respect” (21). McCandless near insecurity of gifts, and his longing for a peaceful and moral world caused him to want to search for another life. After burning his wallet, giving all his remaining money to charity, and leaving his beloved car behind, McCandless abandoned his family and hitchhiked his way west as far as possible. These actions and ideas that McCandless developed while studying in college were only a blueprint for his tragic flaw, which would further establish itself while traveling alone in the West.

McCandless lead a mostly enjoyable life; he was born into a considerably rich and high end family, and received outstanding grades through his years in school. He was well liked, and built up a motivated and optimistic persona, yet despite this, he decided to abandon his life and reach for “an endlessly changing horizon”(57). His life, while possibly seen as luxury by

In the book Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer tells the fascinating story of a man named Christopher Johnson McCandless and the journey he takes around the U.S and Canada. McCandless’ journey is not just a another hitchhiker who started out with nothing. Christopher or “Alex” believed in not allowing important things to over run a person’s way of living. He abandoned everything, his beloved car, all the money he had from his college fund, and his family. Krakauer illustrates the impact McCandless left on many people’s lives and explained in great detail the journey “Alex” decided to take.

Chris McCandless is an intelligent young man with major traits of stubbornness and determination. He had grown up in an affluent neighborhood of Washington, D.C., where he was able to succeed both in academics and athletics. With such ambition to succeed and desire to live by his own moral code, the clear

Immediately after graduating college Chris decides to leave all of his possessions behind and give all his money away to charities and venture off into the wilderness of Alaska. The thing that McCandless wants most in his life is to be free with nature and live off the land and not be sucked into society. Throughout his story chris meets lots of people who help shape his life and give him assistance in his voyage to freedom. In the book Chris says “So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change

The fascinating story of Christopher Mccandless, inspires many kids my age to follow in his footsteps and adventure out in the world. In my opinion, Mccandless, was not very inspiring to me. This is because he disobeyed his loyal parents and went off without notifying anyone. However, I can see why several people find his story quite breath taking. Throughout the novel, Mccandless, abandons his items and travels by land without proper gear or food. This gives me a representation of how hard he must have worked in order to hunt for food or survive in the coldest of days. By giving the readers a visual of how he lived, it made us believe that it is possible to survive outdoors with nothing but a creative mind. Another point the book pointed out to me, was the fact that some people respected him by giving him rides city to city, while other people ignored him and moved along and left him alone. Mccandless, also had a bright and fun spirit through all of the obstacles he faced. He may have been starving, but he continuously tried to look at the brighter sides of the problems.

In the brighter spectrum of Mr. Chris McCandless, is his deep and intellectual personality, shining through on most every occasion with cynical value or an interesting opinion every now and then. In Chris’s deep scholarly thought he decides to give up many things for his own self righteousness in attemp to make himself free of any evil or distraction as well as anything that may hold him down. As a younger boy in high school he proved his good Samaritan self by spending weekends taking to the the streets, spending nights with prostitutes, the homeless, and the addicts, feeding them and experiencing a little of what they felt. As I mentioned before he gave up what he thought would ruin his dreams and soil his life, he rid his life of luxury and wealth along with long-term relationships with people. As one of the things that he had apparently given up was the desire of sex and all of it’s evils, and proclaimed that his need was much to great for something so petty. Truly I believe traveling as a child with his family engineered a mind set within Chris that made him feel as if familiarity was just a weight holding him down from the flight toward his dreams. He also thought that being lost in such a superficial and trivial society could help no one

An outstanding young man, helped the poor, in high school participated in cross-country, intelligent. He was healthy, he sang and performed instruments. Moreover, all that was mentioned, for Christopher, wasn’t enough. He had still a need; a necessity that required discovering in a way outside the commonplace, the wonders, mysteries and obstacles that nature has with it. Thus one day, Christopher McCandless, a newly graduated college student without preambles got rid of his belongings and money in bank accounts. Without giving even a note of warning to his parents and friends, he simply disappeared from society and no one knew what happened to him. It took a lot of courage, to be willing to leave

The story of Chris McCandless has become a pop culture phenomenon. Many are fascinated by his desire to abandon his family and society and “walk into the wild” (Krakauer 69). Newscasts, magazine articles, movies, and books have tried to define what motivated him to give up everything for his Alaskan odyssey; however, the answers died with McCandless. People make assumptions about him without knowing his entire story. McCandless chose to do the unconventional, making people think he was either foolish or brave and determined, but ultimately he was selfish for doing what he did.