...Krakauer’s book, Into the Wild, which chronicles the life of amateur survivalist Chris McCandless, largely embodies this claim. It seems the people who ever heard Chris’s story were split into two sects: on one side, there are those who claim McCandless was a misunderstood anti-hero, who showed some twisted nobility through his actions. On the other side, there are those who simply deem McCandless, in Krakauer’s own words, “a narcissist who perished out of arrogance and stupidity” (4). While Krakauer falls into the former camp -- mainly due to his own life’s similarities to Chris’s -- it really only takes a moment’s glance at McCandless’s life to see that the latter camp is more correct: while Chris did show some semblance of courage and nobility on his travels, he was, first and foremost, a stubborn, arrogant misanthrope, and that is the reason why he never walked out of Alaska in August of 1992. From Chris McCandless’s early years of childhood, he showed stubbornness in his everyday life. As Chris’s father Walt ruminates, “Chris had so much natural talent, . . . but if you tried to coach him, to polish his skill, to bring out that final ten percent, a wall went up”...
Words: 803 - Pages: 4
...everyday. Only few have a courage to step out of their comfort zone and take on life in a different way. One being Chris McCandless, a college student who decided to take a different route in life. Even though McCandless had a tragic ending, he did live an admirable life because he had the clear mindset and no regrets to go into the wild. To begin with it takes a clear mind to make big decisions like Chris McCandless, he knew what he was doing and getting into. For example, Chris wrote a postcard stating “If this adventure proves fatal and you don’t hear from me again...I now walk into the wild.”(Krakauer) Chris knew that walking into the wild could be fatal at any good point. He was well aware of the risks involved in him going into the wild. The article The Go Nowhere Connection states that “particularly young Americans...
Words: 476 - Pages: 2
...Alaska can be very hard. For Chris McCandless, it was tough. He came to Alaska and was not prepared for this type of terrain, so he suffered a slow death. The book Into The Wild shows that Chris comes to Alaska with his clothes, a 10-pound bag of rice, a 22 rifle, and boots given to him by Jim Gallien. This is the type of equipment you would need for a day. But what he was going to do was spend the next 113 days there. Chris McCandless was an ill-prepared hero who should be remembered because he showed the importance of nature and what it did for his mental state. Chris was a child who was shown a lot of violence against his family members when he was young. This made him want to restart and have his...
Words: 659 - Pages: 3
...Chris McCandless was heroic and brave because he did more in his twenty-four years than most people do in a lifetime. It is rare that people actually make the most of the short time they have on earth and live, rather than just exist. To go against the grain and discover the meaning of life instead of just settling, takes courage, determination, and a completely different, profound mindset, which were qualities Chris possessed. He did not just settle with the monotonous way of life that society expects of us. He went on an odyssey of self-discovery because he thirsted for truth and originality, and that is something to admire. One could say that he was naïve and brash and that inevitably led him to being a failure but he positively affected...
Words: 746 - Pages: 3
...McCandless vs. Shepard Chris McCandless and Adam Shepard were two different people with the same concept. They both grew up in nice neighborhoods and had wealthy families that always tried to give them the best they could have. Adam Shepard had one brother and Chris McCandless had one sister. Both boys had graduated from college before going on their adventure that would eventually interest many. Their backgrounds might have been similar but their journeys are what separates them. Chris McCandless was more admirable because he impacted the people he met along the way and adventured more during his journey. One of the great reasons why McCandless made a bigger impact on society was because he traveled more places. Chris started his travels...
Words: 816 - Pages: 4
...Is risking your life for a dream brave or idiotic? Chris McCandless was in his early twenties and just graduated college when he decided to leave everything behind and search for his place in society. He journeyed around the world for 2 years before he ended up in the Alaskan wilderness, where he died from starvation four months after he arrived. The story of his life soon became well-known, which sparked anger from many Alaskans on how he had decided to live and was seen as unprepared, arrogant, and harmfully idealistic. One of these Alaskans, Nick Jans, sent a letter to Outside Magazine saying that McCandless was living out stories he had read in books and disrespecting the land. Although Nick Jans’s letter of criticism towards Chris McCandless grasped specific traits,...
Words: 1024 - Pages: 5
...Successful or Triumphed Winston Churchill once wrote; “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” What if failure is fatal though? Can we even really call that a success? While reading the story of Chris McCandless’s journey in Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild readers are left with did McCandless succeed? And can his travels across the United States and into the Alaskan wilderness be interpreted as a success? Even though he did go out into the wilderness alone with hardly anything at all people think he is a success. However, McCandless was not a success because he went out there with hardly knowing much and practically killed himself and ended up dying. To start off, Chris McCandless did not even know how to cook food properly in a microwave yet alone clean it. In other words, this goes to show he was not very successful. Early in the book Jon Krakauer states that Westerburg “Opened the...
Words: 586 - Pages: 3
...able to do so because of the qualities he had. Chris McCandless had many different traits which makes readers think differently of him and what his motivations were. McCandless had qualities such as self-reliance, courage, and passion to motivate him for his adventure and life philosophy. Self-reliance was one of the many attributes McCandless had. He portrayed how he was self-reliant as a child and growing up. According to Krakauer, Carine, McCandless’s little sister, stated “He needed his solitude at times, but he wasn’t a...
Words: 914 - Pages: 4
...Into the wild The book Into the wild, by Jon Krakauer, is about a man named Christopher McCandless, who was a very wealthy person, because of his successful parents. Chris McCandless graduated from Emory University as one of their top students and he was also really good athlete. Instead of Chris McCandless following the American Dream, and having his parents pay for a really good college he rebelled and took a life changing journey. He was still very intelligent, however, and decided to change his lifestyle, and he gave his savings to save the hungry charity. Afterwards he burned his money on his journey to the Alaska to find his inner self and get to a certain spiritual journey he was trying to achieve. Because Chris’s life style is changing I give him props for taking control and doing what he is ‘passionate’ about. However I have to agree with Shaun Callarman’s quote, “I think that 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.” This is because he had noble ideas, but he took them way too far and was very arrogant. Chris Mccandless would be considered a freak because he went along with what he wanted to do, which was to go into the wild and it was not to follow what everyone else wanted him to do, this happened his entire...
Words: 902 - Pages: 4
...Chris McCandless can be considered an individual who did not want to live up to society’s expectations. Jon Krakauer portrays this certain individual as selfish and one who makes choices based off one’s moral values and beliefs. The author shows the readers the possible effects of stepping out of societal norms and decisions that can occur within the process. The surrounding environment plays a key component on McCandless’s life which influenced a path of reckless life decisions and choices. Society’s expectations require people to obtain a degree in education in order to become successful in the future. Growing up family orientated, Chris decided to graduate from college to make his parents happy. As an award from his parents, they offered...
Words: 673 - Pages: 3
...Chris McCandless eventually went on a journey that lead him to a bunch of different experiences, as well as Alaska which lead him to his death. He was an individual who had everything possibly handed to him and at the end of the day, he still wasn't happy. I felt like he felt he had something he had to do, which was to follow his own path. "What nobody knew-was the he would shortly donate all the money in his college fund to OXFAM America, a charity dedicated to fighting hunger." I feel like this wasn't the best decision he made but in reality despite what other people might think, he did what he felt like he needed to do. I feel like he could've given all this money back to his parents whom have put so much money into his education which he didn't take into consideration. But at the end, I felt like this particular part was the beginning, the beginning of his new life and a new start on his own and without his parents or families. He clearly didn't care for his family so although I feel like they should have got the...
Words: 814 - Pages: 4
...Theme Essay Jon Krakauer used Chris McCandless in Into The Wild to convey the idea that civilization disguises people, thus keeping them from from self-actualization. The civilization Chris lived in encouraged conformity instead of individuality which was revealed by Krakauer and showed that society can be disguising which forced Chris to rebel. He felt as if they wanted citizens to maintain a normal lifestyle and follow the rules of society. Chris described that people needed to “have the courage to turn against [their] habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living” (57). Chris took this to heart and chose to live the way others saw as unconventional but to him was real life. Due to having seeked an unconventional...
Words: 1609 - Pages: 7
...not. Is attempting to jump across worth it? Should I go back down? Or continue up? Each time you ask these things, you have to decide on what to do. Be it rock climbing, playing soccer, or doing anything that involves some sort of decision making, each decision comes with a varying level of risk. In soccer, that risk is minimal and not very life threatening, but when rock climbing (maybe without a belayer), some decisions can come with more serious consequences; these can be anything like small injuries, or they can cause serious injuries or even death. Jon Krakauer, the author of Into the Wild portrays Chris McCandless as someone who takes serious risks, but the benefits Krakauer finds in them are not as big as the risk in my opinion. Taking some risks are worth it as they can help you learn something about yourself, but others are not. In the book Into the Wild, Chris McCandless takes a big risk by going out into the wild unprepared with minimal supplies, but he thinks it is worth proving to...
Words: 1673 - Pages: 7
...Fear of the Unknown Taking any kind of a risk is a gamble. They have the potential to lead to a harmful or dangerous outcome, yet can still provide the opportunity for an outcome that can perceived as positive. The essay, “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer is his account of Chris McCandless’ search for himself through taking a risk and inhabiting the Alaskan wilderness. Through his lack of survival skills, it is evident that McCandless is a person who likes to take part of risky and dangerous behaviors. “Immune to Reality” by Daniel Gilbert is an analytical essay that revolves around the existence of the psychological immune system. This defense system proves to work as a mechanism that can create positive views out of a negative experience thus producing happiness to an individual. Through Gilbert’s analysis he discovers that people are usually not in favor of taking risks out of fear of feeling regret. However he proves how the psychological immune system can turn a negative consequence of taking a risk into a more pleasant and bearable one. The essay “Another Look Back, And A Look Ahead” by Edward Tenner is an insightful discussion about how people often miscalculate the way technologies will work in the future and to what extent they are useful. People may find themselves getting an unexpected outcome of some new technology which can lead to dangerous risks in the future. People take risks because they want to attain happiness however in the process of this, sometimes people’s...
Words: 1605 - Pages: 7
...Christopher McCandless was a young man who went on an undeniably extraordinary journey. It is easy to romanticize the live he lived and his journey to unearth his spirit. However, it’s also easy to dismiss him as a victim of the fearlessness and ignorance of youth. I believe both of these interpretations of Chris are wrong. I think he was a complex individual who was foolish and intelligent, logical and passionate, dedicated and stubborn. He was a living contradiction, like most people are. Part of Chris was a dreamy youth wandering the world in order to achieve what he perceived to be the ultimate freedom for his soul. It is an admirable goal for most people. He had enough courage to be able to leave his comfortable life and venture into the harsh unforgiving world. He was dedicated to his...
Words: 598 - Pages: 3
