...The Qualities of Christopher McCandless In the spring of 1992 Christopher Johnson McCandless was in search for truth. Intending to find it, he ventured across the country to the Alaskan brush and encountered people that would be charmed by the young adult's work ethic and knowledge. Christopher McCandless is a nonconformist whose lack of preparedness and need for reflective thought were the leading cause of his death. McCandless had always thought that wealth, society, and the government were unnecessary evils in the world, so he intended to disappear and live how men in the primordial ages did. "McCandless tramped around the west for the next two months, spell bound by the scale and the power of landscape, thrilled by minor brushes with the law, savoring the intermittent company of other vagabonds he met along the way." (29). McCandless was in such awe of nature and was so glad to be out experiencing nature. The author uses pathos tin this quote to show that at that moment in time Chris...
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...Chris McCandless: Hero or fool? “If this adventure proves fatal and you don’t ever hear from me again, I want you to know you’re a great man. I now walk into the wild.” (Krakauer, 3). Into the wild is about a man by the name of Chris McCandless. Chris goes into Alaska to try to survive but ends up dying in Alaska on the Stampede Trail. This book has caused a debate on whether or not Chris was a hero or a fool. Chris McCandless is a fool throughout the book, for example, Chris tries to survive in the Alaskan Wilderness with little experience, he tries to survive by himself with no help and Chris is to hard on his parents. Chris demonstrates foolishness by trying to survive in the Alaskan wilderness with little experienve. He shows this in Chapter...
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...Chris McCandless, Jon Krakauer, and Henry David Thoreau all believe in the central idea of Transcendentalism. After reading Into the Wild by Krakauer and some excerpts from Walden, we start to gather that Chris bases some of his actions and how he lives based on Thoreau’s ideas. Chris and Henry both embrace to not stay on a particular path, to embrace the idea of wanting more in life, and simplicity. Both men’s life choices are examples of Transcendentalism. One of the first examples of transcendentalism is when Chris embraces to not stay on a beaten path. For example, Chris sends Ron a letter telling him to have radical change in his life, to do things that he has never done. McCandless says, “ I think that you should make radical changes in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things in which you may previously have thought of doing”…(Krakauer 56). McCandless wants Ron to experience the life of nomads, Chris’s belief to not stay on a set path, to do his own thing. Thoreau says, “It is remarkable how easily and sensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for yourself …” (Walden). This quote relates to McCandless’s belief to not stay on a set path, to live the extreme, and to not remain doing the same thing for a lifetime. Not having a...
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...true story of Chris Johnson McCandless, a young man who is found dead in the Alaska wilderness, McCandless raised in a wealthy family from Virginia, and he is born talented and smart, who from an early age shows deep intensity, passion, and a strict moral behavior. After graduating from high school, McCandless spent the summer alone on a road trip, during which he discovered his father secretly had a second family. McCandless returns home and starts as a freshman in college, but his anger over this betrayal and his parents’ keeping this secret away from him grows worse and worse over time. By the time that McCandless graduated from college, he drives away without telling anyone where he is going, abandoning the use of his real name along the way. He never contacts his family. Not too long after McCandless abandoned his car in the desert and he begins to hitch hikes around the Northwest, getting jobs everywhere but not staying at a location for long, During this time, he gets to know a few people. In 1992, McCandless hiked into the wilderness, he spent the next sixteen weeks in the magic bus, not seeing a single human being the entire time. He has success for the most parts. However, McCandless probably have eaten some moldy seeds, and the mold contains a poison that caused him to starve to death. He realized that he is going to die, he wrote a goodbye note, and a few weeks later some hunters found him on the bus. The author Jon Krakauer recognizes that Chris McCandless was “rash”...
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...author that Chris McCandless wasn’t a crazy person, a sociopath or an outcast because he got along with many people very well, but he did seem somewhat incompetent even though he survived for a while. He knew some things about surviving alone in the wild but also learned things too with being out in the wild. Chris started his adventure and had the right to go and explore the wild on his own. In the wild, there are many things to find, but Chris seeked one thing in particular in the wilderness, but what was it he was trying to look for. The one thing he was trying to seek in particular was maybe this, “…only a life similar to the life of those around us, merging with it without a ripple, is genuine life, and that an unshared happiness is not happiness. (Krakauer 189)”. He noted “HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED” (Krakauer 189). Maybe this is what he seeked in the wilderness, “Happiness”. McCandless did find happiness before he died, so that might have been the thing he meant to seek out in the wilderness....
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...beginning of the chapter the reader observes a postcard. Analyze the effect this postcard is intended to have on the reader of the book. this postcard is intended to give the reader insight on how chris changed his name and changed from a middle class family to hitch hiking all the way to alaska. it shows that he doesn't want any contact with the outside world. It shows that Chris is thinking that he may not make it back. “proves fatal” (Krakauer,3) How does McCandless’s attitude about government parallel that of Thoreau’s. they both believe that the government is has now power over them. amd they don't answer to it. they both ignore the laws set by the government. “How I feed myself is none of the government’s...
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...Ralph W. Emerson once said this quote. This quote some what describes Chris McCandless, because in the book Into the Wild, written by Jon Krakauer, McCandless goes on an adventure. This young man goes on this adventure, so he can see what he is able to do and also to find himself. McCandless was determent to live his live to the fullest even from a very young age. He went with his dad on several adventures and always explored new things when he was younger. As he grew up he never lost the feeling that he got every time he went to explore new things. He was different from most of the people, because he does not mind being...
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...do not believe that Chris McCandless was crazy. He was more that a sociopath wandering around. He was a young man with a burning desire to find a deeper meaning to life. Chris did what most people are afraid to do, discover. I can say that I truly admire the perspective and drive that McCandless had. On McCandless' journey, he was seeking to find happiness and truth. Most of Chris' life was full of lies and secrets and this drove him to search for the truth. It states, "Lies were told and then exposed, begetting more lies to explain away the initial deceptions. Two years after Chris was born, Walt fathered another son- Quinn McCandless- with Marcia. When Walt's double life came to light, the revelations inflicted deep wounds. All parties suffered terribly." This quote shows how...
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...now walk into the wild.” Those were the eerie almost-haunting last words written in a letter by Chris McCandless addressed to Wayne Westerberg. One of many people that McCandless spent time with while during his compelling & exhilarating grand odyssey across America before his trip to Alaska. For as he described in his journal “The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual revolution.” Informatively written and researched by award winning adventure writer and journalist John Krakauer. He has pieced together a compelling and investigative look at what happened during the two years that McCandless shed his possessions and hit the road traveling across the country up until, his tragic death as...
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...Unlike many books, the structure of this narrative is nonlinear. Right off the back Krakauer announces the death of Chris McCandless within the first chapter. The chronology of the way Krakauer narrates the story of McCandless helps the reader better understand each part of McCandless’s life and journey “into the wild”. Many readers should take acknowledgement of how thoroughly Krakauer constructs this book and in detail how the narrative changes among two parts of Chris McCandless’s life. For example, the book begins with McCandless’s appearance in Alaska and the final individual to interact with McCandless before obtaining his anticipated goal of freedom and happiness in the wildness of Alaska. A few pages into chapter one Chris McCandless was, “Then, smiling broadly, he disappeared down...
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...Going into the wild isn’t something most people would willingly do. Chris McCandless had many reasons to leave his family, he wasn’t crazy. If he was crazy like most people might say, he wouldn’t have been able to survive alone in the wilderness for 113 days. He definitely wasn’t street smart and lacked common sense nut that doesn’t mean he was crazy. McCandless lacked knowledge of where he he was going and wasn’t prepared for the brutality of nature. Chris McCandless wasn't a crazy person or an outcast because he got along with people very well but he did seem somewhat incompetent even though he survived for a while. Chris McCandless was very bright and made some good decisions. For example, " He'd excelled academically and then an elite athlete" (Pg.1). This shows Chris wasn't dumb he graduated from Emory University, he wasn't street smart but he was definitely book smart. Another example would be, “McCandless gave the entire balance of $24,000 of savings account to charity” (Pg.1). McCandless donated his money to OXFAM to help starvation. Chris was also friendly and had a strong effect on people. For example, “He helped me out,’...
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...In the book Into the Wild and Thoreau’s passages from Walden, John Krakauer shows how Thoreau is important to Chris McCandless and how he was influential to McCandless. Chris’ story in Into the Wild tells how he is driven by Henry David Thoreau’s Transcendental beliefs. Transcendentalism is a religious and philosophical movement that began in New England in the mid-nineteenth century. It was formed by the ideas of American Democracy. Both Thoreau and Chris McCandless grasp Transcendentalism through concepts such as simplicity, self-reliance, and to live an honest life. The first Transcendentalist belief that Chris McCandless follows is to simplify his life. For example, Chris brings a very small amount of food with him on his expedition because...
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...Christopher Johnson McCandless, also know as “Alexander Supertramp” to those he connected with while on the lam, was a hiker that that went into the wilderness with little food and equipment hoping to find a life of solitude. On this thrilling journey in Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, Chris displays himself to be a hero of authenticity and transcendentalism, and at times even a fool. Towards the end of his life, he truly morphed himself from a college graduate, to a man that lives and strives off the land known as “Supertramp.” Christopher was a genuine boy throughout the course of his life and always saw the positive in negative situations. His bubbly personality was contagious as he mesmerized everyone with his charm and sincereness. His authenticity is show throughout the entirety of the book, but a single quote represents his mentalities and philosophies, “The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. 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 57). He lived and died by this mind set, which exemplified his heroism. Christopher knew there was a intense physical challenge ahead of him in order to achieve the emotional enlightenment he set out searching for; this is another prime example that shows the true hero of authenticity. Most people would be deterred from this expedition because they deem...
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...Character Analysis The Roast of Christopher Mccandless “Prepared” simply put is being ready for an event. In the book Into the Wild, Chris or Alex, as he liked to be called, was not prepared for his spur of the moment adventure he went on. He may have been on multiple trips in the past like this, But that does not mean he was prepared to go to alaska. Chris was a dreamer and any realist or normal person would know that a trip to alaska would need more preparedness to be able to sustain themselves but Chris grew up with his head in the clouds as if it were an attempt to save himself from his real life. Chris was out of his mind going to Alaska without any real preparation. Christopher Mccandless was a mental wreck and should never have attempted this trek or adventure as he called it. Christopher Mccandless was a mental catastrophe who attempted a trek that he was ill prepared for and should never have started. Chris may have made multiple trips or camping trips growing up but none of them would amount to a crumb of the cake he chose to attempt. Chris had his head in the clouds and decided to take a trip that would inevitably take his life. Any experienced mountaineer or level minded person would know to bring a map. But Chris did not take a map he planned to wander through...
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...Throughout the novel “Into the Wild” written by Jon Krakauer, there are many examples of the main character being labeled as not a smart person. In the novel, the main character Chris McCandless was brutally insulted by many when he appeared dead on the newspaper. Those statements consist him being, reckless, crazy, arrogant, and more. Firstly, I somewhat disagree and agree with Callarman’s ideals. As Callerman’s states, “I think that Chris McCandless was bright and ignorant at the same time,” I start to feel their are many ideas how this quote can be related to my personal life and more. I agree with Callerman’s statement because there was no doubt Chris McCandless was arrogant, but he was not as ignorant as I thought. In my opinion, the...
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