...Wenjie Hu, TJ Puckett, English 102, 09/19/2013 A Pilgrims of Ultimate Freedom Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer is the 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...
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...of an idea that was? Chris McCandless was placed in a similar situation in the novel, “Into The Wild” by Jon Krakauer. However, rather than acknowledging the conceptual faults behind running away from home, McCandless made the conscious decisions to follow through and purse his augmented and simply erratic adventure. McCandless’s decision was inevitably futile because although he had moderately justifiable intentions of going into the wild, his ignorance, arrogance, and lack of preparedness surmounted his intentions and would inevitably cost him his life. One significant conceptual flaw in regards to why McCandless went on such an adventure was his lack of maturity. After Franz had left McCandless on Interstate 70, “McCandless was thrilled to be on his way north, and he was relieved---relieved that he had again...
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...Andrea Perez English 110 A journey of self-discovery Going into the wild, Chris McCandless, a young man, whose past shows the wounds of a troubled family, gives up living by the standards of society and decides to go in an adventure for two years. Living as a tramp, traveling around; first by car, then by foot, meeting people on the road but always continuing towards his ultimate adventure: Alaska, McAndless shows great determination to carry on the road that brought him to his final exploration. However, not knowing that his odyssey would cost him his life and the pain and suffering of the ones that loved him the most. Thus, many people ponder: “was he crazy?” “Why would he do something like that?” It is easy for one to wonder what was the impulse for such an adventure. What was driving his heart and soul to that lifestyle? Some people argue that he was just a reckless young kid trying to punish his family. However, some of this thoughts might be true; Alexander Supertramp, a name he adopted to symbolize a complete disconnection with his previous life, had deeper and more important reasons to his actions, his main intention was to pursue what made his soul feel at peace, he was looking for happiness and escaping from the ghost of a past that tormented him. Though, he surprised himself by realizing that his stubborn concept of happiness wasn’t completely right for himself. According to the google dictionary happiness is a state of mind of feeling characterized by contentment...
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...Haydn Schoonover American Lit, P6 Westenskow May 9, 2014 Into the Wild, Chris McCandless Analysis In Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer tells the story of Chris McCandless, a man born in an affluent family. McCandless allowed his wandering thoughts and moral code guide him in a way that lead to certain death. His parents, Billie and Walt McCandless set him up for an impressive, promising life. Chris took this promising, successful future and spun into a journey filled with idealist literature and danger that skewed his world view. Chris McCandless is often seen as a narcissistic, deeply-misplaced young man that betrayed the emotional trust of his parents. He was not the ideal hero, nor was he a fool. He was rather an idealist, applying his beliefs in order to shift his purpose, unable to be influenced by the forces in his life, such as his collegiate endeavors and his family. “At long last he was unencumbered, emancipated from the stifling world of his parents and peers, a world of abstraction and security and material excess, a world in which he felt grievously cut off from the raw throb of existence.” (Krakauer, 22). McCandless frees himself, despite being chained to the rabid chaos of the urban, modern world. The story of Into the Wild communicates that it is important to follow your own path, in spite of external opinions. Chris McCandless was a pompous fool taking into consideration the decisions he made throughout his short life. He burned all of the money his wallet...
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...believe that Christopher McCandless was not a crazy person, however, he may have been incompetent in the sense that he was unprepared and rash in his decision making. Throughout the novel, the author, Jon Karakauer, explained the life of Chris McCandless and his last journey in the American west. Krakauer describes McCandless’s journey with so much detail and information provided by his loved ones that it’s clear to suggest McCandless was intelligent, stubborn, and unprepared during his lifelong adventure. Throughout the novel, Krakauer pieces together the puzzle that was Christopher McCandless’s life. While most of Chris’s family was in utter confusion and grief as to why Chris would leave without a trace, Krakauer discovered why and...
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...INTO THE WILD, AN EXTENSIVE REVIEW Both The book and film 'Into the Wild' give an account on a genuine story of Christopher J McCandless, a knowledgeable and capable young fellow from a decent family who pursued his fantasies and desire. In the wake of graduation from Emory University, Chris gave the parity of his instruction sparing record to Oxfam and vanished from society to carry on with the life of a loner and endeavor into domains where relatively few have challenged. He ended up giving up obviously, his family and companions in doing as such. The book recounts the story from impeccable outsiders he met, his adolescence, his adventures and disappointments prompting his troublesome passing. The book and film additionally gives you samples of different experiences that have likenesses to Chris and additionally the writer who can identify with Chris' enthusiasm forever. It is an extraordinary story and surely one that inspires. I just cannot get enough of this story, the movie is epic, but it’s the novel that is the topping in the dessert. The moral lessons are immensely impactful, not only that, they are very relevant in the contemporary society. I have chosen to review this work of art due to the extensive applicability in real life and the lives of the majority of us in the contemporary society. I love the movie more since it brings the characters to live, in a manner that very few Hollywood blockbusters have achieved. This allows the audience to connect and identify...
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...Into the Wild Argumentative Essay Into the Wild is a 1996 non-fiction book written by Jon Krakauer. It is an expansion of Krakauer's 9,000-word article on Christopher McCandless titled "Death of an Innocent", which appeared in the January 1993 issue of Outside. Christopher Johnson McCandless was an intelligent, idealistic young man who believed that life was best lived alone, in nature. He spent two years testing his theory throughout the western United States before he entered the wilds of Alaska unprepared and starved to death. Chris had a very bright, hopeful future and why he left it all behind confuses most people. After analyzing Chris's personality traits, it helps things make sense. This makes many people ask the question, what was Christopher McCandless's temperament type? The theory of temperament type was introduced in the 1920s by Carl G. Jung. The essence of the theory is that much seemingly random variation in the behavior is actually quite orderly and consistent, being due to basic differences in the ways individuals prefer to use their perception and judgment. Based on evidence from the story, Chris McCandless was most likely an INTP (introverted, intuitive, thinking, and perceiving) temperament type. This means he was focused internally, where he dealt with things rationally and logically. Some people would diagree wiht this position and would argue that Chris McCandless leaned towards the preference of sensing and feeling. There is some evidence provided...
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...desire for those who spend their life trapped in the cog of life and success, people who grew up with expectations set upon them, people like Christopher McCandless. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a book on Chris McCandless, a man who decided he would hitch-hike up north into the Alaskan wilderness. This is considered a non-fiction biography. Chris was only in his twenties when he set out on his wilful journey to Alaska, embarking on a trip of being alone to make his own decisions, being stripped down to his wits, testing his strengths, and ultimately taxing his weaknesses....
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...Chris McCandless’ Spiritual Journey Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, tells of Chris McCandless’ fatal journey to find eternal happiness. Although Chris came from a somewhat wealthy family, he left it all behind to wander the country experiencing life and nature as he thought it should be. He was an intelligent, head strong young man, who traveled the country with only what he could carry with him. He met some interesting people along his journey and whether they liked him or not, he always made a lasting impression. The people that knew him were devastated by his death in Alaska. Initially, I thought Chris was selfish to abandon those who cared about him, but then I realized if they really cared about him they would want him to be free to his own life and make his own mistakes. He made plenty of mistakes before he even went to Alaska. After he died many more people became fascinated with his life and his story. He was a high achiever as a child but as he grew older, he started to find different things important. Instead of sports and grades, he began to feel very strongly about different causes like hunger in Africa. “During his senior year, he became obsessed with racial oppression in South Africa.” (Krakauer, pg. 113). He also spent a lot of time with this homeless in Georgetown. He began to isolate himself from his friends and family. His summer adventures became longer and longer until the day he left for good. Chris often found comfort in some of his favorite authors who...
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...“I 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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...make some questionable decisions. Chris McCandless is a key example of someone who chooses against forgiveness. Chris McCandless is the main character in the book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer which speaks of his journey to Alaska. As soon as Chris graduated from Emory, a top university school with a 4.0 GPA, his life was all planned out to be successful. Then came his irrational decision to drop everything and journey to Alaska. On top of that, he also dropped everyone, including his very own family. What kind of sane...
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...man named Christopher McCandless graduated from Emory, donated all of his savings, and embarked on a two year journey, which eventually resulted in his death in the wilderness of Alaska. Prior to his expedition, Chris uncovered the secret of his father's infidelity and of his second family. This cause Chris to separate himself from his parents, and fueled his desire to escape the greedy, complicated nature of society. On his travels across the western United States, Chris befriended many and kept in a distant touch with few, one of those select few being Wayne Westerberg, the owner of a grain elevator in South Dakota. After two years of hike-hiking as far south as Mexico, McCandless reached his final most northern...
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...Christopher McCandless, chronicled by biographer, Jon Krakauer, was a man who wanted to be independent of anything that society needed in order to find peace of mind and independence that comes from true solitude. You do not have to put your life at risk and go out to the godforsaken wild. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society”. I find that Emerson is trying to portray the message that one must ultimately focus on the thoughts inside their head, independence of thought. In my opinion, Emerson's chamber does not have to be leaving town or society for the wild of that matter, it can be finding an inner peace with oneself. The chamber is symbolic of one's thought of discovering peace of mind in our head, again referring to the thought of independent thoughts. One cannot go through life with the thought that they should abandon society. Solitude, as Emerson depicts it, is something to aspire, but one shouldn’t isolate oneself from other people. One does not have to leave society in...
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...A Hopeful Prodigy Led Astray Chris McCandless was a well-rounded student and athlete who lived in a wealthy neighborhood in Washington D.C. His father, Walt, already had another family and kids when Chris was born. Chris found out about his father’s secret family when he visited his hometown after graduating from high school. Discovering this at such a delicate age, Chris became furious with his parents, especially his father. He abandoned his career in law and decided to travel to the Alaskan mountains and camp there alone. Being part of a secret, hidden family led Chris to shift his focus from his parents and career in law and seek replacements for them in the form of nature, Francis and Westburg. The similarity between Chris's personality and that of his father was one of the problems; similar people tend to grate on each other, especially when one is in direct authority. Chris felt that his parents, while meaning well, didn't understand the ideals that he had learned from Tolstoy or Thoreau, and that they were addicted to the pursuit of material wealth just like everyone else in society. Instead of speaking with them and finding common ground, he rebelled in a passive-aggressive manner. When he finally started his journey, he resolved to never contact them; sadly, he held to this resolution until it was too late. McCandless "talks the talk" in a way that alienates fewer listeners than one would predict, but he "walks the walk," too — which may account for the fact that...
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...have a clear path to get wherever they want to go without having something or someone holding them back. In the book "Into The Wild" the main character Chris has to tap out in order to find who he really was. The reason why tapping out was the most essential to Chris' self discovery journey is because Chris had to give up his old identity and become Alexander Supertramp. The way that Chris was able to find his true self was by...
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