Comparing Chris McCandless and Minta

1301 Words3 Pages

Into the Wild, the main character Chris McCandless, came from a middle class family and loved to get away from his family to travel the country to see the simpler sides of life. He would just get into his car and travel all over during summer or fall breaks. Then he would go back to being a student and attending class. He did not have a phone where he could stay in contact with his family while he was traveling or while attending school. After graduation, he changed his name to Alexander Supertramp and traveled north to Alaska to live in the wild; donated his money to a charity that fights hunger. Connections began to arise regarding similar thinking between the character Chris McCandless and Minta, interviewed by Jonathan Woo regarding her experiences with the outdoors (Krakauer).
Jonathan asked Minta about her backpacking experiences in the interview. Her experience has many similarities and her views are a lot like the author John Krakauer who wrote Into the Wild. Minta has traveled a number of trails that has led to her backpacking experiences, for example the Appalachian Trail, Newfound Gap, I-40, and Mt. Leconte. “There are a lot of trails,” was Minta response to which one is her favorite trail (Minta 3). McCandless enjoyed many sites as well for his traveling experiences. He traveled, “Texas plains, through the heat of New Mexico and Arizona, and arrived at the Pacific coast” (Krakauer 118). Just listing these different places traveled between the two, you can tell they enjoy going to different places to see what they can discover. A big factor to keep in mind about these two is Minta took smaller adventures and traveled on less intense trails as for McCandless was more of a risk taker. It is interesting to read about the two traveling and it makes you wonder the type of people they might have met along the way.
Minta enjoys backpacking and the experience of meeting new people along her trails. She tells Jonathan, “You can talk to whomever, and they’re really friendly. Every real backpacker will gladly stop in the middle of his or her trail and just talk to you for forever” (Minta 1). Just like McCandless, he has found some friendly people who offer help and gives him some supplies to make his travels more successful.

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