Character of Chris McCandless of Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer

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Life is never easy, no matter how hard we try to short cut and escape the inevitable difficulties. After College is when life sets in, when work becomes a necessity and we all begin to find a place to settle down. People respond differently to different situations. Some of us embrace the freedom and the ability to earn money and spend money indiscriminately. Others crumple under the social pressures placed on us. Christopher McCandless is a perfect example. Settling down and raising a family, providing for that family and creating a sustainable lifestyle are important and high stress things that we all must deal with if we are to enjoy the finer things in life. Chris totally abandoned that, he gave away all of his possessions; even denied the help that his parents were willing to give him. There is a saying that nothing in life is free. This statement may be the truest statement that I have ever read. No matter how much we wish, things in life cannot and do not come without some price, usually that is in the form of monetary consequence. Admittedly, at times it would be nice to get away, to go out into the wilderness and live off the land; carefree and without a reason to worry. However, it is increasingly obvious that such things are immature pathetic attempts at substituting a normal way of life. There are things that you do with some friends to go on a vacation and to get away from reality for a week. It is not something that you do to make your way of life. It is rather depressing, to me, when people act as though they are elitist because they live in a Yurt and grow their own vegetables. For the sake of not conforming to social norms; all for the sake of striking back at the man. Apparently, being a constructive member o...

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... and disconnecting from humanity is no way to make a point. It is tempting to view Chris as the romantic hero, sensitive, responding to the majestic beauty around him and recoiling from the harsh and meaningless norms of society. But if we don’t like the way things are, shouldn’t we make an attempt to change them? Recall the ”Audacity of Hope” and the “Yes We Can” campaign slogans of our current President. How this has resonated with the nation. Emerging from apathy, we understood we could make change. Perhaps we still can. In any case, I am the kind of man who prefers to believe that we can and should try. Retreat is not an option. We enter the system in order to change it. We enter into conformity to appreciate the benefits of the social and cultural grey area that binds us together. And we work to improve those parts that make us less than noble.

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