Chris Mccandless Happiness

Happiness only genuinely exists when it can be shared. The novel, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, expresses this idea that happiness is only real when shared and defines the truth behind happiness. This novel follows a man named Chris McCandless, also known as Alex Supertramp, as he travels the country trying to find himself in the wild. In order to develop the theme of happiness only being real when shared, Jon Krakauer uses the people who Chris McCandless met while traveling. A similar adventure is Ed Wardle’s documentary called Alone In The Wild in which he attempted to survive out in the wild alone. On both of these men’s adventures, they come to face the realization that human contact and presence is important. While “tramping” across

On McCandless’s final adventure to the Alaskan wilderness, he brought along many books to pass time. Many were novels in which he took inspiration for his journeys from. After reading Doctor Zhivago, McCandless learned the truth about happiness. Krakauer explains that inside the novel there was this quote “And so it turned out that 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...And this was the most vexing of all” (189). Next to this passage, Chris wrote in capital letters “HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED” (189). This novel gave Chris an epiphany about happiness. McCandless had been searching for this answer on all of his adventures but it finally occurred to him while he was all alone in the Alaskan wilderness.

“It can be interpreted to mean that he was ready, perhaps, to shed a little armor he wore around his heart, that upon returning to civilization, he intended to abandon the life of a solitary vagabond, stop running so hard from intimacy, and become a member of the human community.”

Ed Wardle set out to survive in the wilderness alone for three months. He was dropped off into the Yukon Territory of Canada, with limited food and supplies. He recorded himself on his adventure, giving narrative on his feelings. Unlike McCandless, Wardle didn’t go on with adventure in search of the meaning of happiness but to test his own limits. This was a dream of Wardle to live off the land and survive alone. Within days of Wardle’s journey, he began to miss human interaction. Factors such as hunger and fear of animals also played a key role into Wardle missing home. The combination of social isolation and undernourishment contributed to Ed Wardle leaving the wilderness early at day fifty. This shows that contact with other humans is essential to survival and