“To live would be an awfully big adventure” (Hogans, 2003), a quote from Peter Pan, Chris McCandless lived through those words, living a short live he had lived, but he fulfilled his many adventures to his journey of his life. A true story written by Jon Krakauer, tracing back the footsteps of Chris McCandless, an Emory graduate to his death in an abandoned bus in the Alaska wilderness. Even though he knew it was possible that he wouldn’t survive, he looked for adventure because he wanted to look into his inner self and to follow his dream.
In chapter one, when McCandless meets Jim Gallien, who was the last person to see him alive and gave him boots and some food. McCandless offered Gallien some loose change and his watch in return for his gratitude. Gallien refused to accept the offer. McCandless insisted on giving him the stuff that he planned to throw away. McCandless said to Gallien, “I don't want to know what time it is. I don't want to know what day it is or where I am. None of that matters” (7). Nothing could change his mind. He was stubborn about it. He was set on to live off the land for a while. He refused to know neither what time nor what day it is. In the society that we live today, we are conflicted with time and place. We live in a world with a deadline. He wanted the freedom of arriving in the Alaska with nothing but clothes, food, and gun like it was in back to the first days of human nature.
Living in the society where it’s the same routine over again can be tiresome. Chris wanted to escape the pattern of the usual routine of life. He wanted something in his life that mattered and to find his inner self be adventurous and be happy. He wrote a letter to Ron Franz in chapter six; convincing him to change his life...
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...ure,” (Hogans, 2003) Chris wasn’t afraid of death when he was dying; he knew he would be on a journey where more adventures could come.
Works Cited
“Can Money Buy Happiness?” HappyTipz Smile Laugh Live. N.p., 15 Mar. 2012. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
Higgins, Mike. “’I am reborn. This is my dawn’: The remarkable life and lonely death of Christopher McCandless.” The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, 11 Aug. 2011. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
“How Selfishness Affects Happiness.” HappyTipz Smile Laugh Live. N.p., 15 Mar. 2012. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. New York: Anchor Books, 1997. Print.
Kyle101. “Re: why burning his money?” Christopher McCandless Into the Wild Forum – A place to discuss this great story. N.p., 20 Dec. 2012. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
Peter Pan. Dir. Hogan, P.J. Perf. Jeremy Sumpter, Jason Issacs, Oliva Williams. Universal. 2003. Film.
All three adventurers displayed their affection for the wilderness through how they lived after leaving society. After reaching Fairbanks, Alaska, McCandless set up his camp and began to live off the wildlife nearby. In his journal, he noted what he caught each day and showed his gratefulness through his writing font. He believed that “it [wildlife] was morally indefensible to waste any part of an animal that has been shot for food” (166). He tried his best to preserve the animals he shot for food, which in turn displayed his thoughts of nature as something precious.
I’m sure that Krakauer had lots of things he wanted to get across to the readers of this book. One of the more apparent purposes for writing this book is to show the realistic side of what McCandless was thinking and did. Krakauer quoted McCandless saying “Please return all mail I receive to the sender. It might be a very long time before I return South. 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
Although living this life is not always easy for Chris, he embarks on this adventure to achieve what truly matters to him in life.
Throughout the novel, Christopher McCandless’s character changed over time. Up to McCandless’s death, he wanted to live with the wild and to be away from civilization as far as possible. He changes his mind when he writes “HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED” (189). His purpose of living in the wild is to live with freedom and do whatever he wishes to do. However, he realizes he was a “refuge in nature” (189) and intended to abandon his solitary life and rejoin the human community. It is assumed that McCandless died a preventable death because of his unpreparedness, but it is now undeniable that his adversity is what caused his mortality. “…McCandless simple had the misfortune to eat moldy seeds. An innocent mistake, it was nevertheless sufficient to end his life” (194). Had he not eaten the moldy seeds, he would have remained alive to tell the tale.
McCandless had exceptional reasons for leaving home and taking on the life of a homeless person living in the wild. McCandless wanted to experience this type of individuality and to experience the life that Henry David Thoreau once lived, however there where more reasons on why he ultimately left home and decided to live the life of a free man. In the book, McKinney explains that Chris was convinced that humans had grown into inferior people and that it was his goal to return to the natural state of being a human (74). He also continued to say that Chris was experiencing what ancient civilizations experienced and that by the end of his lifestyle he had incorporated elements of Neolithic (74). This reveals his intensions from the beginning of his state of being an ultimately the beginning of his un...
In Jon Krakauer’s non-fiction novel Into the Wild, the well off, upper-middle-class, Chris McCandless disappears, donating all of his savings to charity and hitchhiking to Alaska to live off the land, but 119 days later he is found having starved to death at the age of 24. Chris McCandless was and is a very heavily discussed topic due to the mysteries of how he died. His “Great American Odyssey” was short, but lack of divulging his plan to anyone else left it in a shroud of guesswork and minimal evidence. But despite that there is just enough evidence to show that Chris McCandless was for the most part, at fault for his own death. There is a strong claim, on the other hand, that McCandless’ death was attributed to a series of unfortunate events that were out of his control.
Most things came easy to Chris. In reality, there were very few things that he was not good at. He came from a privileged background. He was accepted and graduated from Emory University, an elite academic institution. All of these variables resulted in Chris despising the society from which he be... ...
A young man, in his twenties, sets off into the wild completely disregarding his family and his past life and takes on a whole new personality. This perfectly explains Chris McCandless and the journey he initially set out on. He was a young man seeking self-acceptance and peace, and he looked for it in all of the different places that he visited. Visiting these places made Chris more and more hungry for a challenge. He planned on leaving the comfort of a home and setting out into the Alaskan wilderness, where he would eventually die.
...fe for oneself. McCandless primary tragic flaw being his unwillingness to form long-term relations brought him both to the happiest moment of his life, but also to his demise. McCandless never had a problem with people, but rather with the status quo of society, the idea that a man or a woman has to live inside of a coordinate plane. McCandless left home and went on his adventure simply for his own well being, he achieved both what he wanted to accomplish while learning a valuable lesson along the way. He learned that happiness must be shared, and while everyone has his or her flaws, it is important to let these go. Christopher McCandless should teach people the importance of following your dreams, and the importance of enjoying the natural serenity of life.
McCandless enjoyed a life of privilege that many can only yearn for. His parents and sister demonstrated extreme care and concern upon his disappearance. They even went to the extent of hiring private investigators to search for their lost relative. Prior to this, they made multiple attempts to get in touch with him, including a personal visit to his residence and countless pieces of mail. By returning several unopened letters to them, he demonstrated a severe lack of respect and reverence for the people that did so much for him. Many can only aspire to have such a stable home life, and his actions constituted an insult to the privilege that he had
In the moment that Gallien drops McCandless off, McCandless offers Gallien his money, his watch, and his comb and says “If you don’t take it, I’m going to throw it away” then Krakauer comments that McCandless “cheerfully retorted” the words he told Gallien. This shows us that McCandless is willing to give away all his material possessions that give him value in society — money for status, watch for time, and comb for appearance — to dwell in a primitive lifestyle. Gallien observes that “the only food in his pack was a ten pound bag of rice, His gear seemed exceedingly minimal for the harsh conditions of the interior, which in April still lay buried under the winter snowpack. Alex’s cheap leather hiking boots were neither waterproof nor well insulated. His rifle was only .22 caliber, a bore too small to rely on if he expected to kill large animals like moose and caribou, which he would have to eat if he hoped to remain very long in the country. He had no ax, no bug dope, no snowshoes, no compass.” (Krakauer 5). McCandless was intelligent; he did very well in school and was very athletic. He would have known to take more food and take more things that would keep him warm, however, centuries ago, people did not have lots of rice, or big guns and a few did not have axes or snowshoes or compasses or bug dope. McCandless went into the woods prepared because he brought with him things that people who lived centuries ago would have. Clearly, remarks that have been made by people that say that McCandless was unprepared have misunderstood
Happiness is a feeling adults experience when they receive a gift, win something, and various other reasons, but does money buy this happiness everyone experiences? Don Peck and Ross Douthat claim money does buy happiness, but only to a point in their article which originally appeared in the Atlantic Monthly (252). Throughout their article, reasons on why money can sometimes buy happiness are explained. While some of the reasons given are effective, not all are satisfying answers for adults working diligently to make a living. Money is a part of everyone’s life, yet it is not always the cause of happiness.
To start with, McCandless was not someone who gave up. Despite others trying to scare him out of continuing with his journey into the Alaskan wilderness, nothing deterred McCandless. He anxiously awaited to experience life off the land. The people McCandless encountered on his way to Alaska often commented on his determination. Jim Gallien, a man who drove McCandless into the Alaska interior, described McCandless as “real gung-ho”. McCandless's attempt to undertake such a risky endeavour is something to admire in itself. To travel two years, mostly on foot, is certainly not an easy task. However, McCandless still persevered through the hardships he faced throughout his journey. McCandles...
Chris McCandless was a graduate from college whose dream was to go into the Alaskan wilderness and live there to get an overall experience of living off the land. McCandless wanted to experience how to hunt and gather everything that he needed to live in the Alaskan Wilderness. However was it a good idea when Mccandless went into the wild. Many people on his adventure tried to help him by giving him some equipment or buy him some because he wasn't prepared for his adventure. After McCandless’s death to this date people would say that McCandless is an idiot or stupid for not being prepared for the Alaskan wilderness.
Contrary to belief, genuine happiness is very rarely found at the bottom of a shopping basket or on the leather seats of a brand new car. Often we hear the cliché saying “Money can’t buy happiness” but this is in fact true. Whilst the elation and delight brought from finally owning a wanted item is extraordinary, you must remind yourself that your happiness should not become dependant upon your ownership of this item. Being happy is not something you can purchase from a shop or car dealership, it is the way you take on life. Unfortunately, happiness does not have its own aisle at shops and never will.