Chris Mccandless: A Tragic Hero

There are many debates on whether or not Chris McCandless was a hero. Jon Krakauer sees him as a tragic hero who lived the unmediated life that he wanted to and which he died trying to. Many Alaskans see him as an unprepared fool who didn't see what the wilderness really was in which he wanted to commune with. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer goes through the story of Chris McCandless and his adventure into the Alaskan wilderness. He retraces the steppes that Chris that led up to him going missing in Alaska. Even though Chris did what he loved, he did not die a hero. You might be able to see why Chris did what he did but he did make mistakes that cost him his life. To Chris his biggest challenge to him was to travel with as little as possible; this is where he went wrong, he didn't bring much of anything. Chris should have been thinking of what he was getting into. Even though he loved what he was doing he should have been more prepared. He didn't look at the bigger picture, he only set off with little more than a 22. caliber rifle and a ten-pound bag of rice. He should have had some other necessary things just in case something was to go wrong. He wouldn't have had to use them just keeping them handy were all he needed to do. Especially in the Alaska wilderness where some parts are thirty degrees below zero and is home
After he had to look for other food to eat, he found and was eating wild potato seeds. This is what Krakauer thought had killed him, but when the seeds were tested they were no forms of toxin found in them. In 2013 a new hypothesis was proposed on how Chris died. Ronald Hamilton saying that “he wasn't truly starving in the most technical sense of that condition. He’d simple become slowly paralyzed.” Chris even wrote in his journal “Extremely weak. Fault of Pot(Potato) seed. Much trouble just to stand up. Starving. Great