Chris Mccandless And Emory University

Emory University and its ties to Chris McCandless
In Jon Krakauer’s novel, Into the Wild, the final steps of Alexander Supertramp are recounted through his journals, interactions with others, and criminal record. However, the real story of Alex begins much earlier -- it begins in 1986. This is the year Alex, formerly Chris McCandless, enrolled at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. These college years shape the future of the young man by leading him to an odyssey where he leaves his family, to escape past demons and experience adventure. In June of 1986, McCandless graduated from Wilber Tucker Woodson High School in Fairfax, Virginia. Afterwards, he embarked on his first great journey. He packed himself and his possessions into his yellow
Datsun and headed west. Once he arrived in California, he decided to visit his former childhood home in El Segundo. This decision ended up impacting many of Chris’s actions and views till the end of his life. He discovered that his father had been married to another woman when he fathered Chris and Carine. Essentially, Walt McCandless had two “wives” until he formerly was married to Billie when Chris was seven years old. Since the children were so young, Walt and Billie deceived Chris and Carine about the troubled beginnings of their family. This revelation deeply disturbed McCandless and led him to disregard titles and anything he found related to his parents, especially materialism. Rejecting materialism is seen in Into the Wild numerous times through McCandless’s actions. At the beginning of the novel, he donates 24,000 dollars, which was originally intended to fund law school, to OXFAM. OXFAM is an organization that works to help “create lasting solutions to the injustice of poverty” ("Our Purpose and Beliefs."). Then McCandless travels across the country in his Datsun, and he is forced to leave his car behind after killing the battery. However, he does not see this as a setback – he sees it as an opportunity to free himself from more material possessions. Therefore, he leaves almost everything he brought, burns the remainder of his money, and continues his odyssey on foot. It has been speculated that McCandless renounced materialism so strongly, because his parents were wealthy. In fact, he was offended when his parents attempted to buy him a new car, when his Datsun ran perfectly fine. McCandless felt that the money would have been better spent for someone who truly needed it.
After his original adventure, “he returned back to the east coast thirty pounds lighter and very scruffy looking. Near the end of his trip, he had gotten lost in the Mojave Desert, and had almost died of dehydration” ("Into the Wild Chapters”). This trip greatly increased his confidence for every odyssey he set out on afterwards. He lost a significant amount of weight, and survived dehydration in the unforgiving desert. McCandless felt this experience made him stronger, like he could face any adventure ahead. This connects to his future adventure on the Stampede Trail, because he believed he could survive in the Alaskan wilderness without necessary supplies. He genuinely thought he could survive anything Mother Nature threw at him, and this belief stemmed from when he survived the Mojave Desert.
Chris had also spent a lot of time throughout the years climbing Old Rag, the tallest peak in Virginia (Brown). His experiences from these hikes and frequent camping also added to McCandless’s overconfidence in his abilities to survive in the wild. This connects to his future travels, because the deciduous forest of Virginia is more similar to the landscapes where he camped near the end of his odyssey and on the Pacific Crest Trail than the Mojave Desert.
While at Emory, McCandless found himself becoming involved in various activities.
Unlike joining fraternities and partying like most of his friends, he was a part of The Emory Wheel Newspaper as an editor and columnist. He most likely was a part of the school newspaper, because he wanted to spread his views to impact others in a positive way. McCandless “passionately argued the need to combat communism” (Peterson). This is because McCandless found himself greatly influenced by other writers, like Thoreau with transcendentalism. He hoped by writing against communism, he could help combat it by uniting people behind his beliefs. His other articles tended to relate to politics.
Chris found himself very vested in politics and founded the College Republican Club at Emory. He was Republican and absolutely loved President Reagan. During this time period, it is not surprising that he was a big supporter of Reagan. Under Reagan’s presidency, the Cold War ended and the economy boomed. In fact, he was so popular, that during reelection he received 525/538 electoral
votes. However, Reagan may have had an even deeper meaning to McCandless. During Reagan’s inauguration in 1981, he famously stated, “In this present crisis, the government is not the solution to our problems, the government is our problem” (De Groote). Chris is later cited in the book disregarding the government, because he believes the government in the problem. While hitchhiking in Alaska, McCandless stated he did not have a hunting permit, because “how I feed myself is none of the government’s business” (Krakauer 6). He felt that as long as he hunted for food, there was no reason for the government to intervene. Chris did not care that hitchhiking or riding the rails is illegal; he felt the ever-changing landscape was his to explore. Therefore, having a president that believed the government was the problem was probably very remarkable to Chris. He probably felt Reagan was preaching to him throughout some of his speeches where he discussed the “crisis of family breakdowns, [where] families, as we have always thought of them, are not even being formed” (Woolley and Gerhard).Chris most likely deeply related to this quote, because of his parents’ actions during his childhood.
Due to the extremely high moral code Chris held himself and his parents to; he could not suppress their past grievances. By listening to Reagan address issues relevant to him, Chris probably felt like he was not alone with his family issues. This relates to Into the Wild, because family issues are what push McCandless to cut off his family and travel around the United States. Perhaps if he had taken action to resolve the family issues at hand as Reagan had urged, the McCandless family would be close knit and whole
today.
During his junior year at Emory, McCandless was invited to join the honors fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa. Some consider it to be “the nation's most prestigious academic honor society” ("The Nation's Most”). However, on the notion that titles are irrelevant, Chris declined. This is most likely due to his discovery of his father’s infidelity, because that showed him that while his parents were “married,” that title of marriage did not come with faithfulness or trust. Due to Walt McCandless’s disregard for titles, Chris felt being labeled and honored as a brother did not truly mean anything. He felt it did not make him a brother, intelligent, or honorable. He felt his actions were far more important than some irrelevant label, so he declined the offer.
This action relates to McCandless’s later travels, because he declines other titles as well. When offered to be adopted by Ron Franz, Chris quickly declines because he did not want to label the relationship they had created. It was almost as if McCandless was afraid that the label would ruin the bond that had been formed between the two men. Perhaps this is why McCandless did not have a girlfriend throughout his college and odyssey years. While he may have liked women, he did not want to ruin the relationship they already had created by putting a label on it. Overall, the most profound part of McCandless’s college experience was discovering his father’s unfaithfulness. He held himself and his parents to a very high moral code, and he could not find it in himself to forgive them. In fact, he never told his parent’s that he knew. Perhaps if he had, they could have found some way to resolve the burning sense of anger Chris felt. If this had occurred, perhaps McCandless would have attended law school or found a job after his graduation. In fact, there are so many decisions that occurred from 1986 to 1990 that could have entirely changed the course of McCandless’s life. For example, McCandless did not want to attend college. However, he went to Emory to please his parents. If he had joined the Peace Core or another body that contributes to the welfare of others, perhaps McCandless may have never taken an odyssey. Unfortunately, that is not the course that McCandless’s life took. The world can only speculate the good that would have come from McCandless if he had survived his Alaskan Odyssey.