Chris Mccandless Argumentative Essay

Despite the conflicting public opinion, Chris McCandless succeeded in his goal to survive in the wilderness and taught the world valuable lessons in the process. Chris McCandless “probably died on August 18th, 112 days after he had walked into the wild.” (119, Krakauer) He survived with very little gear and food, even though he was essentially cut off from the world. To have lived for a little over three months totally self-sufficient is impressive. Chris’s goal was to be independent and live off the land for a while. In his mindset, he achieved in his goal. Wayne Westerberg had employed Chris for two short amounts of time, but said “He was the type of person who insisted on living out his beliefs.” (Krakauer, 67) This was why Chris was determined to go to Alaska, instead of listening to the protests of others.
Alaskans, and those who didn’t know him, think Chris a fool, but Jan Burres said “And he was big-time hungry...But real happy.” (Krakauer, 30) Chris wasn’t an imbecile.
He was an adept hunter, and while he “made some mistakes on the Stampede Trail, but confusing a caribou with a moose wasn’t among them.” (Krakauer, 178) something the Alaskan hunters who found him, mixed up. Those who knew Chris understood that while he might be idealistic, he was not a fool. Many letters were written to Outsider, after the Chris article, stating that Chris was ignorant and underprepared. “His ignorance, which could have been cured by...is what killed him.” (Krakauer, 72) While Chris was arrogant, he was not stupid. Chris just did not see things the way others did, seeing his Alaska excursion as “The great triumphant joy of living to the fullest extent.” (Krakauer, 37) A phenomenon of human nature is that we do not see things in the same way, and Chris definitely saw things in a different
light. Chris was small-minded and quick to judge, but he had a way of enchanting people with his talk of the life he wished to lead. He was successful in the goal he set out to achieve. Others would argue that since he died, he failed. So in most people’s minds, Chris will be thought of as the foolish boy who died in the wild. But death does not mean that Chris was stupid. His end, actually taught the world two valuable lessons. Theoretically, he taught the world that they should respect nature. Chris respected nature, but in the end, took too many chances which led to his death. Scientifically, Chris taught people not to put faith in the unknown. Chris was smart. A simple mistake, a chance of bad luck was what really ended his life. Before he died of the amino acids in those seeds, “He’d been fending for himself quite nicely in the country.” (Krakauer, 170-171) If it wasn’t for those deadly seeds, Chris definitely would have walked out of Alaska alive. Thus, Chris McCandless was an intelligent man who was misfortunate, not a fool as commonly believed, whose experiences taught the world valuable lessons.