Chris Mccandless Mental Illness

“So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation…” (Krakauer 56). Throughout Jon Krakauer’s book, Into the Wild, Chris McCandless sees this as a truth so many are unwilling to face. However he refuses to be one of those people who are, “conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservation” (Krakauer 57) regardless of his own highly comfortable upbringing. Throughout the book, Krakauer develops his thesis that Chris is not just another Bear Grylls wanna-be. In this respect the author is correct. He isn’t just someone who read a book or article and decided to run to the Alaska wilderness. “He wasn’t incompetent—he wouldn’t have lasted 113 days if he were.”(Krakauer 85).
It’s easy to believe Chris suffers from a mental illness such as high functioning borderline personality disorder. This misconception comes from the fact that Chris creates a new version of himself, Alexander Supertramp, fails to maintain relationships he creates throughout his journey, and is meticulous with how the trail to his past life is left. These traits seem to be enough to diagnose Chris with such a disorder, that is if you take it out of context. Chris creates a new version of himself to symbolize the new life he is soon to pursue. He wants to limit the connections to his old life in all ways possible. A life that he regards with disdain, because it failed to meet his moral code. A code highly represented by a passage Chris highlighted in one of his books, “Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth” (Thoreau qtd. in Krakauer 117). Chris’ family failed to understand, and respect these ideals, resulting in Chris’ cutting them out of his life. His parents insisted on trying to increase his quality life with material values while also keeping their previous affair a secret from Chris. He fails to maintain his relationships with people not because he’s antisocial, but because he resents society, and doesn’t