Preview

How Did Chris Mccandless Live In The Wild

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
558 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Did Chris Mccandless Live In The Wild
The wilderness is seen as something either beautiful and peaceful or scary and dangerous. Christopher Johnson McCandless was one of those who found peace and beauty in the wilderness. When Chris McCandless went into the wild, he was seeking peace and truth; he was not crazy for looking that in the wilderness, which he may have found before his death, but he wasn’t fully capable of surviving in the wild. Chris McCandless made friends easily, and he had a strong effect on people. For instance, Ron Franz had grown so fond of him that he stated, “so I asked Alex if I could adopt him, if he would be my grandson.” (55). When Franz found out of Chris’s death, he went back to his old drinking habits. Chris found love and support in Franz. Also, “Before McCandless and Westerberg went their separate ways, Westerberg told the young man to look him up in Carthage if he ever needed a job.”(17). After a little bit of time getting to know Chris, Westerberg trusted him and respected his hard work. This defines Chris McCandless as hard working and responsible. Lastly, Gallien also cared for him after a few hours of knowing him; “If you make …show more content…
Chris had gone to the wild to find what he needed; thruth and peace. “Alex admitted that the only food in his pack was a ten-pound bag of rice…He had no ax, no bug dope, no snow shoes, no compass.”(5). He believed he would’ve been able to find whatever he needed with the limited amount of supplies he had. While finding his truth and new identity in the wilderness, he did it in a manner that eventually killed him. Like Krakauer said, “Unlike McCandless, however, I have in my backpack a 1:63, 360-scale topographic map…Exquisitely detailed, it indicates that half a mile downstream, in the throat of the U.S. Geological Survey.”(173). McCandless would have been capable of finding his identity, truth, and peace in the wild and coming out alive if he would have more

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the book Into the Wild written by Jon Krakauer, Chris McCandless gets portrayed as adventurous. He is adventurous in the way that he just left his family on a whim, and started traveling on his cross-country adventure. “I got the impression that this Alaska escapade was going to be his last big adventure” (Krakauer, 1996, pg 66) said Wayne Westerberg when describing how Chris talked about his then future trip plans. This shows that he was planning this big adventure for a long time and the Alaskan adventure would be the last big advent for a while. Or at least it was his last planned big adventure for a while as he was probably burnt out from adventuring for the last two and a half years. This is important as it shows Chris was too adventurous…

    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    . There were several themes portrayed in this novel. Throughout his journey, we learned the many ways of how Chris McCandless worked. In Chapter Twelve, Krakauer explained a past discovery Chris made that caused him to view his father differently. “…Chris pieced together the fact of his father’s previous marriage and subsequent divorce…Walt continued his relationship in secret…”(121 Krauker). This revelation seems to inspire him to dismiss his parents completely; especially his father and commence a trek into wild America. Along the way, McCandless had some types of father figures, including Wayne Westerberg and Ronald Franz , and even a mother figure, Jan Burres. Christopher McCandless rejected what he saw as American materialism, in…

    • 350 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Several of them, including John Waterman and Carl McCunn, were similar to Chris, but in pivotal ways their stories were deviating. John Waterman was severely traumatized and obviously mentally ill. Chris was neither of those things. Additionally, Chris was not expecting to be rescued after making a dim-witted mistake, like Carl McCunn. Krakauer stated that “It is not unusual for a young man to be drawn to a pursuit considered reckless by his elders.” Chris may have lacked some common sense, but conceited qualities did not contribute to his downfall. His drive to push himself past his limits contributed to his demise, not…

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jon Krakauer writes “McCandless didn’t conform particularly well to… A pilgrim, perhaps”(85). I agree that Chris McCandless is some sort of a pilgrim. He isn’t arrogant or selfish or anything. He is seeking something in the wilderness and I believe that he is searching for the meaning of his life. Everyone wants to know what your life means and McCandless just has a weird way of doing that. He is exploring everywhere he goes and the farther he goes, the more he finds himself. Chris is not crazy nor a nutcase, he just wants to find out why his life has happened the way it has.…

    • 530 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Christopher McCandless or Alexander Supertramp should be admired for his courage and noble idea to drop everything and go into the wild, with nothing but a backpack and in it was a book of Tolstoy, a book about native plants and berries, a .22 rifle with 400 rounds of ammunition, a writing implement, a journal, a camera, a 10 pound bag of rice, a small cooking utensil, matches, a knife, and some fishing twine and a hook, and the few clothes he had on his back. Chris was trying to find himself by leaving everything behind, yes Chris might have been a little reckless but you have to be a little reckless to go into the wild and hitchhike around the world. This quote support that's chris was just living and trying to find himself was, “...McCandless pitched his tent in the puny shade of a tamarick and basked in his newfound freedom. (Krakauer 27)” this is saying that McCandless was happy to finally be by himself and start life in the wild,…

    • 469 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I agree with the author that Chris McCandless wasn’t a crazy person and he was seeking happiness for himself in the wild. There are many things that show that he wasn’t crazy, like getting along with people, having some knowledge of living in the wild, and he was very bright and made some good decisions. However, he did seem somewhat incompetent.…

    • 506 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chris McCandless is a man who chose to run away from society because he was tired of it’s corruption, turpitude and people’s dishonesty. He always had a dream to go into the wild and live off of the land. Chris was upset about the direction his life was going in. He knew he had everything any other person would want in life, he graduated college, didn’t have to deal with the struggle of paying for anything because his parents were wealthy. He didn’t want to be like his father, a man who had many affairs, got drunk, beat his wife and puts his reputation before his family.…

    • 582 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    These are the two reasons why Chris McCandless went on his two year journey. He was a very rebellious young man, that loved the meaning of life. He was also intelligent, Chris had influences from different composers. He wanted to find the meaning of life by himself. He wanted to live free from communication and other people. Chris McCandless was a brave young man, to take on this…

    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Also many people argued that McCandless was suffering from a mental illness probably like depression, however, there has been no evidence given that Chris was actually suffering from this. A third thing is that there is no doubt that Chris McCandless did not have a bound with his parents, he did not spend a lot of time with them, but have people considered the fact that Chris did not want to become like his parents, the type that have to work all the time and the type that do not have time to do anything else but…

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The book “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer talks about an adventurous young man that travels into the Alaskan wilderness pursuing the right lifestyle for himself. Chris McCandless was a modern day nomad from the 20th century looking for a way to live a free life. Chris found out that his father never divorced his first wife causing an impact on his life that helps with his decision to live a nomadic life. Chris is very intelligent young man but at the same time an arrogant one too who has taken on a path to travel to the Alaska and live the free life that he desires.…

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Everyone has an obligation to be kind and compassionate to a certain degree, but they also have their limits. McCandless simply exceeded his limit, and decided to do something for himself for once. I think that Chris could have communicated better with his parents, but all in all, he made a decision to better himself; to make him happier. Hurting his parents was in no way intentional, though I doubt he would have regretted it too much, had he known. He dealt with a lot with his parents and eventually it got to him, and he didn’t want to take anymore.…

    • 1510 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chris McCandless was a young man who lived a strange, adventurous life. I disagree with Krakauer, McCandless seems to be a crazy person. Chris’s craziness is clearly shown throughout the book. He managed to survive one-hundred and thirteen days in the wild, but in the end he did die.…

    • 750 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chris McCandless ventured on a grand journey that would change everything and transform his life. He grew up in a hostile environment where his choices were not his own. His parent's violence toward each other began to affect his world views at a very young age. This lead to Chris having high standards for himself and to embark on a journey to find peace and serenity in the wilderness. Radical adventurer seeking enlightenment through traveling motivated by the authors he admired and government corruption.…

    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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…

    • 509 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chris Mccandless

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages

    McCandless early year of his life was abusive and unsettling because his father abused him in many ways that only siblings and he can explain. His father also had another family and impacted McCandless. McCandless could express it. Growing up, his family wanted the best for him. His parents believed that they could buy his respect. McCandless thought other. Overall, Chris McCandless’s childhood wasn’t the best. His journey was the highlight of his life until it came to the end. He was poisoned and suffered for many days with an illness of starvation and was barely able to stand up. During his last days, Chris McCandless writes, “‘I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD. GOODBYE AND MAY GOD BLESS ALL!’” (Krakauer 199). Chris McCandless finally opened eyes to see what he had in front of him because he realized that his family did care for him and that the people he met along the way gave him happiness, but was too much of a fool to realize. Another most obvious reason for Chris McCandless being a fool for him leaving his life. He left his family, money and career behind to go chase his goal to Alaska. It was awfully nice of him to donate his money to charity, but he lost everything he…

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays