Informative Essay On Chris Mccandless
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Alvarez, German
Mr. Funkhouser
English IV CP, Period 4
10 May, 2015 Humans naturally feel pressured, whether as a kid trying to keep up grades for school, as an adult trying to get a promotion, or even as regular, everyday, humanbeings simply trying to fit the status quo. Although mankind is faced with constant pressure dayin and dayout there is little done to fix these problems. Complaining and whining is not the correct way to solve social pressure, so what is? Chris McCandless asked the very same question.
Born, February 12th, 1968, to Walter and Wilhelimina McCandless, Christopher Johnson
McCandless was a young man with a bright future. Captain of the crosscountry team in high school and graduating with ease. Chris proceeded to attend Emory University where he would …show more content…
strive again, graduating with a bachelor’s degree, double majoring in history and anthropology.
Chris was on the path to achieving what many people depict as the “American Dream”; education, job, settle down with a family, and live out the rest of one’s life in peace. However,
Chris had other plans in mind.
The biography
Into the Wild, written by Jon Krakauer, explains, or at least attempts to make sense of, the mindset of protagonist Chris McCandless in his heroic and/or foolish journey to Alaska in April 1992, leaving all but the clothes on his back to go out and live in the wild. The book retraces Alexander Vandertramp, Chris’ alias, including interviews with acquaintances
Chris had along the way to Alaska such as Loren Johnson, Chris’ grandfather, and Jim Gallien,
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the man who encountered McCandless while hitchhiking to the frozen tundra. The book continues to follow McCandless’ “Alaskan Odyssey” physically with the routes taken, areas visited, and notes written day by day by Chris up until his demise in August of 1992 due to starvation. Though, questions still remain, Why did Chris do this? Did the pressure get to Chris, leading him to crack, or was this a voluntary act? What was Chris trying to accomplish, trying to prove? Was Chris a hero or a fool? The decision is up to the eye of the beholder, however, one must be fully informed before assuming. Chris demonstrated the Aristotical element known as
Logos, logical reasoning, by explaining the reasons for his departure into the wild to friend
Gallien, I now try and do the same. Chris was a role model by the way he broke the social contract but was crazy at the same time for this action, all in all Chris was mature and intelligent enough to make a decision on his own and live with the consequences.
Did Chris think of this idea out of the blue or was there influence in the decision? Chris grew up as an intelligent young boy, reading books such as
To Build a Fire, White Fang,
MoonFace, Brown Wolf, etc, written by Jack London. The book that most captured
McCandless’ attention was most likely
The Call to the Wild.
The novel follows a sled dog named
Buck through a journey like no other. Buck is stolen and sent to Alaska where he is sold to work in the harsh weather. Along with the work and climate, Buck has to prove himself by fighting the other dogs in the pack and showing his dominance. At the end of the book, Buck discovers his animal nature and instincts and decides to live in the wild.
There are some similarities with Chris and Buck’s stories. For example, they both traveled to Alaska to unleash their natural instincts. Both were respectively happy with their lives before going into the wild. Chris came from a good family and Buck had a happy life until his
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owner got killed which was the breaking point for Buck. Using that logic, there must have been a breaking point for Chris, an event that changed Chris’ life forever, but what happened?
According to the Child Trauma Academy, “Each year in the United States approximately five million children experience some form of traumatic experience.More than two million of these victims of physical and/or sexual abuse.
Natural disasters, car accidents, lifethreatening medical conditions, painful procedures, exposure to community violence – all can have traumatic impact on the child” We can not be certain is any of this happened to Chris however there wouldn’t be much of a surprise. “Traumatic experiences can have a devastating impact on the child, altering their physical, emotional, cognitive and social development.”, continues to say the
Child Trauma Academy. Chris was always different from others, Chris liked to think outside the box. Or maybe this was Chris’ way to escape the emotional scarring of the past. Should Chris have faced the past head on or was he right in running away?
To a certain point McCandless’ story can be marked as ungrateful had the boy grown up with no emotional scars. Here there is a kid living a life in which many people in the world would envy, growing up in a well off family where money was no issue. McCandless was very intelligent, receiving no less than A’s in all but one class in high school physics. Belonging to …show more content…
a loving, caring family, Chris didn’t struggle at all in life. So why rebel and throw this seemingly perfect life away?
On the other hand, imagine growing up in a family where you are constantly put to the test, always feeling like expectations set by the family name need to be accomplished or
exceeded.
Having that kind of pressure would be a personal form of torture, being haunted by the fear of being inadequate. Feeling as though your best just isn’t good enough, knowing that if you
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failed the whole world would collapse. Chris grew up with this constant pressure in the back of his mind. Chris was tired of being told what was best without having a say in the choice, what road was better to take, so he made a new one. Chris demonstrated the Aristotle quality of Ethos, credibility, by the stature and respect gained with his studies. Chris seemed to have reached the top of the academic ladder but was he mentally mature enough to make a decision of such drastic measures? According to Deborah YurgelunTodd, “The frontal lobes of the brain which are responsible for high level reasoning and decision making aren’t fully mature until the early 20s”.
Chris was 24 years old when the decision was made to run off into the wild. Legally an adult and mentally mature, Chris knew very well what kind of situation lied ahead.
Was the pressure too much, causing Chris to go over the edge or was Chris fully aware of what he was getting himself into? Chris had a sense of adventure even as a young boy.
Loren
Johnson, Chris’ grandfather, said “Chris thought he was invincible”(Krakauer, 109). In high school as the captain of the crosscountry team Chris encouraged the student athletes to get get lost in the woods for hours. When Chris was younger his grandfather would go hiking along with
Chris, Loren would cut the hike short due to health conditions but Chris was determined to keep going. Nature was not foreign to Chis, nature was a refuge.
Chris may have liked the great outdoors but was ill prepared for what was called an
“Alaskan Odyssey”. All that was taken into the wild was a rifle, a 10lb bag of rice, a map, a camera, and a backpack with clothes. Chris gave all the money from the college trust fund, given to him by his parents, and all the possessions as Chris deemed then as a vanity. Chris fed off the land, berries, plants, nuts, grains, etc and game that was hunted. Chris killed a moose and was so proud of the accomplishment he took a picture of the beast. However, Chris’ lack of experience
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in the wild came into play for he did not know how to conserve the moose’s meat and rotted over time. Shortly after Chris died of starvation.
In letters written to family members and friends, Chris seemed to have a plan of returning home after the dangerous adventure. Perhaps, Chris wanted to clear his head before preparing for the life ahead or was this an item on Chris’ bucket list in which he needed to accomplish before giving into the society many people live in today. We may never know Chris’ motives for sure but we assume and depict certain behavior. For example, the last picture Chris McCandless took alive he was sitting in front of bus 142, a bus which Chris called home for 4 months, and on his face, a smale. How can a person who is at the point of starvation possibly have a smile on their face? Was Chris crazy to be happy, knowing he would die soon? Possibly, or maybe Chris found what he was searching for. Chris found and accomplished the goal set out by proving to himself that true independence is achievable. McCandless believed that the world around was full of hypocrisy, greed, and overall evil. So Chris was happy to leave the world, was happy to break the social contract that he believed every person is enslaved in. Chris had true inner peace and nothing could take that away from him. Chris also demonstrates the last of the 3 elements of
Aristotle’s rhetorical arguments Pathos, emotional persuasion, by the way Chris wrote messages, trying to get people who read the notes to feel what he felt. For example, the last notes Chris ever wrote said, “I have had a happy life and thank the Lord. Goodbye and may God bless all!”.
McCandless may not have known but those words would be read all over the world, persuading many people to live out their lives to the fullest while they can.
Was Chris a hero or a fool? The decision is in the eye in the beholder. Judging is the easiest part of a trial but when one is the jury, with all the information is out in the open is when
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the sentence becomes difficult. Chris may be deemed as a foolish kid who threw his seemingly perfect life away to live out a silly, unnecessary, fantasy by those people who do not hear or read into the whole story. Or was Chris the bravest young man for throwing caution to the wind, not caring about other people’s opinions or fitting in, and trying to survive in the wild with no pressure at all. Regardless of one’s point of view on Christopher Johnson McCandless, he is proof that anyone can break the social contract and find themselves if they lose themselves.
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Work Cited
N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2015.
Krakauer, Jon.
Into the Wild.
New York: AnchorDoubleday, 1997.
"Into The Wild."
YouTube
. YouTube, n.d. Web. 13 May 2015.
Www.childtrauma.org.
E FFECTS OF T RAUMATIC E VENTS ON C HILDREN
(n.d.): n. pag.
Web.
"The Marks of Maturity."
Psychology Today
. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 May 2015.
Alvarez, German
Mr. Funkhouser
English IV CP, Period 4
10 May, 2015 Humans naturally feel pressured, whether as a kid trying to keep up grades for school, as an adult trying to get a promotion, or even as regular, everyday, humanbeings simply trying to fit the status quo. Although mankind is faced with constant pressure dayin and dayout there is little done to fix these problems. Complaining and whining is not the correct way to solve social pressure, so what is? Chris McCandless asked the very same question.
Born, February 12th, 1968, to Walter and Wilhelimina McCandless, Christopher Johnson
McCandless was a young man with a bright future. Captain of the crosscountry team in high school and graduating with ease. Chris proceeded to attend Emory University where he would …show more content…
strive again, graduating with a bachelor’s degree, double majoring in history and anthropology.
Chris was on the path to achieving what many people depict as the “American Dream”; education, job, settle down with a family, and live out the rest of one’s life in peace. However,
Chris had other plans in mind.
The biography
Into the Wild, written by Jon Krakauer, explains, or at least attempts to make sense of, the mindset of protagonist Chris McCandless in his heroic and/or foolish journey to Alaska in April 1992, leaving all but the clothes on his back to go out and live in the wild. The book retraces Alexander Vandertramp, Chris’ alias, including interviews with acquaintances
Chris had along the way to Alaska such as Loren Johnson, Chris’ grandfather, and Jim Gallien,
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the man who encountered McCandless while hitchhiking to the frozen tundra. The book continues to follow McCandless’ “Alaskan Odyssey” physically with the routes taken, areas visited, and notes written day by day by Chris up until his demise in August of 1992 due to starvation. Though, questions still remain, Why did Chris do this? Did the pressure get to Chris, leading him to crack, or was this a voluntary act? What was Chris trying to accomplish, trying to prove? Was Chris a hero or a fool? The decision is up to the eye of the beholder, however, one must be fully informed before assuming. Chris demonstrated the Aristotical element known as
Logos, logical reasoning, by explaining the reasons for his departure into the wild to friend
Gallien, I now try and do the same. Chris was a role model by the way he broke the social contract but was crazy at the same time for this action, all in all Chris was mature and intelligent enough to make a decision on his own and live with the consequences.
Did Chris think of this idea out of the blue or was there influence in the decision? Chris grew up as an intelligent young boy, reading books such as
To Build a Fire, White Fang,
MoonFace, Brown Wolf, etc, written by Jack London. The book that most captured
McCandless’ attention was most likely
The Call to the Wild.
The novel follows a sled dog named
Buck through a journey like no other. Buck is stolen and sent to Alaska where he is sold to work in the harsh weather. Along with the work and climate, Buck has to prove himself by fighting the other dogs in the pack and showing his dominance. At the end of the book, Buck discovers his animal nature and instincts and decides to live in the wild.
There are some similarities with Chris and Buck’s stories. For example, they both traveled to Alaska to unleash their natural instincts. Both were respectively happy with their lives before going into the wild. Chris came from a good family and Buck had a happy life until his
Alvarez3
owner got killed which was the breaking point for Buck. Using that logic, there must have been a breaking point for Chris, an event that changed Chris’ life forever, but what happened?
According to the Child Trauma Academy, “Each year in the United States approximately five million children experience some form of traumatic experience.More than two million of these victims of physical and/or sexual abuse.
Natural disasters, car accidents, lifethreatening medical conditions, painful procedures, exposure to community violence – all can have traumatic impact on the child” We can not be certain is any of this happened to Chris however there wouldn’t be much of a surprise. “Traumatic experiences can have a devastating impact on the child, altering their physical, emotional, cognitive and social development.”, continues to say the
Child Trauma Academy. Chris was always different from others, Chris liked to think outside the box. Or maybe this was Chris’ way to escape the emotional scarring of the past. Should Chris have faced the past head on or was he right in running away?
To a certain point McCandless’ story can be marked as ungrateful had the boy grown up with no emotional scars. Here there is a kid living a life in which many people in the world would envy, growing up in a well off family where money was no issue. McCandless was very intelligent, receiving no less than A’s in all but one class in high school physics. Belonging to …show more content…
a loving, caring family, Chris didn’t struggle at all in life. So why rebel and throw this seemingly perfect life away?
On the other hand, imagine growing up in a family where you are constantly put to the test, always feeling like expectations set by the family name need to be accomplished or
exceeded.
Having that kind of pressure would be a personal form of torture, being haunted by the fear of being inadequate. Feeling as though your best just isn’t good enough, knowing that if you
Alvarez4
failed the whole world would collapse. Chris grew up with this constant pressure in the back of his mind. Chris was tired of being told what was best without having a say in the choice, what road was better to take, so he made a new one. Chris demonstrated the Aristotle quality of Ethos, credibility, by the stature and respect gained with his studies. Chris seemed to have reached the top of the academic ladder but was he mentally mature enough to make a decision of such drastic measures? According to Deborah YurgelunTodd, “The frontal lobes of the brain which are responsible for high level reasoning and decision making aren’t fully mature until the early 20s”.
Chris was 24 years old when the decision was made to run off into the wild. Legally an adult and mentally mature, Chris knew very well what kind of situation lied ahead.
Was the pressure too much, causing Chris to go over the edge or was Chris fully aware of what he was getting himself into? Chris had a sense of adventure even as a young boy.
Loren
Johnson, Chris’ grandfather, said “Chris thought he was invincible”(Krakauer, 109). In high school as the captain of the crosscountry team Chris encouraged the student athletes to get get lost in the woods for hours. When Chris was younger his grandfather would go hiking along with
Chris, Loren would cut the hike short due to health conditions but Chris was determined to keep going. Nature was not foreign to Chis, nature was a refuge.
Chris may have liked the great outdoors but was ill prepared for what was called an
“Alaskan Odyssey”. All that was taken into the wild was a rifle, a 10lb bag of rice, a map, a camera, and a backpack with clothes. Chris gave all the money from the college trust fund, given to him by his parents, and all the possessions as Chris deemed then as a vanity. Chris fed off the land, berries, plants, nuts, grains, etc and game that was hunted. Chris killed a moose and was so proud of the accomplishment he took a picture of the beast. However, Chris’ lack of experience
Alvarez5
in the wild came into play for he did not know how to conserve the moose’s meat and rotted over time. Shortly after Chris died of starvation.
In letters written to family members and friends, Chris seemed to have a plan of returning home after the dangerous adventure. Perhaps, Chris wanted to clear his head before preparing for the life ahead or was this an item on Chris’ bucket list in which he needed to accomplish before giving into the society many people live in today. We may never know Chris’ motives for sure but we assume and depict certain behavior. For example, the last picture Chris McCandless took alive he was sitting in front of bus 142, a bus which Chris called home for 4 months, and on his face, a smale. How can a person who is at the point of starvation possibly have a smile on their face? Was Chris crazy to be happy, knowing he would die soon? Possibly, or maybe Chris found what he was searching for. Chris found and accomplished the goal set out by proving to himself that true independence is achievable. McCandless believed that the world around was full of hypocrisy, greed, and overall evil. So Chris was happy to leave the world, was happy to break the social contract that he believed every person is enslaved in. Chris had true inner peace and nothing could take that away from him. Chris also demonstrates the last of the 3 elements of
Aristotle’s rhetorical arguments Pathos, emotional persuasion, by the way Chris wrote messages, trying to get people who read the notes to feel what he felt. For example, the last notes Chris ever wrote said, “I have had a happy life and thank the Lord. Goodbye and may God bless all!”.
McCandless may not have known but those words would be read all over the world, persuading many people to live out their lives to the fullest while they can.
Was Chris a hero or a fool? The decision is in the eye in the beholder. Judging is the easiest part of a trial but when one is the jury, with all the information is out in the open is when
Alvarez6
the sentence becomes difficult. Chris may be deemed as a foolish kid who threw his seemingly perfect life away to live out a silly, unnecessary, fantasy by those people who do not hear or read into the whole story. Or was Chris the bravest young man for throwing caution to the wind, not caring about other people’s opinions or fitting in, and trying to survive in the wild with no pressure at all. Regardless of one’s point of view on Christopher Johnson McCandless, he is proof that anyone can break the social contract and find themselves if they lose themselves.
Alvarez7
Work Cited
N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2015.
Krakauer, Jon.
Into the Wild.
New York: AnchorDoubleday, 1997.
"Into The Wild."
YouTube
. YouTube, n.d. Web. 13 May 2015.
Www.childtrauma.org.
E FFECTS OF T RAUMATIC E VENTS ON C HILDREN
(n.d.): n. pag.
Web.
"The Marks of Maturity."
Psychology Today
. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 May 2015.