Into the WIld

Missing Pieces of the Journey The idea of traveling out all by yourself, into the wilderness with no map and little food and living off the land to discover yourself and the nature around you, may not be appealing to many. But after reading Jon Krakauer’s mysterious and passionate story of Chris McCandless’ journey into the wilderness it will cause anyone to dive deep into their soul and question their actions and wonder why someone with a seemingly perfect life would abandon all they have for “self discovery” as Chris does at the ripe age of 22 when he travels to and ultimately dies in Alaska. Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild illustrates Chris McCandless’ journey with enthusiasm and force and persuades the reader to question why throughout the story through powerful diction and anecdotes told by others about Chris’ past.
Krakauer interviews many people that impacted Chris at some point in his life; whether that be by talking in-depth with his family, whom he had a troubled and profound relationship with, or with those that he met and formed strong connections with while on his way to Alaska, like Wayne Westerberg and Ron Frantz. Krakauer talks to nearly everyone that Chris ever had a relationship with to view their outlook and thoughts on why Chris may have left and to develop Chris’ character. This allows the reader to form their own opinion of Chris and his adventure, based on how Krakauer portrays this information and his own opinion. Krakauer presents the flawed relationship that Chris had his parents to allow the reader to question why Chris would leave and cut off all ties with them. Chris is from a “comfortable, upper-middle class environs of Annandale, Virginia” (19), his life looked perfect to any outsider, a track star and an involved student at school, but really Chris had a lot of resent toward his parents, especially his father. Krakauer presents Chris as a teenager that just had some anger towards his parents by using phrases such as “like many people” (122) when describing his actions to depict a relatable teenage boy and in-a-way critique Chris for leaving his entire family behind, even his sister Carine, whom Chris had a very close relationship with. But this portral of Chris as a cookie-cutter, irritable teenager is very misguiding; when Chris’ father, Walt McCandless, lived with Chris and his sister and mom, he continued to have a relationship with his ex-wife and children at the same time. This information about his father that Chris discovered impacted his life very much; he was unable to forgive his father for this. Chris never discloses to his parents that he knew this information, but rather keeps it inside of him. One of Krakauer’s biggest flaws in this story is not developing this hardship in Chris’ life. Krakauer almost dismisses this detail and calls him out on not forgiving his father, describing Chris as having a “self-righteous indignation” and “temperamentally incapable of extending such lenity to his father” (122). By painting Chris as an ungrateful teenager, Krakauer loses some credibility because one can argue that Chris understandably was not able to forgive his father, especially after recent revelations of Walt being abusive towards his family (20/20 Interview).
But Krakauer refutes these harsh and unforgiving qualities that Chris had towards his family when Krakauer develops the relations that Chris formed with others while on the way to Alaska. Ron Frantz, who was greatly shaped after meeting Chris, described Chris as “polite, friendly, well-groomed”, and “‘extremely intelligent’” (50-51) and Wayne Westerberg, someone whom Chris developed a father-like bond with on his expedition, describes Chris as “outgoing and extremely personable” (65). Krakauer’s diction offers a different look at Chris and his personality. Krakauer provides these descriptions so that the reader does not only see Chris as unprepared and unappreciative but also as compassionate and loving. By having opposite descriptions of Chris, Krakauer creates a likeable and personable character. Krakauer does a marvelous job throughout the story to produce a constant thought in the back of the readers mind about whether or not Chris was an ignorant, unprepared fool or a caring, dedicated hero who ventures into the unknown.
Krakauer has been criticized “for glorifying… a foolish, pointless death” (71) and turning a small news article in a magazine into a best-selling book. Krakauer presents that he wrote this novel because felt he had a personal connection with Chris’ story, having come from a pretty stable family and traveling to Alaska to climb mountains. But as a reader, I cannot help but question the motives for this “compelling and tragic” story (San Francisco Chronicle). After he received many responses praising and criticizing Chris’ story, Krakauer decided to investigate Chris’ life more. Krakauer was presented with heaps of third-party stories and evidence about Chris’ life and death, which prompted him to craft a 203-page novel about Chris’ adventure into the wild. But were Krakauer’s intentions truly to tell this young mans story that he formed a strong connection with after learning about him and related to with his own life, or were they to expand on a story that had interest from many people with the possibility have a best-selling book that is now read all over the country. Krakauer denies these claims and says he felt connected to Chris, but it is still a question that I had throughout the story, causing me to question constantly the credibility and truthfulness of Krakauer’s writing.
Overall, Krakauer writes a chillingly relatable and heart-breaking story about a young mans life that was cut to short through a foolishly, heroic venture into the unknown Alaskan land. Krakauer depicts Chris not as a clueless adventurer but as a young man that simply was looking for adventure in his life. Krakauer’s Into the Wild will cause many readers to question their life and the life of Chris McCandless life that was cut so short, or it may cause other young or old people to follow in the footsteps of Chris McCandless.