Into The Wild Chris Mccandless Journey Essay
The Great Journey
“I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence, I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love, I felt myself in a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quiet life” –Leo Tolstoy. Leo Tolstoy’s views and ideas, along with other philosophers, would determine the internal drive and the overall decisions of an individual named Chris McCandless. The book Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, is the story of a man named Chris McCandless that ventures into the great Alaskan wilderness to seek meaning in his true self. Chris is a twenty-four year old from Virginia who graduated from Emory University with a 3.72 GPA. He had a troubled relationship with his family and disagreed …show more content…
with his parents’ decisions, especially his father’s. Chris did not want a set path, he wanted to create his own.
He had very strong beliefs along with the determination to let nothing stop him in his path. Chris set out to live in the Alaskan wilderness for a couple of weeks and it proved to be more than he could handle. His resources became scarce and he feared for his own life. He ended up leaving an S.O.S note on the door of the bus he was living in and it read “Injured, near death, and too weak to hike out of here, I am all alone, this is no joke (Krakauer 12).” His journey to Alaska proved to be fatal and a vast amount of theories began to spread across the media about how Chris died. Everyone has built an opinion about Chris McCandless, some say he’s crazy and ignorant and others say he’s bright and heroic. Shaun Callarman, a native Alaskan, didn’t admire him at all for his courage or his noble ideas. He felt that Chris McCandless was “Bright and ignorant at the same time,” and that “He had no common sense and no business going to Alaska with his romantic silliness.” I disagree with Shaun’s opinion to a certain extent because I feel that Chris was both foolish and noble when he began his journey to Alaska. Chris sought out to find himself and he let nothing stand in his path, but he wasn’t fully prepared for the
harshness of the Alaskan wilderness. Chris lacked the common sense and overall knowledge of how to survive the Alaskan wilderness but he was very courageous, and I admire him for seeking his true identity and going against all the odds. Chris was noble for leaving the materialistic, vanity obsessed culture we live in today, for a simpler, more real existence. Today’s society can be seen as artificial and shallow, one, which Chris disagreed with. He wanted to follow in the footsteps of philosophers and writers such as Henry David Thoreau and Leo Tolstoy; “he wanted to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life and see what he could learn what it had to teach” –Henry David Thoreau. Chris picks up pieces of wisdom throughout his journey and he is able to connect with many people. One individual he encounters is a man named Jim Gallien. Jim Gallien is a native Alaskan and an accomplished hunter and woodsman. He is familiar with the Alaskan wilderness and he tries to dissuade Chris from entering the woods, “…The hunting wasn’t easy where he was going, he could go for days without killing any game…I tried to scare him with bear stories” (Krakauer 6). Chris wasn’t even worried about the dangers that he may face, he was determined to complete his journey, to learn about himself and how far he could be pushed to the limit. Chris did what he believed in and let nothing stand in his way. Chris was not completely noble however. He made a lot of stupid decisions while living in the wilderness. If he had gone into Alaska with more common sense and the knowledge to survive he may’ve been able to escape his future demise. Many individuals criticize Chris McCandless, saying that his main fault was eating moldy seeds that had been known to be poisonous. This statement is true, but there are many other reasons why Chris was destined to fail. To begin with Chris entered the woods completely unprepared, he had little to no supplies, “He wasn’t carrying anywhere near as much food and gear as you’d expect a guy to be carrying for that kind of trip” (Krakauer 4). Chris thought he could live off the land and be comfortable for a while. Anyone with common sense would pack extra supplies if anything drastic were to happen. Another mistake Chris made was misjudging his route back to civilization. To get into the wilderness Chris had to cross the Teklanika River. During spring Chris crossed the Teklanika River, which at the time had a relatively low amount of water flowing, but he didn’t realize that in summer there would be some glacial runoff and the rivers would have a lot more water flowing through them. When Chris saw what the river had become he realized he was in trouble, “The Teklanika was at full flood, swollen with rain, and snowmelt from the glaciers high in the Alaskan Range, running cold and fast” (Krakauer 170). Chris was not brave enough to cross the river and he figured it was not worth the risk, “McCandless a weak swimmer and had confessed to several people that he was in fact afraid of the water” (Krakauer 170). Obviously Chris couldn’t have crossed the river at that location but what he didn’t realize was that only a few miles up the river there was an area where he could’ve safely made it across. Chris clearly wasn’t ready for the harsh realities of the wilderness, had he been more prepared he could’ve survive and lived another day to tell his story. Chris McCandless is both foolish and noble, he sought out to find himself and he let nothing stand in his path, but he wasn’t fully prepared for the harshness of the Alaskan wilderness. Chris lacked the common sense and overall knowledge of how to survive the Alaskan wilderness but he was very courageous, and I admire him for seeking his true identity and going against all the odds. No one knows what really killed Chris McCandless but I guarantee you if he had lived to tell his story, it would not have nearly the same impact it did on today’s society.
Work Cited
1. Krakauer, Jon. Into The Wild. New York: Anchor Books, a division of Random House Inc, 1996.
“I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence, I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love, I felt myself in a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quiet life” –Leo Tolstoy. Leo Tolstoy’s views and ideas, along with other philosophers, would determine the internal drive and the overall decisions of an individual named Chris McCandless. The book Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, is the story of a man named Chris McCandless that ventures into the great Alaskan wilderness to seek meaning in his true self. Chris is a twenty-four year old from Virginia who graduated from Emory University with a 3.72 GPA. He had a troubled relationship with his family and disagreed …show more content…
with his parents’ decisions, especially his father’s. Chris did not want a set path, he wanted to create his own.
He had very strong beliefs along with the determination to let nothing stop him in his path. Chris set out to live in the Alaskan wilderness for a couple of weeks and it proved to be more than he could handle. His resources became scarce and he feared for his own life. He ended up leaving an S.O.S note on the door of the bus he was living in and it read “Injured, near death, and too weak to hike out of here, I am all alone, this is no joke (Krakauer 12).” His journey to Alaska proved to be fatal and a vast amount of theories began to spread across the media about how Chris died. Everyone has built an opinion about Chris McCandless, some say he’s crazy and ignorant and others say he’s bright and heroic. Shaun Callarman, a native Alaskan, didn’t admire him at all for his courage or his noble ideas. He felt that Chris McCandless was “Bright and ignorant at the same time,” and that “He had no common sense and no business going to Alaska with his romantic silliness.” I disagree with Shaun’s opinion to a certain extent because I feel that Chris was both foolish and noble when he began his journey to Alaska. Chris sought out to find himself and he let nothing stand in his path, but he wasn’t fully prepared for the
harshness of the Alaskan wilderness. Chris lacked the common sense and overall knowledge of how to survive the Alaskan wilderness but he was very courageous, and I admire him for seeking his true identity and going against all the odds. Chris was noble for leaving the materialistic, vanity obsessed culture we live in today, for a simpler, more real existence. Today’s society can be seen as artificial and shallow, one, which Chris disagreed with. He wanted to follow in the footsteps of philosophers and writers such as Henry David Thoreau and Leo Tolstoy; “he wanted to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life and see what he could learn what it had to teach” –Henry David Thoreau. Chris picks up pieces of wisdom throughout his journey and he is able to connect with many people. One individual he encounters is a man named Jim Gallien. Jim Gallien is a native Alaskan and an accomplished hunter and woodsman. He is familiar with the Alaskan wilderness and he tries to dissuade Chris from entering the woods, “…The hunting wasn’t easy where he was going, he could go for days without killing any game…I tried to scare him with bear stories” (Krakauer 6). Chris wasn’t even worried about the dangers that he may face, he was determined to complete his journey, to learn about himself and how far he could be pushed to the limit. Chris did what he believed in and let nothing stand in his way. Chris was not completely noble however. He made a lot of stupid decisions while living in the wilderness. If he had gone into Alaska with more common sense and the knowledge to survive he may’ve been able to escape his future demise. Many individuals criticize Chris McCandless, saying that his main fault was eating moldy seeds that had been known to be poisonous. This statement is true, but there are many other reasons why Chris was destined to fail. To begin with Chris entered the woods completely unprepared, he had little to no supplies, “He wasn’t carrying anywhere near as much food and gear as you’d expect a guy to be carrying for that kind of trip” (Krakauer 4). Chris thought he could live off the land and be comfortable for a while. Anyone with common sense would pack extra supplies if anything drastic were to happen. Another mistake Chris made was misjudging his route back to civilization. To get into the wilderness Chris had to cross the Teklanika River. During spring Chris crossed the Teklanika River, which at the time had a relatively low amount of water flowing, but he didn’t realize that in summer there would be some glacial runoff and the rivers would have a lot more water flowing through them. When Chris saw what the river had become he realized he was in trouble, “The Teklanika was at full flood, swollen with rain, and snowmelt from the glaciers high in the Alaskan Range, running cold and fast” (Krakauer 170). Chris was not brave enough to cross the river and he figured it was not worth the risk, “McCandless a weak swimmer and had confessed to several people that he was in fact afraid of the water” (Krakauer 170). Obviously Chris couldn’t have crossed the river at that location but what he didn’t realize was that only a few miles up the river there was an area where he could’ve safely made it across. Chris clearly wasn’t ready for the harsh realities of the wilderness, had he been more prepared he could’ve survive and lived another day to tell his story. Chris McCandless is both foolish and noble, he sought out to find himself and he let nothing stand in his path, but he wasn’t fully prepared for the harshness of the Alaskan wilderness. Chris lacked the common sense and overall knowledge of how to survive the Alaskan wilderness but he was very courageous, and I admire him for seeking his true identity and going against all the odds. No one knows what really killed Chris McCandless but I guarantee you if he had lived to tell his story, it would not have nearly the same impact it did on today’s society.
Work Cited
1. Krakauer, Jon. Into The Wild. New York: Anchor Books, a division of Random House Inc, 1996.