Chris Mccandless's Life

Chris left his family on a journey to find the truth. Chris just wanted happiness, and wanted everything to be safe and sound. Chris was a transcendentalist, he wished to be happy, free’ d of all things and in the

Chris was seeking anything but society in his journey to the wild. He was trying to live on his own

It was time to bring his ‘final and greatest adventure’ to a close” (Krakauer 168). Chris would have successfully walks out of the Alaskan wilderness but because he felt he did not need the outside world or a map he died alone of starvation inside the bus. Chris is great at surviving in the wilderness but he makes little irrational mistakes that end up costing him his life. When he leaves for Alaska Chris is having issues with

Chris McCandless was found September 6th, 1992 by moose hunters. The pungent smell of his decomposing body led them to find the bus. There was an S.O.S. note explaining Chris’s dire conditions, attached to the front door. After, arriving in Fairbanks, Alaska in 1992, young McCandless lived on the abandoned bus close to Denali National Park. Choosing to live in isolation for 4 months, he survived off small animals, potato seeds, a large bag of rice.

Chris McCandless was an American adventurer who traveled to the Alaskan wilderness in April 1992. He look little food and equipment with him, before embarking on his journey McCandless abandoned his car and burned his money. He wanted to live simply in solitude away from the materialistic world. Timothy Treadwell, an environmentalist, also ventured to Alaska to study grizzly bears. Both Chris and Timothy set out to explore what the wilderness had to offer and they didn’t let anyone stop them from doing what they desired.

One of the many necessities in life is to love and be loved by another human being. Chris McCandless, Timothy Treadwell, and Henry David Thoreau separated themselves from society and did not experience the comforts of being around family. When deciding, one should consider how the outcome will affect their loved ones. Chris McCandless left his family at a young age to discover the world. Along his journey, he made some bad decisions including not bringing a map and having no supplies.

4 years after Christopher Johnson McCandless death in the Alaskan wilderness in 1992, Jon Krakauer beautifully depicts every moment of the tumultuous times leading up to Chris’s demise. Fed up with ill intentions of his peers and society, McCandless departs for the dark corners of the country. Since McCandless held nature close to his heart, and preached against the object-oriented society he lived in, Chris can be classified as a contemporary transcendentalist. Chris passionately tries to draw metaphysical connections between himself and nature.

We can tell that Chris wanted self-wisdom because, he always wanted to be by his- self reading books and studying. He wanted to witness and endure the life of the wild for his-self, so that he could see for his-self how the life of a super tramp was. There is a quote from Thoreau states that, “ if it proved to be mean, why then to get whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world ….And be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion” (Walden). This quote clearly relate to Chris urge of seeking self- wisdom, by always isolating him-self from everyone to be alone and get the full understanding of life as well as the wild.

McCandless’ self reliance is the cornerstone of his philosophy and contributes to his ultimate demise when he walked into the wild with nothing but his wits and basic supplies. His main influence for this ideal came from Emerson’s aptly named essay Self-Reliance where he writes, “But a cultivated man becomes ashamed of his property, out of new respect for his nature. Especially he hates what he has, if he see that it is accidental, — came to him by inheritance, or gift, or crime; then he feels that it is not having; it does not belong to him, has no root in him, and merely lies there, because no revolution or no robber takes it away”. When Mccandless is offered charity in the form of food and clothes he refuses to take them, when he does he does so begrudgingly and in some cases leaves it behind. A similar example of his shame for property he didnt earn was the money he got to go to college.

Chris went off after he graduated college and “lived off the land”. Chris would travel to the coast of Mexico, the plains of Kansas, and the dunes of Nevada. Chris went on a final expedition to Alaska that cost him everything. In the following paragraphs I will fully detail how Chris was reckless, selfish, and naive. I will also explore how Chris tied his life to the beliefs of transcendentalism.

Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild investigates the life and adventures of Chris McCandless. The author provides information about Chris’ life to illuminate his journey. Krakauer also uses rhetorical appeals to defend Chris’ rationale for his journey. Through Krakauer’s use of pathos, ethos, and logos, he persuades the audience that Chris is not foolish; however, Krakauer’s intimacy with Chris and his adventures inhibits his objectivity.

"I think that Chris McCandless was bright and ignorant at the same time. He had no common sense, and he had no business going to Alaska with his Romantic silliness. He made a lot of mistakes based on ignorance. I don’t admire him at all for his courage nor his noble ideas. Really, I think he was just plain crazy."

In a letter penned to Wayne Westerberg, McCandless writes, “My days were more exciting when I was penniless” (Krakauer 33). He gets a thrill out of not knowing what will come his way each day. Being “penniless” furthers the sense of uncertainty. He even argues that, “Nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future” (Krakauer 40). In a way, everyday is a new adventure for Chris.

In April, 1992 a young man named Chris McCandless walked into the Alaskan bush never to be seen or heard from again. He entered the bush with minimal supplies- a firearm, ammunition, a ten pound bag of rice, a small library, and a few other basic survival items- and confidence in his abilities to survive (Krakauer, 162). Four months later, six hunters found the remains of his decomposing body inside an abandoned bus amidst the thick vegetation of the Alaskan wilderness (Krakauer, 13) . Upon hearing Chris’ story locals and critics promptly labeled him as an “ill-prepared kook”, but were they right? If his critics were correct, then McCandless would not have survived quite as long as he did  in complete solitude.

Krakauer justifies the actions of the young Chris McCandless, while exploring the many attributes and qualities that much of the audience overlooks in their evaluation of him and his journey into the Alaskan bush. He recognizes in writing the story of Chris McCandless that a majority of society already has a negative perception of McCandless, one built from misinformation and perhaps even fear. As best summarized by Romain Dial at the end of the account, “And I’m sure there are plenty of Alaskans who had a lot in common with McCandless... Which is why they’re so hard on him. Maybe McCandless reminded them too much of their former selves.”