The Journey Of Chris Mccandless And Jack London

Into the Wild is a point of view experience in the travels of Chris McCandless. There is an up lose and personal encounter of all of Chris’s characteristics and decisions. Chris was very unorthodox and had a different way of taking on obstacles along his journey. He did not have many friends, always keeping to himself all through college at Emory University.

“What were frosted cheeks? A bit painful, that as all; they were never serious” (London 37). In Into the Wild, Chris McCandless was very inspired by Jack London’s work, like “To Build A Fire”, and this quote proves that. Chris’s thoughts and opinions on many things were quite different from many others. Chris tended not to put his safety and well-being first and that ended up hurting him in the end.

But, most of all I would like to know what exactly was he thinking when he first started traveling. I specially would not judge him because one does not know what exactly has one lived. So after all I don’t think I would have overreacted if I encounter him I would just like to comprehend his point of the Alaskan Odyssey. In conclusion, Chris McCandless changed many life’s

Throughout history, great men and women have been willing to die for a cause they believed in. Society often holds these people up as heroes, role models to be celebrated by the following generations. In his novel Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer makes the argument that Chris McCandless deserves to recognized as one of these heroes. Into the Wild tells the story of Chris’s life and ultimately his death in the Alaskan frontier, following him from his disappearance after college graduation to the eventual discovery of his remains two years later. Although Krakauer portrays Chris as a noble young man on an inspirational quest, in reality Chris’s journey reveals an out-of-touch young man who naively followed the ideals of his favorite authors.

“We need the tonic of wildness... At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because it is unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature” -Henry David Thoreau, Walden. In Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, a biographical account of Chris McCandless’s life, after graduating from college, 22-year-old McCandless decides to cut all ties from his family and hitchhike across America and live as simply as possible.

In the book, Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer writes of his personal experience to add more to Chris McCandless’ story and to the readers understanding of his character. After Krakauer had written the article on Chris, many people had believed that Chris was a suicidal kid who wanted to rebel against the world and his parents. Krakauer, however, did not believe that this was the case because at one time he and Chris had similar characteristics and dreams, “As a youth, I am told, I was willful, self-absorbed, intermittently reckless, and moody. I disappointed my father in the usual ways. Like Chris McCandless, figures of male authority aroused in me a confusing melody of corked fury and hunger to please.”

An idea that played a big role throughout the book Into The Wild is the subtle line between hubris (excessive pride or self confidence) and deliberately living one’s life on the edge. Several Alaskans state that Chris McCandless brought about his own demise by going into the wild without sufficient respect for the wilderness. Others believe that Chris understood the risks he took and that he did so deliberately because he wished to push himself to the limits of his ability. The question would be which one is correct. The answer could be simple, and look for signs of hubris or deliberate risk, but depending on the parts of the book one looks at, one could say chris had a little bit of both.

This statement, made by Shaun Callarman, pertains to Chris McCandless’s trek into Alaska that ultimately led to death by starvation. Since the recovery of Chris’s body, there has been much speculation about the prevention of Chris’s death and the possible causes. Despite Callarman’s plea of craziness, there have been both eye-witness accounts showing that Chris was sane and prepared when leaving for the Alaskan wilderness, many natural

Chris McCandless was a peculiar young man who explored the wilderness of Alaska. Many people would consider him courageous as he died doing what he loved, on the other hand some feel he was foolish and unprepared. Inspired by literature and seeking escape from his rocky relationship with his family, Chris wanted to live off the land in the cold Alaskan winter. Jon Krakauer explores what led to McCandless’s death and explains the actions that led him into the wild. In my opinion, Chris seemed more foolish than courageous, since he was escaping his problems back home and was highly unprepared for what he was tackling.

What really drove Chris McCandless into the wild? I believe the top three of the countless reasons that drove McCandless into the wild was the emotional damage from his parents, rebellion of the youth & risk taking tendencies, and his hubris and detestation against authority and/or someone telling him what to do. Some may believe that Chris McCandless went into the wild because of his literary heroes Leo Tolstoy, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau , and Jack London but the real reason he left everything was because of those reasons. In this essay I will elaborate on why I believe those are the reasons that drove McCandless into the wild.

We have all made mistakes, for some they are small mistakes that do not impact anyone. For others, they are of mammoth proportions and have a preponderant impact on how people think, or say about them. In the book Into the Wild it tells about the journey of Chris McCandless who died in the Alaskan wilderness. Chris McCandless was definitely one of these people who made a big mistake. People around the globe have mixed feelings about this twentieth century adventurer.

Page 52. “Franz grew increasingly fond of McCandless. ‘God, he was a smart kid,’ the old man rasps in a barely audible voice.” This piece of information given by Ron Franz helps give background on Chris and provides some insight on how he affected people.

Into The Wild was a tremendous story which Shaun Callarman did not have many positive things to say about Chris McCandless, the main character. He went on this adventure to find out what life is all about in his own eyes. He wanted to see how different living in the wild really was compared to society because he was not satisfied with his living arrangements and household. Shaun’s quote says that he thinks “Chris McCandless was bright and ignorant at the same time. He had no common sense, and he had no business going into Alaska with his Romantic silliness.

Jack London had been an American novelist and is known for works such as The Call of the Wild, which McCandless greatly admired. Chris McCandless had greatly admired Jack London, going as far as carving “Jack London is King” at what came to be the site of his death. The Jack London quote used in the epigraph describes a scene in the forest but uses bitter imagery- yet somehow still romanticises it. “Alex” was unable to ever see past the facade London had built- given that London had hardly ever spent time in the wild himself and most definitely nowhere near as intense as Alaska. This chapter had described how he had been found and this quote leads back to that because though Chris was intelligent, he did not understand that London had to make nature sound beautiful.

Based on a real story, Into the Wild can make us think from different perspectives about what the main character Christopher McCandless did. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a dramatic but also remarkable story from a young, newly graduated, college student that escaped for a long wild journey but never came back. As time passes throughout the book, the reader may notice how the main character interacts with society and nature, finally McCandless dies in the wild but even though he was struggling for survival he died happy. Some people never get out of their comfort zone, others are tired of it and retire from their comfort zone to have different experiences in life, some are good enough or some are terrible.