essay into the wild christopher mccandless

Find anything you save across the site in your account

How Chris McCandless Died

By Jon Krakauer

Twenty-one years ago this month, on September 6, 1992, the decomposed body of Christopher McCandless was discovered by moose hunters just outside the northern boundary of Denali National Park. He had died inside a rusting bus that served as a makeshift shelter for trappers, dog mushers, and other backcountry visitors. Taped to the door was a note scrawled on a page torn from a novel by Nikolai Gogol:

ATTENTION POSSIBLE VISITORS. S.O.S. I NEED YOUR HELP. I AM INJURED, NEAR DEATH, AND TOO WEAK TO HIKE OUT OF HERE . I AM ALL ALONE, THIS IS NO JOKE . IN THE NAME OF GOD , PLEASE REMAIN TO SAVE ME. I AM OUT COLLECTING BERRIES CLOSE BY AND SHALL RETURN THIS EVENING . THANK YOU, CHRIS McCANDLESS AUGUST ?

From a cryptic diary found among his possessions, it appeared that McCandless had been dead for nineteen days. A driver’s license issued eight months before he perished indicated that he was twenty-four years old and weighed a hundred and forty pounds. After his body was flown out of the wilderness, an autopsy determined that it weighed sixty-seven pounds and lacked discernible subcutaneous fat. The probable cause of death, according to the coroner’s report, was starvation.

In “Into the Wild,” the book I wrote about McCandless’s brief, confounding life, I came to a different conclusion. I speculated that he had inadvertently poisoned himself by eating seeds from a plant commonly called wild potato, known to botanists as Hedysarum alpinum . According to my hypothesis, a toxic alkaloid in the seeds weakened McCandless to such a degree that it became impossible for him to hike out to the highway or hunt effectively, leading to starvation. Because Hedysarum alpinum is described as a nontoxic species in both the scientific literature and in popular books about edible plants, my conjecture was met with no small amount of derision, especially in Alaska.

I’ve received thousands of letters from people who admire McCandless for his rejection of conformity and materialism in order to discover what was authentic and what was not, to test himself, to experience the raw throb of life without a safety net. But I’ve also received plenty of mail from people who think he was an idiot who came to grief because he was arrogant, woefully unprepared, mentally unbalanced, and possibly suicidal. Most of these detractors believe my book glorifies a senseless death. As the columnist Craig Medred wrote in the Anchorage Daily News in 2007,

“Into the Wild” is a misrepresentation, a sham, a fraud. There, I’ve finally said what somebody has needed to say for a long time …. Krakauer took a poor misfortunate prone to paranoia, someone who left a note talking about his desire to kill the “false being within,” someone who managed to starve to death in a deserted bus not far off the George Parks Highway, and made the guy into a celebrity. Why the author did that should be obvious. He wanted to write a story that would sell.

The debate over why McCandless perished, and the related question of whether he is worthy of admiration, has been smoldering, and occasionally flaring, for more than two decades now. But last December, a writer named Ronald Hamilton posted a paper on the Internet that brings fascinating new facts to the discussion. Hamilton, it turns out, has discovered hitherto unknown evidence that appears to close the book on the cause of McCandless’s death.

To appreciate the brilliance of Hamilton’s investigative work, some backstory is helpful. The diary and photographs recovered with McCandless’s body indicated that, beginning on June 24, 1992, the roots of the Hedysarum alpinum plant became a staple of his daily diet. On July 14th, he started harvesting and eating Hedysarum alpinum seeds as well. One of his photos depicts a one-gallon Ziploc bag stuffed with these seeds. When I visited the bus in July, 1993, wild-potato plants were growing everywhere I looked in the surrounding taiga. I filled a one-gallon bag with more than a pound of seeds in less than thirty minutes.

On July 30th, McCandless wrote in his journal, “ EXTREMELY WEAK. FAULT OF POT[ATO] SEED. MUCH TROUBLE JUST TO STAND UP. STARVING. GREAT JEOPARDY. ” Before this entry, there was nothing in the journal to suggest that he was in dire straits, although his photos show he’d grown alarmingly gaunt. After subsisting for three months on a marginal diet of squirrels, porcupines, small birds, mushrooms, roots, and berries, he’d run up a huge caloric deficit and was teetering on the brink. By adding potato seeds to the menu, he apparently made the mistake that took him down. After July 30th, his physical condition went to hell, and three weeks later he was dead.

When McCandless’s body was found in the Alaskan bush, Outside magazine asked me to write about the puzzling circumstances of his demise. Working on a tight deadline, I researched and wrote an eighty-four-hundred-word piece, published in January, 1993. Because the wild potato was universally believed to be safe to eat, in this article I speculated that McCandless had mistakenly consumed the seeds of the wild sweet pea, Hedysarum mackenzii —a plant thought to be toxic, and which is hard to distinguish from Hedysarum alpinum . I attributed his death to this blunder.

As I began expanding my article into a book and had more time to ponder the evidence, however, it struck me as extremely unlikely that he’d failed to tell the two species apart. He wrote his diary on blank pages in the back of an exhaustively researched field guide to the region’s edible plants, “Tanaina Plantlore / Dena’ina K’et’una: An Ethnobotany of the Dena’ina Indians of Southcentral Alaska,” by Priscilla Russell Kari. In the book, Kari explicitly warns that because wild sweet pea closely resembles wild potato, and “is reported to be poisonous, care should be taken to identify them accurately before attempting to use the wild potato as food.” And then she explains precisely how to distinguish the two plants from one another.

It seemed more plausible that McCandless had indeed eaten the roots and seeds of the purportedly nontoxic wild potato rather than the wild sweet pea. So I sent some Hedysarum alpinum seeds I’d collected near the bus to Dr. Thomas Clausen, a professor in the biochemistry department at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, for analysis.

Shortly before my book was published, Clausen and one of his graduate students, Edward Treadwell, conducted a preliminary test that indicated the seeds contained an unidentified alkaloid. Making a rash intuitive leap, in the first edition of “Into the Wild,” published in January, 1996, I wrote that this alkaloid was perhaps swainsonine, a toxic agent known to inhibit glycoprotein metabolism in animals, leading to starvation. When Clausen and Treadwell completed their analysis of wild-potato seeds, though, they found no trace of swainsonine or any other alkaloids. “I tore that plant apart,” Dr. Clausen explained to Men’s Journal in 2007, after also testing the seeds for non-alkaloid compounds. “There were no toxins. No alkaloids. I’d eat it myself.”

I was perplexed. Clausen was an esteemed organic chemist, and the results of his analysis seemed irrefutable. But McCandless’s July 30th journal entry couldn’t have been more explicit: “ EXTREMELY WEAK. FAULT OF POT[ATO] SEED. ” His certainty about the cause of his failing health gnawed at me. I began sifting through the scientific literature, searching for information that would allow me to reconcile McCandless’s adamantly unambiguous statement with Clausen’s equally unambiguous test results.

Fast forward to a couple of months ago, when I stumbled upon Ronald Hamilton’s paper “ The Silent Fire: ODAP and the Death of Christopher McCandless ,” which Hamilton had posted on a Web site that publishes essays and papers about McCandless. Hamilton’s essay offered persuasive new evidence that the wild-potato plant is highly toxic in and of itself, contrary to the assurances of Thomas Clausen and every other expert who has ever weighed in on the subject. The toxic agent in Hedysarum alpinum turns out not to be an alkaloid but, rather, an amino acid, and according to Hamilton it was the chief cause of McCandless’s death. His theory validates my conviction that McCandless wasn’t as clueless and incompetent as his detractors have made him out to be.

Hamilton is neither a botanist nor a chemist; he’s a writer who until recently worked as a bookbinder at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania library. As Hamilton explains it, he became acquainted with the McCandless story in 2002, when he happened upon a copy of “Into the Wild,” flipped through its pages, and suddenly thought to himself, I know why this guy died. His hunch derived from his knowledge of Vapniarca, a little-known Second World War concentration camp in what was then German-occupied Ukraine.

“I first learned about Vapniarca through a book whose title I’ve long forgotten,” Hamilton told me. “Only the barest account of Vapniarca appeared in one of its chapters …. But after reading ‘Into the Wild,’ I was able to track down a manuscript about Vapniarca that has been published online.” Later, in Romania, he located the son of a man who served as an administrative official at the camp, who sent Hamilton a trove of documents.

In 1942, as a macabre experiment, an officer at Vapniarca started feeding the Jewish inmates bread made from seeds of the grass pea, Lathyrus sativus , a common legume that has been known since the time of Hippocrates to be toxic. “Very quickly,” Hamilton writes in “The Silent Fire,”

a Jewish doctor and inmate at the camp, Dr. Arthur Kessler, understood what this implied, particularly when within months, hundreds of the young male inmates of the camp began limping, and had begun to use sticks as crutches to propel themselves about. In some cases inmates had been rapidly reduced to crawling on their backsides to make their ways through the compound …. Once the inmates had ingested enough of the culprit plant, it was as if a silent fire had been lit within their bodies. There was no turning back from this fire—once kindled, it would burn until the person who had eaten the grasspea would ultimately be crippled …. The more they’d eaten, the worse the consequences—but in any case, once the effects had begun, there was simply no way to reverse them …. The disease is called, simply, neurolathyrism, or more commonly, “lathyrism.”… Kessler, who … initially recognized the sinister experiment that had been undertaken at Vapniarca, was one of those who escaped death during those terrible times. He retired to Israel once the war had ended and there established a clinic to care for, study, and attempt to treat the numerous victims of lathyrism from Vapniarca, many of whom had also relocated in Israel.

It’s been estimated that, in the twentieth century, more than a hundred thousand people worldwide were permanently paralyzed from eating grass pea. The injurious substance in the plant turned out to be a neurotoxin, beta-N-oxalyl-L-alpha-beta diaminoproprionic acid, a compound commonly referred to as beta- ODAP or, more often, just ODAP . Curiously, Hamilton reports, ODAP

affects different people, different sexes, and even different age groups in different ways. It even affects people within those age groups differently …. The one constant about ODAP poisoning, however, very simply put, is this: those who will be hit the hardest are always young men between the ages of 15 and 25 and who are essentially starving or ingesting very limited calories, who have been engaged in heavy physical activity, and who suffer trace-element shortages from meager, unvaried diets.

ODAP was identified in 1964. It brings about paralysis by over-stimulating nerve receptors, causing them to die. As Hamilton explains,

It isn’t clear why, but the most vulnerable neurons to this catastrophic breakdown are the ones that regulate leg movement…. And when sufficient neurons die, paralysis sets in…. [The condition] never gets better; it always gets worse. The signals get weaker and weaker until they simply cease altogether. The victim experiences “much trouble just to stand up.” Many become rapidly too weak to walk. The only thing left for them to do at that point is to crawl….

After Hamilton read “Into the Wild” and became convinced that ODAP was responsible for McCandless’s sad end, he approached Dr. Jonathan Southard, the assistant chair of the chemistry department at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and persuaded Southard to have one of his students, Wendy Gruber, test the seeds of both Hedysarum alpinum and Hedysarum mackenzii for ODAP . Upon completion of her tests, in 2004, Gruber determined that ODAP appeared to be present in both species of Hedysarum, but her results were less than conclusive. “To be able to say that ODAP is definitely present in the seeds,” she reported, “we would need to use another dimension of analysis, probably by H.P.L.C.-M.S.”—high-pressure liquid chromatography. But Gruber possessed neither the expertise nor the resources to analyze the seeds with H.P.L.C., so Hamilton’s hypothesis remained unproven.

To establish once and for all whether Hedysarum alpinum is toxic, last month I sent a hundred and fifty grams of freshly collected wild-potato seeds to Avomeen Analytical Services, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for H.P.L.C. analysis. Dr. Craig Larner, the chemist who conducted the test, determined that the seeds contained .394 per cent beta- ODAP by weight, a concentration well within the levels known to cause lathyrism in humans.

According to Dr. Fernand Lambein, a Belgian scientist who coördinates the Cassava Cyanide Diseases and Neurolathyrism Network, occasional consumption of foodstuffs containing ODAP “as one component of an otherwise balanced diet, bears not any risk of toxicity.” Lambein and other experts warn, however, that individuals suffering from malnutrition, stress, and acute hunger are especially sensitive to ODAP , and are thus highly susceptible to the incapacitating effects of lathyrism after ingesting the neurotoxin.

Considering that potentially crippling levels of ODAP are found in wild-potato seeds, and given the symptoms McCandless described and attributed to the wild-potato seeds he ate, there is ample reason to believe that McCandless contracted lathyrism from eating those seeds. As Ronald Hamilton observed, McCandless exactly matched the profile of those most susceptible to ODAP poisoning:

He was a young, thin man in his early 20s, experiencing an extremely meager diet; who was hunting, hiking, climbing, leading life at its physical extremes, and who had begun to eat massive amounts of seeds containing a toxic [amino acid]. A toxin that targets persons exhibiting and experiencing precisely those characteristics and conditions …. It might be said that Christopher McCandless did indeed starve to death in the Alaskan wild, but this only because he’d been poisoned, and the poison had rendered him too weak to move about, to hunt or forage, and, toward the end, “extremely weak,” “too weak to walk out,” and, having “much trouble just to stand up.” He wasn’t truly starving in the most technical sense of that condition. He’d simply become slowly paralyzed. And it wasn’t arrogance that had killed him, it was ignorance. Also, it was ignorance which must be forgiven, for the facts underlying his death were to remain unrecognized to all, scientists and lay people alike, literally for decades.

Hamilton’s discovery that McCandless perished because he ate toxic seeds is unlikely to persuade many Alaskans to regard McCandless in a more sympathetic light, but it may prevent other backcountry foragers from accidentally poisoning themselves. Had McCandless’s guidebook to edible plants warned that Hedysarum alpinum seeds contain a neurotoxin that can cause paralysis, he probably would have walked out of the wild in late August with no more difficulty than when he walked into the wild in April, and would still be alive today. If that were the case, Chris McCandless would now be forty-five years old.

Jon Krakauer’s most recent books are “Three Cups of Deceit,” “Where Men Win Glory,” and “Under the Banner of Heaven.”

Above: Chris McCandless’s final photo, a self-portrait holding his farewell note. Photographs courtesy the family of Chris McCandless .

Books & Fiction

By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

By Joyce Carol Oates

By James Folta

By Eric Lach

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Chris Mccandless — The Foolish Christopher McCandless of “Into The Wild” by Jon Krakauer

The Foolish Christopher Mccandless of "Into The Wild", by Jon Krakauer

• Categories: Chris Mccandless Into The Wild

About this sample

Words: 1020 |

Published: Nov 19, 2018

Words: 1020 | Pages: 2 | 6 min read

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Verified writer

• Expert in: Literature

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

1 pages / 642 words

4 pages / 1725 words

4.5 pages / 1980 words

2 pages / 887 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Jon Krakauer's non-fiction book "Into the Wild" tells the story of Christopher McCandless, a young man who left his comfortable life to live off the land in the Alaskan wilderness. Throughout the book, Krakauer explores [...]

Alexander Supertramp, also known as Chris McCandless, has been the subject of much fascination and analysis since the publication of Jon Krakauer's book "Into the Wild" and the subsequent film adaptation. McCandless, a young man [...]

Into the Wild is a non-fiction book written by Jon Krakauer, which tells the story of Christopher McCandless, a young man who ventured into the Alaskan wilderness with little equipment and no plan for survival. McCandless's [...]

You can hear the waves crash against the shore less than fifty feet from you. Your prized car, the one that you’ve loved for years now, is stuck in the sand, unable to move. All of the money you didn't donate to charity, [...]

Jon Krakauer wrote a biography, Into The Wild (1996), describing a man’s, Chris McCandless, life before and during his journey to Alaska to be able to discover himself and a new life while leaving his family with worry and pain. [...]

In conclusion, Chris McCandless's decision to venture into the wild was undoubtedly risky and ultimately led to his tragic death. However, it is important to view his actions within the context of his motivations and personal [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

Into the Wild: Characters, Themes, Personal Opinion Essay

The summary of the novel, discussion of the main characters, the themes of the book, personal opinion and conclusion.

Bibliography

Some people choose unconventional lifestyles to distinguish themselves from others or comprehend the purpose or sense of their existence. Into the Wild , a non-fiction book written by Jon Krakauer narrates a story of such a man named McCandless who quit civilized living and started his wild journey across America. This paper will summarize the plot of the work, describe its characters, and discuss the issues raised by the author.

The book is based on the story of a real person, Christopher McCandless, who, at the age of 22, right after his successful graduation from Emory University, voluntarily became a vagrant. He left a note for his parents, which said that they would never see him again, gave his college savings to charity, and started his journey. For the first month of his wandering, he traveled by car, but he had to abandon it as a flood damaged it. On his way, he sometimes stopped in cities and performed unskilled jobs to get food and lodging. In 1991, while he was in Los Angeles, McCandless thought of applying for ID and getting a job but changed his decision and continued his wandering. During his journey, he made acquaintance with some people whom he sent postcards as he proceeded with his traveling.

In the spring of 1992, he headed for Alaska, carrying only some rice, a gun, a camera, and a few books, including a guide to the edible plants of the area. Upon arriving in the region, he found a bus in which he decided to live for a while. During his stay in this area, McCandless ate berries and hunted animals. In summer, he became exceedingly weak after eating some seeds and noted this in his travel journal. He left an SOS sign outside of his bus, and shortly afterward, he died inside of it, and hunters found his dead body only the following month.

The main character of the book is Christopher Johnson McCandless, who adopted a pseudonym Alexander Supertramp at the beginning of his journey. He was “a well-educated young man with an above-average intellect and remarkable spiritual ambitions 1 which means that he could have achieved success in a civilized world, but he deliberately chose a vagrant lifestyle. McCandless believed that it was beneficial for a human to live in harmony with nature, separated from other people. To test his point of view, he spent time wandering across the American West before proceeding to a more dangerous region of Alaska. Perhaps, he could have survived in the severe conditions of that area if he had been more prepared and less self-assured.

Jon Krakauer, the author, added the story of his attempts to travel across Alaska to his narrative, which made him another character of the book. He did not just state the facts of McCandless’s biography but supplemented them with his judgments and assumptions. Perhaps, he was so interested in the young man’s story because he had a similar experience and wanted to prevent the public from condemning McCandless for his nonsensical death.

The book tackles several issues, one of which is the relation between man and nature. The protagonist believes that one’s personality can form properly only outside of civilization. 2 According to McCandless, “the very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure,” 3 which means that a person truly lives in extraordinary circumstances available only in the wilderness. However, the young man was so obsessed with the idea of connecting with nature and escaping from civilization that he underestimated how dangerous and severe the environment could be. Instead of proving that he was capable of surviving on his own, without any conveniences and other people’s help, he showed by his example that a human could not live independently in a harsh wilderness for a long time. 4 Thus, McCandless’s story reveals that nature is not always favorable to man, and if there is a confrontation between a person and the wilderness, the former will be defeated.

Another theme of the book is individualism and the role of society in human life. McCandless was convinced that he would manage to live outside of the community, and this would set him free from triviality and impurity of other people’s existence. However, it is recorded in his journal that at some point during his wandering, he was ready to return to his former way of life, as he understood that, perhaps, society was not that malign. 5 Despite this intention, he did not reunite with the community, and perished alone, which leads to the conclusion that living among other people is crucial to an individual’s survival.

The book also raises the motif of rejection of money and objection to consumerism and the accumulation of material things. McCandless showed his aversion to the modern economic system by donating $24,000 to charity and becoming an itinerant pauper. From his point of view, wealth and abundance of material things hinder a person from enjoying life and developing spiritually. 6 He was right in his reflections, but he seems to have gone too far in his attempts to live within basic needs.

Overall, the protagonist of the book does not arouse sympathy because his actions were unreasoned, and he was unprepared for his adventure, which eventually caused him to die from poisoning in a forest. A promising young man with plenty of opportunities to build a career or succeed in any other field wasted his chance to make himself useful for society or live a long, eventful life. Indeed, he fulfilled his intentions to reject material values and isolate himself from the community, and it may have made him proud of himself. However, the whole story would have been better if he had treated his adventure with a greater responsibility, which would have prevented his sudden death.

In conclusion, it may be said that this book is worth reading because it makes readers think about things that attach significance to their lives. The novel serves as a warning to individualists since it shows that excessive self-reliance may lead to deplorable consequences because some things are too complicated for one person to handle. It also teaches that before making a life-changing decision, such as quitting a career or undertaking a venture, one should weigh all pros and cons and thoroughly prepare for the upcoming change. Finally, as the book is based on a real-life event, it is likely to influence readers more effectively than a fiction story because it involves credible facts rather than imaginary plot twists.

Kam, Tanya Y. “Forests of the Self: Life Writing and ‘Wild’ Wanderings.” Life Writing 13, no. 3 (2016): 351-371.

Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild . London: Pan Macmillan, 2018.

Krehan, Hannes. “Trust Me – It’s Paradise”: The Escapist Motif in Into the Wild, The Beach and Are You Experienced? Hamburg: Anchor Academic Publishing, 2014.

Vera, José Sánchez. “Thoreau as an Oblique Mirror: Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild .” American Studies in Scandinavia 47, no. 1 (2015): 40-60.

• José Sánchez Vera, “Thoreau as an Oblique Mirror: Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild ,” American Studies in Scandinavia 47, no. 1 (2015): 43.
• Tanya Y. Kam, “Forests of the Self: Life Writing and ‘Wild’ Wanderings,” Life Writing 13, no. 3 (2016): 352.
• Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild (London: Pan Macmillan, 2018), 57.
• Tanya Y. Kam, “Forests of the Self: Life Writing and ‘Wild’ Wanderings,” Life Writing 13, no. 3 (2016): 354.
• Hannes Krehan, “Trust Me – It’s Paradise”: The Escapist Motif in Into the Wild, The Beach and Are You Experienced? (Hamburg: Anchor Academic Publishing, 2014), 6.
• José Sánchez Vera, “Thoreau as an Oblique Mirror: Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild ,” American Studies in Scandinavia 47, no. 1 (2015): 45.
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2020, July 6). Into the Wild: Characters, Themes, Personal Opinion. https://ivypanda.com/essays/into-the-wild-characters-themes-personal-opinion/

"Into the Wild: Characters, Themes, Personal Opinion." IvyPanda , 6 July 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/into-the-wild-characters-themes-personal-opinion/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Into the Wild: Characters, Themes, Personal Opinion'. 6 July.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Into the Wild: Characters, Themes, Personal Opinion." July 6, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/into-the-wild-characters-themes-personal-opinion/.

1. IvyPanda . "Into the Wild: Characters, Themes, Personal Opinion." July 6, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/into-the-wild-characters-themes-personal-opinion/.

IvyPanda . "Into the Wild: Characters, Themes, Personal Opinion." July 6, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/into-the-wild-characters-themes-personal-opinion/.

• John Krakauer's “Into the Wild”
• "Into the Wild" by Krakauer
• Into the Wild by John Krakauer
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• A Christmas Carol of Dickens: Never Too Late for a Change of Heart
• Violence and Justice in The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell
• The Tempest: Characters, Theme, and Personal Opinion
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Chris McCandless Essays

Into The Wild papers and assignments

Over the years many people have contacted this website about information for their assignments or projects on the story Into The Wild. Because of the creative and inspiring papers submitted, we decided to create a section of the site for these people.

If you are interested in writing a piece on Chris McCandless or the story and would like it posted on this website, please contact us at mail(at)christophermccandless.info. Please submit the paper in a Word document with your name at the top and a picture if you like.

You can include a contact email address should visitors wish to contact you. Also, include your country of residence so we can see how far this story has reached.

To date, we have a number of papers submitted by visitors to the site and users of the forum. Below you will see a picture and a link to their papers.

All of us have a little bit of Chris in us. Who does not have a dream? Who does not want to go and pursue that dream? There are those that can and those that cannot. But, this is a place where you can voice these feelings and ambitions.

ps – all submitted essays are located under the menu for “ Student Papers “.

• Into The Wild – Abby Slaubaugh Abby Slaubaugh3A Jon Krakauer, author of Into the Wild, believes that Chris McCandless is a fascinating and admirable young man along with… Read more : Into The Wild – Abby Slaubaugh
• Into The Wild – Adrienne Lindsey Response to Into the Wild – the Film Having heard bits and pieces of Christopher’s story years ago, I have only seen… Read more : Into The Wild – Adrienne Lindsey
• Into The Wild – Alex Ramos Ramos IAlex Ramos17 February 2016Admirable but Mistaken, Alexander Supertramp’s Virtue of IgnoranceIn this concise little essay an attempt to show Chris McCandless’… Read more : Into The Wild – Alex Ramos
• Into The Wild – Ali Ingah Where was I when I heard about Chris McCandles ? I was a freshman attending St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. At… Read more : Into The Wild – Ali Ingah
• Into The Wild – Allison Casey Throughout my school career, I always thought of summer reading as a way for teachers to torture their students. I never gained… Read more : Into The Wild – Allison Casey
• Into The Wild – Allyson Jarvis The life of Alexander SupertrampAllyson JarvisBethel Park High School AbstractThis paper follows Into the Wild’s main character, Chris McCandless along his path… Read more : Into The Wild – Allyson Jarvis
• Into The Wild – Angela Goethe Angela GoetheAP English Language and Composition/SPHS/USAImitates Life Imitates Art3/1/17Aristotle is known for proclaiming that art imitates life. Even long after his death,… Read more : Into The Wild – Angela Goethe
• Into The Wild – Anna Farrell Anna FarrellMr. LucasEnglish 11December 22, 2015 The Fulfilled Life of Chris McCandless Through the words of author Jon Krakauer comes a true… Read more : Into The Wild – Anna Farrell
• Into The Wild – Ashley Bouck Ashley Bouck3A3/1/2017Chris McCandless: Breaking Boundaries Chris McCandless was a lot of things, but he was not ignorant. At times he could have… Read more : Into The Wild – Ashley Bouck
• Into The Wild – Bridget Ringer Bridget [email protected] 29, 2010 The Story behind Extremists In April 1992 a 24-year-old man walked into the Alaskan wilderness alone. His name… Read more : Into The Wild – Bridget Ringer
• Into The Wild – Caleb Springer Chris’s story seems liquefied. It drips and slips through my fingers, challenging me to constantly change the way I contain its substance,… Read more : Into The Wild – Caleb Springer
• Into The Wild – Camille Childress The book into the wild changed how I saw things. Now, I don’t think of so much want as of need. Chris… Read more : Into The Wild – Camille Childress
• Into The Wild – Caryn Mays Caryn MaysChris McCandless Young people want adventure. They want to get out of the sight of their parents and live their own… Read more : Into The Wild – Caryn Mays
• Into The Wild – Chandler Broadbent As adolescents are minds are so malleable and impressionable that we often believe everything we are told to be the truth. Twenty-four-year-old… Read more : Into The Wild – Chandler Broadbent
• Into The Wild – Cheyenne Santos Cheyenne SantosAP LanguageThe Unknown Nobleman:Some readers admire Chris McCandless (Alex) for his courageousness and noble ideas, while others fulminated that he is… Read more : Into The Wild – Cheyenne Santos
• Into The Wild – Chris Ingram ‘Remove The Bus’ by Chris IngramLots of you know the story of “Into The Wild”, Christopher McCandless/Alexander Supertramp and the Magic Bus… Read more : Into The Wild – Chris Ingram
• Into The Wild – Claudia Lamantea Into the Wild The true story of a dreamer Christopher Johnson Mccandless, also known as Alexander Supertramp, was an American traveller dead… Read more : Into The Wild – Claudia Lamantea
• Into The Wild – Colter Jones Robinson Noble Journey or Mindless DeathI approached a patch of pine trees as the meadow came to a dead end. Just about fifty… Read more : Into The Wild – Colter Jones Robinson
• Into The Wild – Cynthia Aguilera Into the Wild EssayCynthia Aguilera Into the Wild is about Chris McCandless and how he was a man of polarity. He is… Read more : Into The Wild – Cynthia Aguilera
• Into The Wild – Dale Moitz Chris McCandless lived life the way he wanted, and embraced it. There’s a lot of life lessons that could be learned from… Read more : Into The Wild – Dale Moitz
• Into The Wild – Dan Olivares Feeling invincible isn’t uncommon for any 24 year-old, but in the case of Chris McCandless, he convinced himself that he knew he… Read more : Into The Wild – Dan Olivares
• Into The Wild – Dave Korn As I strap my pack together beneath the unfurling gray Alaskan sky, sheets of wind billow across the marbled taiga into which… Read more : Into The Wild – Dave Korn
• Into The Wild – David Allen “A Glimpse of Nature Dreaming”:The Very Short Life of Alexander SupertrampInto the WildCommunity and Social Change – Prescott CollegeDavid C. Allen –… Read more : Into The Wild – David Allen
• Into The Wild – Diavonni Edington Into The Wild Essay If you ask a person what they think is the meaning of life you may get millions of… Read more : Into The Wild – Diavonni Edington
• Into The Wild – Erik Halfacre A long time ago, when I first became aware of the fact that someone had died alone in a bus only twenty… Read more : Into The Wild – Erik Halfacre
• Into The Wild – Felix Stern Ruhr-Universität BochumEnglisches Seminar Making Wilderness Reality:How Christopher McCandless Managed to Go Into the Wild Paper for the Class “Cultures of Ecology and… Read more : Into The Wild – Felix Stern
• Into The Wild – Jacob Isard Jacob Isard3-1-173AChristopher McCandless is a 23-year-old man with a very odd set of goals and morals that made him a unique individual… Read more : Into The Wild – Jacob Isard
• Into The Wild – Jennifer Little Courageous? Arrogance? Why Not Both? John Krakauer is the author of Into the Wild which is about the story of Chris McCandless… Read more : Into The Wild – Jennifer Little
• Into The Wild – Jessi Ekmark Jessi EkmarkMr. ShattoEnglish 410 October 2013Alexander Supertramp “Billie refused to look at the faxed photo until the dental ID had been completed… Read more : Into The Wild – Jessi Ekmark
• Into The Wild – Jessica McFadden McCandless and the Metamyth:The Wild Collisions of an Isolation Myth Inverted Jon Krakauer’s interest in the life story of Chris McCandless might… Read more : Into The Wild – Jessica McFadden
• Into The Wild – Jessica Robbins Jessica RobbinsProfessor Russell PotterEnglish 261: Northern Exposures3, May 2012 Not All Who Wander Are Lost: My Thoughts on Christopher McCandless You can… Read more : Into The Wild – Jessica Robbins
• Into The Wild – Jordana Gentile Out of the Normal Sitting at a desk, going to work from nine to five can get boring. Doing the same thing… Read more : Into The Wild – Jordana Gentile
• Into The Wild – Katelyn Gilmore Evidence of modern western civilizations’ pressure to abide to social expectations is increasing rapidly, notably with advancements in technology. Messages are now… Read more : Into The Wild – Katelyn Gilmore
• Into The Wild – Katie Brown Into the Wild, written by Jon Krakauer, is a story about a man named Chris McCandless who goes on a life threatening… Read more : Into The Wild – Katie Brown
• Into The Wild – Kelly Frazer-Modica Kelly Frazer-ModicaWriting and Recreation Cluster/Ashby/Week 8Into the Wild Chris McCandless was a determined young man. From an early age, he wanted to… Read more : Into The Wild – Kelly Frazer-Modica
• Into The Wild – Kelsey Massoglia Kelsey Massoglia5/6/2016Writing 3020 The Journey to Find True Happiness “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do… Read more : Into The Wild – Kelsey Massoglia
• Into The Wild – Kevin Wiklund Kevin Wiklund3/25/2012One of the first books I can remember feeling a strong connection to as a young man, was Jon Krakauer’s Into… Read more : Into The Wild – Kevin Wiklund
• Into The Wild – Kierre Henderson There has been some controversy concerning whether Chris McCandless was a hero who had a dream and wanted to chase it or… Read more : Into The Wild – Kierre Henderson
• Into The Wild – Kimberly Patton 2017-01-21Escapism/Into the Wild book review by Kimberly [email protected]/@kimpatton730Blog: http://aprojectthatneedstweaking.blogspot.com/ My afternoon jog started out promising but fizzled after fifteen minutes. I took… Read more : Into The Wild – Kimberly Patton
• Into The Wild – Kylee Mclaughlin Nothing matters, you need to learn to live your life, alone and independent. Christopher McCandless lived on his own will, nothing will… Read more : Into The Wild – Kylee Mclaughlin
• Into The Wild – Lance Wood Into the WildBy: Lance WoodImagine, opening your eyes to discover the vas, unseen wilderness. Waking up in a place without any yes’s… Read more : Into The Wild – Lance Wood
• Into The Wild – Laura Doocy Life is a silly, important, hard concept to grasp .That is what this book taught me. Christopher Mccandless was a free sprit… Read more : Into The Wild – Laura Doocy
• Into The Wild – Leanne Longobardi Chris McCandless: Virtuous Philosophy of One’s LifeThe most common theme that is reiterated time and time again within Into the Wild is… Read more : Into The Wild – Leanne Longobardi
• Into The Wild – Lua Tomarelli-Lu Into The Wild Essay “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond… Read more : Into The Wild – Lua Tomarelli-Lu
• Into The Wild – Maya Bernadett Wilderness or Home: Finding a Sense of Belonging “Into the Wild” is the title of a book first written in 1996 by… Read more : Into The Wild – Maya Bernadett
• Into The Wild – Mike Miller Into the Wild In my language arts class, I read the book “Into the Wild.” The book is about a young man… Read more : Into The Wild – Mike Miller
• Into The Wild – Nathan Yocum Into the Wild I believe Chris McCandless was foolhardy in his decision to go into the wild in Alaska,and that he was… Read more : Into The Wild – Nathan Yocum
• Into The Wild – Olesya Nedorezova Olesya NedorezovaChris McCandless essay3/5/17Who is Chris McCandless? Chris McCandless had many different opinions about them, but all of them branch off of… Read more : Into The Wild – Olesya Nedorezova
• Into The Wild – Pepe Let me properly introduce myself: My name is Jose Luis Rangel , I go by the nickname of ” pepe “. Another… Read more : Into The Wild – Pepe
• Into The Wild – Pete Mason Remembering Christopher McCandless 20 Years LaterBy Pete MasonJon Krakauer’s nonfiction opus Into the Wild begins on the cover “In April 1992 a… Read more : Into The Wild – Pete Mason
• Into The Wild – Rachel Lin Rachel LinMcNevinEnglish 3 Period 111 December 2013The Transcendent Follower Transcendentalism is the philosophical and literary movement that highlights themes of nature and… Read more : Into The Wild – Rachel Lin
• Into The Wild – Radhika Arora Radhika AroraJuly 24, 2012 Rhetorical Appeals in Into the Wild What one says, thinks, or hears bears no significance if it is… Read more : Into The Wild – Radhika Arora
• Into The Wild – Rebecca LaMarche Matters of Independence:A Study of Self-Reliance in Into the Wild Rebecca LaMarche, May 2010 In Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, the… Read more : Into The Wild – Rebecca LaMarche
• Into The Wild – Rob Jones Rob JonesProfessor Amanda MooreEnglish 1B25 November, 2012 The Adventures of Alexander SupertrampBased on the 1996 non-fiction book by Jon Krakaver, the movie… Read more : Into The Wild – Rob Jones
• Into The Wild – Ruari Stewart Ruari StewartTranscendentalism Final ProjectEnglish 3 Transcendentalism is known as the philosophical movement as a protest to the general state of culture and… Read more : Into The Wild – Ruari Stewart
• Into The Wild – Ryan Ferace We have all had that thought. A thought… an almost calling, to understand what we are truly supposed to do with this… Read more : Into The Wild – Ryan Ferace
• Into The Wild – Salma Mousstamire Here is a paper from Salma Mousstamire who is French. We used google translate to have an english version for the site.… Read more : Into The Wild – Salma Mousstamire
• Into The Wild – Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson3/1/17 Self-Peace, Solitude, and Serenity To man, some things are simply unthinkable. The outer reaches of the solar system, though now… Read more : Into The Wild – Samuel Johnson
• Into The Wild – Sara Johnson Infinite Possibilities A want for independence is something known to all teenagers. You no longer feel the need of assistance on your… Read more : Into The Wild – Sara Johnson
• Into The Wild – Simone Into The Wild Themes Identity: Into The Wild is all about identity. One of the mains reasons that Chris leaves his family… Read more : Into The Wild – Simone
• Into The Wild – Vicente Bryne Into the Wild By, John Krakauer, discusses a story of Chris McCandless, a man in his early 20’s whom ventures on a… Read more : Into The Wild – Vicente Bryne
• Into The Wild – Wendee Walker Chris/Alex or is it Alex/Chris You ascended, transcended, upended conventionsAbandoning all that was expectedLeaving the world in perplexed aweBoots, backpack, bags of… Read more : Into The Wild – Wendee Walker
• Into The Wild Film – Caleb Springer Since the release of the 2014 film Wild telling the story of Cheryl Strayed’s journey across the Pacific Crest Trail the previous… Read more : Into The Wild Film – Caleb Springer

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.