into the wild essay about chris mccandless

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"Into The Wild" by Jon Krakauer

Categories: Chris Mccandless Into The Wild

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Published: Dec 18, 2018

Words: 1606 | Pages: 4 | 9 min read

Works Cited

Carine McCandless. (1999). The Wild Truth. HarperOne.
Krakauer, J. (1996). Into the Wild. Anchor Books.
Krakauer, J. (2007). Into the Wild (Movie Tie-in Edition). Anchor Books.
Krakauer, J. (2015). Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town. Anchor Books.
Krakauer, J. (2019). Classic Krakauer: Essays on Wilderness and Risk. Anchor Books.
Thoreau, H. D. (1854). Walden, Or Life In The Woods. Ticknor and Fields.
Tolstoy, L. (1889). Family Happiness. Nordbok.
Tolstoy, L. (2013). The Kingdom of God Is Within You. Dover Publications.
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. (2007). Into the Wild [Motion Picture].
Woodworth, M. (Ed.). (2017). The Philosophy of John Krakauer. University Press of Kentucky.

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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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Into the wild is about a young man name Chris McCandless otherwise known as Alex, who is a transcendental. In the beginning of the book, Alex grew up in a very puritanical family but Alex becomes rebellious and transcendentalism [...]

Isolation is the experience of being separated from others. It results from being physically separated from others, such as when a person lives in a remote area. Intimacy is important to one's life as well, it is required to be [...]

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 [...]

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Ignorance of Christopher McCandless in the Book “Into the Wild” Essay

In one of the most renowned books, Into the Wild , Jon Krakauer (1992) narrates the story of Christopher McCandless. The latter aspired to explore life in the natural wilderness by traveling to the Alaskan bushes. Since its publication, one of the significant discussions about the book revolved around whether the protagonist, Chris McCandless, is ignorant or wise to go to the wilderness. On the one side of the debate, readers have claimed that McCandless was ignorant to travel into the Alaskan wilderness without any prior skills or experience. On the other side of the discussion, the audience emphasized the unique and intelligent nature of McCandless, who rejected the standard ways of living and social norms to realize his dream. The analysis employing logos reveals that McCandless was ignorant to go into the wilderness despite the absence of prior skills and experience to survive while also rejecting help from the outside community.

The first evidence to support their ignorance of McCandless is his lack of knowledge and experience to understand and survive the wilderness. The author implies McCandless’ lack of skills and experience when referring to his unpreparedness while beginning the journey. In the first chapter, Krakauer notes that McCandless (Alex) had a backpack that looked “only twenty-five or thirty pounds,” which, according to Jim Gallien, the driver. seemed too light for a stay of several months (Krakauer 9). Another example of McCandless’ lack of knowledge is that he mistakenly ate wild potatoes, namely moldy seeds (Krakauer 148). This unfortunate mistake caused by ignorance eventually became the cause of this death (Krakauer 151). Finally, McCandless was ignorant enough not to take an accurate, up-to-date map of the wilderness he was wandering. Hence, he was not aware of nearby survival opportunities, such as populated areas (Krakauer 136). Thus, the first evidence of McCandless’ ignorance is going into the wilderness without having proper knowledge, skills, or experience.

Another evidence of McCandless’ ignorance is his isolation from the outside world. Namely, the book’s interviews indicate that several people who met McCandless gave him pieces of advice and warnings throughout the journey. However, McCandless recklessly and arrogantly rejected them, asserting that he “won’t run into anything he can’t deal on his own” (Krakauer 11). For instance, Gallien warned McCandless that hunting is not easy in the area where he was heading, and it might take several days to catch any animal (Krakauer 11). He also tried to warn him about wild animals, such as grizzly bears (Krakauer 11). McCandless largely ignored these warnings and did not worry about their seriousness (Krakauer 11). At another point, McCandless wants to explore what kind of plants he could eat (McCandless 126). Gaylord Stuckey tells him that it is still too early to go hiking, and due to heavy snow on the ground, nothing is growing yet (McCandless 126). Once again, McCandless is determined and does not listen to Stuckey’s advice (McCandless 126). Thus, these continuous rejections of outside help complicated McCandless’s survival.

To conclude, McCandless’s ignorance for going into the wilderness is that he was determined to live in nature without any prior experience, knowledge, or skills while isolating himself from the help. From my perspective, in this narrative, Jon Krakauer wants to convey to the reader the importance of deliberate, thoughtful decision-making and social support. The author demonstrates in the pursuit of finding solitude and driven by irrational self-confidence and excitement, the main character ignores the significance of objective planning and seeking help from the community. Thus, the message is crucial for the audience to understand that a person should carefully plan and objectively analyze his situation instead of falling into ignorance and arrogance.

Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild . Anchor Books, 1992.

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IvyPanda. (2022, November 17). Ignorance of Christopher McCandless in the Book “Into the Wild”. https://ivypanda.com/essays/ignorance-of-christopher-mccandless-in-the-book-into-the-wild/

"Ignorance of Christopher McCandless in the Book “Into the Wild”." IvyPanda , 17 Nov. 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/ignorance-of-christopher-mccandless-in-the-book-into-the-wild/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'Ignorance of Christopher McCandless in the Book “Into the Wild”'. 17 November.

IvyPanda . 2022. "Ignorance of Christopher McCandless in the Book “Into the Wild”." November 17, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/ignorance-of-christopher-mccandless-in-the-book-into-the-wild/.

1. IvyPanda . "Ignorance of Christopher McCandless in the Book “Into the Wild”." November 17, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/ignorance-of-christopher-mccandless-in-the-book-into-the-wild/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Ignorance of Christopher McCandless in the Book “Into the Wild”." November 17, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/ignorance-of-christopher-mccandless-in-the-book-into-the-wild/.

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The Inspirational Journey of Chris McCandless: A Story of the Search for Meaning in Life

“Chris was extraordinarily talented. He excelled in almost anything he attempted and let nothing stand in his way. During Chris’s year and a half adventure around the Western United States he showed all of the qualities of a hero.” (Austin Peton, Blue Ridge Magazine).

“I feel it’s a shame that McCandless’ life ended at such a young age. I wish he would have made better decisions in many of his outdoor pursuits and the way he dealt with his family, but as a character I believe he is an essential lesson in social progression. Currently in America, we are losing sight of the simple things through working too many hours, while we live among homogenized suburban trappings and big-box hell. Many times, I have wanted to step away from it all and release my free spirit within.” (Jim Barry, Raleigh, N.C.NY Times).

“Many people waste away their lives being a slave to something (career, debt, etc.), not really ever being free from its grasp. Chris was just someone who did what we all should do follow your heart.” (Jon Livenood, Knoxville, Tenn,.N.Y. Times).

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away” (Walden).

Krakauer, J. (1996). Into the wild. Anchor Books.
Bass, R. (2013). Into the wild: A conversation with author Jon Krakauer. The Paris Review, (206).
Jones, C. M. (2010). “Happiness Only Real When Shared”: Christopher McCandless, Transcendentalism, and the Pacific Crest Trail. Journal of Transcendentalism, (1), 37-59.
Loomis, D. G. (2015). Chris McCandless's social death. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 55(3), 240-261.
Oberg, M. (2012). Into the Wild and the American frontier. Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, 19(1), 131-148.
Roszak, T. (1998). The making of a counter culture. University of California Press.
Slade, G. (2008). The Journeys of Socrates: An Adventure. Arrow.
Young, S. (2008). Escaping the society: A study of Christopher McCandless, the main character in Jon Krakauer's Into the wild. Retrieved from https://brage.bibsys.no/xmlui/handle/11250/238163
Zavalina, K. (2014). The paradox of Chris McCandless. The Hedgehog Review, 16(2), 80-90.

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Chris McCandless: Into the Wild

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Into the Wild

Into the Wild is a movie based on the true story of Chris McCandless and his pursuit for fulfillment through exiling himself from society. Two songs, ‘Guaranteed’ and ‘Long Nights’ were written specifically for the movie and although both were inspired by him, “Guaranteed” gets more to the heart of Chris McCandless’s character, as his search for happiness is defined by his yearning for solitude, not a fresh start.

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The song ‘Long Nights’ best portrays the emotions McCandless feels that motivate him to leave his home. Throughout his life, McCandless has lived the way his parents wanted him to. Now that he is an adult and graduated from university, he breaks out on his own for the first time. The song begins with “have no fear, for when I’m alone I’ll be better off than I was before.” McCandless wants his sister to understand that although a risky decision, he knows that leaving is the right one. He believes he is better off on his own, and whatever future may lay in front of him is better than what he is leaving behind. He wants to carve a fresh start and forget his past, as represented by the line “who I was before, I cannot recall.” The song then continues with “I’ll take this soul that’s inside me now, like a brand new friend I’ll forever know.” He is discovering a yearning for something more, and is excited to find new experiences. He believes this journey will change who is, and he find himself growing as a person the longer he explores.

From the very first line, “on bended knee is no way to be free,” to the final line, “I knew all the rules, but the rules did not know me,” ‘Guaranteed’ gets to the core of McCandless’s desire to be free. He knew the lifestyle he should be living, but chooses instead to find a different, more liberating path. For him, the autonomy of living day to day, unknowing of what will happen, is preferable to the confines of everyday life. McCandless has always had trouble connecting with his parents and their routine of life; when he leaves he is hoping that all his “destinations will accept [him]” in a way his parents never could. The more people try to push him, the more he strives to become independent, as expressed by the line “don’t come closer or I’ll have to go.” Alaska is far from home geographically; symbolically it is “untapped” territory which is something he yearns for. McCandless feels he has a connection with nature, something he has never been able to feel for people. This song particularly exposes that feeling with the lines “wind in my hair I feel part of everywhere.” The primary reason for McCandless’s journey into Alaska was to find who he was in solitude, as demonstrated best by ‘Guaranteed’.

Both the songs ‘Guaranteed’ and ‘Long Nights’ are written after Chris McCandless; but while both emulate his craving for freedom, ‘Guaranteed’ displays McCandless’s longing for a different life and his need for fulfillment. McCandless was searching for something he thought was happiness through a solitude lifestyle. It wasn’t until his end that he realizes happiness isn’t true unless it’s shared.

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Why did Chris Mccandless Go into the Wild

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Chris McCandless was an outside kinda individual and appreciated the life as one. Many viewed him as an untouchable, trap or blundering individual, anyway that was not the circumstance. McCandless was searching for another kind of big business and this drove him to Alaska and into nature to investigate and get another span on life. He surrendered everything finally including: cash, property, and needs. To him none of this was the best approach to ecstasy as his key was life and the outside and living off of his own senses and aptitudes.

McCandless was an adroit man for the wild as he masterminded where he would go, how he would arrive, and how he would make due in nature. While numerous parts were unconstrained and at the time, the entire idea of living in the wild was orchestrated as he got rides from outsiders and worked in numerous regions. McCandless’ family and companions comprehended this and eventually acknowledged him for his identity and let him go off into his undertakings without extremely addressing in the event that he would return.

To start off, I trust Chris is an extraordinary individual and I can differentiate myself a vast sum with him and his craving of waiting be free living in nature. He was cultivated in school and significantly more throughout everyday life so he applies this life learning and endures 113 days in the Alaskan wild. McCandless having this attitude isn’t crazy as most may state, it is basically the need to live in a contrary course from human progression and living in the wild for quite a while. He influenced a gigantic proportion of people and everyone thought he was minding and to a great degree remarkable. I have this equivalent survival learning as I remained outside autonomous from any other individual for about fourteen days living off the land in the past summer.

Next, Chris was depicted as a remarkable kind of individual by various individuals in different areas. He was explicit around a couple of things as he didn’t recognize numerous gifts from people paying little heed to whether they promoted. In one record we see some individual interest he have a protest, yet McCandless recognizes it quickly and surrenders the question over into the individual’s truck. This is a phenomenal instance of how charitableness can be a nature of someone and how it can make others feel. The demonstration of giving a lion’s share of the time and not expecting anything consequently is the best thing to life by I accept. Chris sets up he is reliable, magnanimous, and unadulterated by doing this demonstration.

Besides, the courageous McCandless had a reluctance to shape whole deal relations, yet he kept it so he never had an issue with people. Everybody enjoyed Chris and what he did throughout everyday life; they offered him protect, boots, supplies, nourishment, and cash time to time due to his ability to buckle down and trust them. McCandless left home and went on his endeavor basically for his own specific flourishing, he achieved both what he expected to complete while taking in an imperative exercise in transit. He found that delight must be shared, and remembering that everyone is flawed, it is crucial to let these go. Christopher McCandless should indicate people the centrality of following your dreams, and the criticalness of getting a charge out of the ordinary quietness of life.

At long last in survey, McCandless was a man with innocent and wistful want or maybe he was a child with an academic identity stuck in the body of a man, since that theory would verifiably exist as possible in portraying his ridiculous ways. Let us not disregard that Chris had a truly fascinating idea with incredible objective and conceivably he achieved what he set out for, real internal harmony with himself and his general surroundings maybe he ended up in this whole trouble. For sure McCandless was a splendid soul in any case, finally his unreasonableness or maybe it was his valiance lead him to his defeat, his miserable end in starvation. With most of this said was McCandless survived or was he senseless and clumsy, well, for certain he never acted in any simpleton way, yet he acted in both ineptitude and coarseness in light of the way that from different points of view it takes some ludicrousness to be survived. All things considered, we see Chris to finish his voyage in harmony and conclusion with a huge number of individuals contacted by his activities and the manner in which he went about existence so submissively.

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Into The Wild – Chris Ingram

‘Remove The Bus’

by Chris Ingram Lots of you know the story of “Into The Wild”, Christopher McCandless/Alexander Supertramp and the Magic Bus along the Stampede Trail. Perhaps we are over-enchanted by the zeal of his story, over-sympathetic, feeling a sense that we can relate, or perhaps a Hollywood movie has mesmerized, idealized and over-romanticized our thoughts and beliefs beyond our own lives that we fantisize away from them. So now you have it, that hundreds of people are finding the need to hike to the bus themselves, coming from around the globe, on a whim, a fantasy, and I feel, a false pretense.

So I along with they, decided to plan for my own pilgrimage to Chris’ Magic Bus, Fairbanks City Transit Bus 142 along the Stampede Trail just west of Healy, AK, south of Fairbanks. My work had taken me up to Alaska and I finished my project and travelled to Fairbanks with the intention of hiking the trail to the bus to have my own survial experience in Wild Alaska and to pay my respects to a person I adored and admired. I knew it would not be easy, the Alaskan bush is unforgiving of the ill-prepared and inexperienced. I knew I would have to be extremely careful and constantly mindful and aware because I would go it alone and no one truely knew where I was. There was raging rivers, flooded beaver ponds, bears, sticky bogs and ill-weather to be faced.

On Day 1 I drove down towards Healy and turned onto Stampede Road, the paved road gives way to a rough, pitted gravel trail just a few short miles in. I parked my rental car and packed up and hiked in a mile or so and made camp in the magestic, wind-swept valley.

Day 2 found me with an early rise due to the wind and rain and lack of good sleep. The trail runs through the northern foothills of the Alaskan Range, Mt. McKinley and Denali National Park. Several miles in I stumbled upon an unexpected kitchen camp for a local jeep tour. At this point I learned of a tragedy that occured on the trail just 2 days earlier on Saturday August 14th. A young woman had drowned trying to cross the Teklanika River (Tek), halfway from the highway and Bus 142. This discovery shocked me and broke my heart. The camp cook had urged the young female, along with her partner to head upstream from the trail crossing, where the river braids out and forms several smaller, wider channels just a short half mile of the trail crossing. The two were urged not to tie or secure themselves together and to refrain from the use to ropes alltogether.

(The details of this tragedy are that the two came to the point where the trail cross the Tek, where Chris had made his crossing 18 years earlier. Whether a rope had been previously fashioned across the river or the two had secured it themselves, they proceeded to tie themselves to the rope and ford the river, this was their first mistake. One cannot effectively secure a taught rope across several tens of feet of raging river. Their second mistake was tying themselves to this rope and the third was failing to unbuckle all of their backpack straps. The official investigation revealed that at the time of the incident the Tek was 52″ high and speeding at 8 miles per hour, this knocked the gal off her feet but she was helpless to recover having been tied to a rope that was underwater and unable to free herself from the binding straps and the heavy weight of her pack. Her partner managed to unstrap himself, find his knife and free himself from his tie to the rope but was unable to save her in time. I figure she perished in combination of drowning and the physical trama of being stuck at the bottom of a rumbbling, tumbbling river bed(I could hear rocks the size of bowling balls rolling and grinding along the river’s bottom). I was advised by the cook and guides that since I had been the only visitor since the incident to sever the death rope and was urged with extreme caution to continue along my journey.

I arrived at the Mighty Tek early the second afternoon. I was in complete and utter awe of the power of this magestic river. After several days of hard rain, the river was swollen with snowmelt and rainfall, draining the upper reaches of the Alaskan Range. It became apparent to me immeditaley through the chalky colored water, that the sole purpose and function of this river was to transport precipitaion and aid in the erosion of the tallest peaks in North America; the river supports no life and does not foster a crossing of anyone or anything. The river made me drunk and dizzy seeing its speed and feelings its force. I made my way down the east bank to where the Stampede Trail crosses the river to the other side. (Chris had made this crossing nearly effortlessly 18 years earlier in April, when a shield of ice/snow and lack of meltwater aided in his crossing, what I now witnessed was the same late summer ranging river that kept him on the west bank of the Tek, ultimately leading to his death). I stumbled upon the death rope and immediately cut it with my knife. No one would be crossing here with the same rope if I had anything to do with it. There was absolutely no way I was going to make the same mistake. I value my life too much and could not put that on my loved ones. It felt it would have been too selfish and too reckless a decesion, THERE IS NOTHING IN OR ABOUT THAT BUS THAT IS WORTH YOUR LIFE. I planned to turn around and hike out in the morning and made camp along the river. Suddenly the sound of the rumbbling river was broken with the roar of a helicopter that circled and came closer and closer until I knew it had landed, and close. I ran down to find Denali Park Rangers and Alaska State Troopers, my guts turned and my heart sank, not again, not another one. I immediately identified myself and they stated that they were completing their investigation of the drowning that occured just days ago. I told them that I cut the rope that was used in the ill-fated attempt at her passage and they thanked me for that. I answered a few more questions and told them they need not worry about coming back to fish my corpse from the river, that there was no way I was even thinking about crossing that river just to see a bus. The second night was met with more rain and was an errie, spooky, lonely evening, I couldn’t wait to awake early the next day and blaze through the 8 miles of trail back to my car and return myself to the normal comforts of life I enjoy.

I had an ample amount of time along the trail to contemplate Chris’ story, as well as my own life. The wilderness is a poor place to put your worries, your concerns, your dreams, your hopes, thoughts, wishes and happinesses. The wild simply is just that, wild. Unchanging, unforgiving, it knows nor cares not for your own life. It exists on its own unaffected by the dreams or cares of man. It kills the unprepared and unaware.

I believe that Chris was overzealous and overconfident that he would live in communion with the land. He was grossly unprepared, and engaged in reckless behavior. For him to sever contact with his family and loved ones and die of simple starvation is just terribly sad and selfish. I do not believe that he “discovered” or “stumbled” upon Bus 142, all of the locals have known of its existence since 1963. He had visited Fairbanks the summer before walking out the Stampede Trail and I am convinced, learning about Bus 142 then. The trail is used by hikers, 4-wheelers, and hunters as a shelter. If Chris thought he was all alone in the wild, miles and miles from anyone or anything, he was severly mistaken. He died 25 miles east of a highway and city, and minutes from the border of Denali National Park, one of this countries most visited park destinations. There are several park ranger and private cabins within a few miles of his bus. If would have remained strong and healthy enough, he could have discovered that about a half-mile downstream from the trail crossing across the Tek, there was a USGS gauging station along with a hand-operated tram car. He could have put himself in the tram car and made his way to the east side of the river and back to the highway.

My viewpoints of Chris have radically changed and modified during my journey to the bus. Compounded with the sad death that I was involved with, has left me upset, almost angry at the ignorance and unappreciation that the Alaskan bush is given. We as humans and a society are too long and too far removed from living harmoniously with and conquoring the land. And we are soical beings that trive on relationships, there is a fundamental need to be in the company of others. I have for the last several years attempted to achieve personal happiness in solitude, have failed, and affirmed with this trip, echoing McCandless’ dying words, “Happiness only real when shared.” Why are so many of us compelled to measure our lives in feats and acomplisments, testing death and pushing limits. I can relfect and find myself identifying with being most alive during times in the company of family, friends, and lovers. We should measure ourselves in what we are a part of, not what seperates us from them.

Bus 142 has become a tourist destination, a mecca of McCandless followers. The local guides have stated that an average of 50 pilgrims make the hike along the Stampede Trail weekly. I do not support such behavior. How many more deaths will it take? Is it really worth risking your life to visit a rotted, rusting bus? I blame the movie for over-romantizing the story of Chris and giving all viewers a falseness of his life and what really happened. Anyone can now get a flight to Fairbanks, rent a car, gear up at the local outfitter, and hike in to their preventable death. I support and advise that the Bus be removed from the trail to prevent future deaths.