...Christopher McCandless can be considered one of the most controversial figures of time. As one can see Into The Wild, some thought he was a fool, that he was incompetent, while some thought he was a hero, an idealistic, intelligent man. A critic of Chris's, as the one stated in Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild novel, claims "Not only did Chris McCandless die because he was stupid, one Alaska correspondent observed, 'but the scope of his self-styled adventure was so small as to ring pathetic-squatting in a wrecked bus a few miles out of Healy, potting jays and squirrels, mistaking a caribou for a moose (pretty hard to do)...Only one word for the guy:incompetent". Meanwhile there are many who fall in between the distinct line that separates the average critic or supporter of Chris McCandless. This small select group of people would disagree with this critic for multiple reasons. First, the "caribou" was in fact a moose, secondly McCandless's would have survived if it weren't for a miniscule fatal mistake. Thirdly,...
Words: 902 - Pages: 4
...Chris McCandless: Hero or fool? “If this adventure proves fatal and you don’t ever hear from me again, I want you to know you’re a great man. I now walk into the wild.” (Krakauer, 3). Into the wild is about a man by the name of Chris McCandless. Chris goes into Alaska to try to survive but ends up dying in Alaska on the Stampede Trail. This book has caused a debate on whether or not Chris was a hero or a fool. Chris McCandless is a fool throughout the book, for example, Chris tries to survive in the Alaskan Wilderness with little experience, he tries to survive by himself with no help and Chris is to hard on his parents. Chris demonstrates foolishness by trying to survive in the Alaskan wilderness with little experienve. He shows this in Chapter...
Words: 722 - Pages: 3
...Haydn Schoonover American Lit, P6 Westenskow May 9, 2014 Into the Wild, Chris McCandless Analysis In Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer tells the story of Chris McCandless, a man born in an affluent family. McCandless allowed his wandering thoughts and moral code guide him in a way that lead to certain death. His parents, Billie and Walt McCandless set him up for an impressive, promising life. Chris took this promising, successful future and spun into a journey filled with idealist literature and danger that skewed his world view. Chris McCandless is often seen as a narcissistic, deeply-misplaced young man that betrayed the emotional trust of his parents. He was not the ideal hero, nor was he a fool. He was rather an idealist, applying his beliefs in order to shift his purpose, unable to be influenced by the forces in his life, such as his collegiate endeavors and his family. “At long last he was unencumbered, emancipated from the stifling world of his parents and peers, a world of abstraction and security and material excess, a world in which he felt grievously cut off from the raw throb of existence.” (Krakauer, 22). McCandless frees himself, despite being chained to the rabid chaos of the urban, modern world. The story of Into the Wild communicates that it is important to follow your own path, in spite of external opinions. Chris McCandless was a pompous fool taking into consideration the decisions he made throughout his short life. He burned all of the money his wallet...
Words: 786 - Pages: 4
...Krakauer’s book, Into the Wild, which chronicles the life of amateur survivalist Chris McCandless, largely embodies this claim. It seems the people who ever heard Chris’s story were split into two sects: on one side, there are those who claim McCandless was a misunderstood anti-hero, who showed some twisted nobility through his actions. On the other side, there are those who simply deem McCandless, in Krakauer’s own words, “a narcissist who perished out of arrogance and stupidity” (4). While Krakauer falls into the former camp -- mainly due to his own life’s similarities to Chris’s -- it really only takes a moment’s glance at McCandless’s life to see that the latter camp is more correct: while Chris did show some semblance of courage and nobility on his travels, he was, first and foremost, a stubborn, arrogant misanthrope, and that is the reason why he never walked out of Alaska in August of 1992. From Chris McCandless’s early years of childhood, he showed stubbornness in his everyday life. As Chris’s father Walt ruminates, “Chris had so much natural talent, . . . but if you tried to coach him, to polish his skill, to bring out that final ten percent, a wall went up”...
Words: 803 - Pages: 4
...Christopher Johnson McCandless, also know as “Alexander Supertramp” to those he connected with while on the lam, was a hiker that that went into the wilderness with little food and equipment hoping to find a life of solitude. On this thrilling journey in Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, Chris displays himself to be a hero of authenticity and transcendentalism, and at times even a fool. Towards the end of his life, he truly morphed himself from a college graduate, to a man that lives and strives off the land known as “Supertramp.” Christopher was a genuine boy throughout the course of his life and always saw the positive in negative situations. His bubbly personality was contagious as he mesmerized everyone with his charm and sincereness. His authenticity is show throughout the entirety of the book, but a single quote represents his mentalities and philosophies, “The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun” (Krakauer 57). He lived and died by this mind set, which exemplified his heroism. Christopher knew there was a intense physical challenge ahead of him in order to achieve the emotional enlightenment he set out searching for; this is another prime example that shows the true hero of authenticity. Most people would be deterred from this expedition because they deem...
Words: 940 - Pages: 4
...Chris McCandless is not a hero by any means. Chris went on a long trip trying to survive on his own, and brought absolutely nothing useful. Only just a few belonging in a backpack. The book “Into The Wild” Jim Gallien thought “Alex’s backpack looked as though it weighed only twenty-five or thirty pounds, which struck Gallien---an accomplished hunter and woodsman---as an improbably light load…”(4). This quote shows that someone who knows the wilderness parts of Alaska knew that it was foolish to try and survive with none to some equipment. It was dangerous not having the right equipment to help, because you don’t what you might encounter. Doing anything and not preparing for it, you will start ten feet back from the start. By not being responsible...
Words: 330 - Pages: 2
...Jon Krakauer. Christopher Johnson McCandless also known as Alex Supertramp was very determined and brave when it came to following his dreams. Jon Krakauer believed Chris was someone looking for the meaning of life. Jon Krakauer and Chris both had strained relationships with their fathers. This influenced them both deeply and made it easier for Jon to look at Chris as a smart young man. Most people would look at Chris and say he was a fool for doing everything he did to his family. Only some people understand what Chris...
Words: 929 - Pages: 4
..."McCandless was thrilled to be on his way north, and he was relieved as well—relieved that he had again evaded the impending threat of human intimacy, of friendship, and all the messy emotional baggage that comes with it. He had fled the claustrophobic confines of his family. He’d successfully kept Jan Burres and Wayne Westerberg at arm’s length, flitting out of their lives before anything was expected of him. And now he’d slipped painlessly out of Ron Franz’s life as well." This quotation shows Chris’s problems with intimacy which was highlighted on his two-year journey to find meaning in his life. During his journey he does not contact his sister, which he was very close with. Although he made lots of friends and acquaintances he made sure...
Words: 1097 - Pages: 5
...once wrote; “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” What if failure is fatal though? Can we even really call that a success? While reading the story of Chris McCandless’s journey in Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild readers are left with did McCandless succeed? And can his travels across the United States and into the Alaskan wilderness be interpreted as a success? Even though he did go out into the wilderness alone with hardly anything at all people think he is a success. However, McCandless was not a success because he went out there with hardly knowing much and practically killed himself and ended up dying. To start off, Chris McCandless did not even know how to cook food properly in a microwave yet alone clean it. In other words, this goes to show he was not very successful. Early in the book Jon Krakauer states that Westerburg “Opened the...
Words: 586 - Pages: 3
...Labeling Chris McCandless. Hero or Fool .? Can taking too many risks cause a major change in life? Chris McCandless, an adventurous 24 year-old, was found dead in the Alaskan wilderness in September 1992. Chris grew up in Washington D.C with his parents, Walt and Billie, and his sister Carine. McCandless was a very wealthy scholar and a talented athlete. After graduating from high school he spent the summer alone taking a road trip across the country trying to figure himself out, but only to find out more problems with his life. McCandless returns home two-days before his freshman year at Emory starts, works hard to gets good grades, then graduates. Not telling anyone where he was going leaves for another trip to live out the life he wanted. The consequences to living the way he wanted life ended with death due to starvation. Chris McCandless was at fault for his own death because he wasn’t prepared, he rejected society, and he was overconfident....
Words: 865 - Pages: 4
...Chris McCandless was heroic and brave because he did more in his twenty-four years than most people do in a lifetime. It is rare that people actually make the most of the short time they have on earth and live, rather than just exist. To go against the grain and discover the meaning of life instead of just settling, takes courage, determination, and a completely different, profound mindset, which were qualities Chris possessed. He did not just settle with the monotonous way of life that society expects of us. He went on an odyssey of self-discovery because he thirsted for truth and originality, and that is something to admire. One could say that he was naïve and brash and that inevitably led him to being a failure but he positively affected...
Words: 746 - Pages: 3
...influential to his supporters, some of his greatest pieces were created along with his travels. Campbell once said,”A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” That is how many Campbell as, a hero. A man who stepped outside boundaries and gave his full potential to something he believed in. Campbell's story relates to biography Into The Wild By author Jon Krakauer....
Words: 1029 - Pages: 5
...Christopher McCandless was one of the most flawed characters in the history of nonfictional literary works. His ignorance and recklessness ultimately led to a miserable death in vain. He was inconsiderate and selfish in setting off on his foolish journey to his death. He didn’t bother to consider the consequences, and the grief that people who loved him would be forced to endure. Chris “…wasn’t a nutcase, he wasn’t a sociopath, he wasn’t an outcast.” He was an ignorant fool who threw away his life, hurting the ones who loved him most in the process. The whole foundation McCandless’s ideology and reason for escaping “into the wild” was baseless to begin with. He based his reasoning off of the Transcendalists, who started their movements in...
Words: 458 - Pages: 2
...not. Is attempting to jump across worth it? Should I go back down? Or continue up? Each time you ask these things, you have to decide on what to do. Be it rock climbing, playing soccer, or doing anything that involves some sort of decision making, each decision comes with a varying level of risk. In soccer, that risk is minimal and not very life threatening, but when rock climbing (maybe without a belayer), some decisions can come with more serious consequences; these can be anything like small injuries, or they can cause serious injuries or even death. Jon Krakauer, the author of Into the Wild portrays Chris McCandless as someone who takes serious risks, but the benefits Krakauer finds in them are not as big as the risk in my opinion. Taking some risks are worth it as they can help you learn something about yourself, but others are not. In the book Into the Wild, Chris McCandless takes a big risk by going out into the wild unprepared with minimal supplies, but he thinks it is worth proving to...
Words: 1673 - Pages: 7
...As Albert Einstein said ages ago, “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” One man looked into the wild and never looked away, a man by the name of Chris McCandless, who decided to follow the dream of walking the Earth, unburdened of stress, society, and most importantly, responsibilities, A modern nomad, he finally reached the height of his dream, the wild of Alaska, living off the land, and in doing so, his death was recorded in the papers only a few months later. Four years downstream, and the fellow dreamer and cragsman, John Krakauer comes out with the book presenting the tale that McCandless wrote for himself on the road to find himself. As the text begins to fill in the holes of McCandless’s story, it...
Words: 906 - Pages: 4
