Analysis Of Chris Mccandless In Into The Wild, By Jon Krakauer

Have you ever wanted to explore the world, or even “start a new life” in the country? In the novel, Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, the author emphasizes about a historical young man, Chris McCandless, who is trying to begin a new life in a series based on factual evidence. Throughout the novel, Krakauer guides us to have many questions and concerns about Chris McCandless, his past life and what he had set out to do. Although McCandless was a man that many readers misunderstood, readers were still able to figure his personality out by continuously scrutinizing and taking notes. Jon Krakauer allows us to examine Chris McCandless by providing actual text and dialogue from his family and peers that he had known and ran into while living in the wild.

In the novel, there were many discoveries about Chris McCandless and who he really was. At first, many readers would perceive McCandless to be a very unhinged and

a troubled young man and as for the strangers that he ran into ,like Wayne Westerburg, tend to claim that he “wasn’t what you’d call mechanically minded”(62). In fact, a lot of people criticized McCandless for going out into the wild the way that he did. When the author, Jon Krakauer, presented a piece of writing about McCandless, a few observers had something negative to say about Chris’s irrational decision. A resident that has lived at the head of the stampede trail , explains her feelings about McCandless by stating “Alex is a nut in my book...The author describes a man who has given away a small fortune, forsaken a loving family, abandoned his car...before traipsing off into the ‘wilderness’ west of Healy”(71). A lot of Alaskans hated the fact that McCandless caused an unwanted reputation for their residency. However, creating a bad reputation wasn’t his intentions; his intentions were to try to survive in the wild. Anyone that has misinterpreted Chris McCandless didn’t really understand what he was set out to do. McCandless was an adventurous and a determined kind of guy. Before Chris ventured off into the wild, Jim Gallien recalls him as to being a single-minded, eager young man(6). Chris had his mind set on starting a new life in order to forget about his past life. He wanted to show his parents that he was better off living without them since they made his life seem like they were the perfect family, when in reality they were just living a fairytale(123). After running into Wayne Westerburg and getting comfortable with his family, he wrote a journal to his younger sister, Carine, making a promise that he would disown his parents(64). Chris had to make it clear that he wouldn’t turn around and go back to his fairytale life.
Besides wanting to get away from his family, it seemed like he wanted to get away from everyone; he wanted to not only be able to start new in life, but also start fresh with people as well. To prove that, McCandless started to go by a new name, Alex Supertramp(18), trying to let go of the name that his parents had given to him. Chris didn’t want to become too attached to people; not because he was anti social, but because he was too anxious to let any distractions come into his way at a very important moment in his life. McCandless met a man, Ron Franz, that grew very fond of McCandless and wanted to adopt him as his son. Chris was willing to let Franz become his father if he were to ever come back from Alaska(55). Unfortunately, Chris wasn’t able to make it back, due to the cause of his death, the P.O.T seeds(191).
Even though many people had negative connotations towards the courageous young man, Krakauer believes that “McCandless didn’t conform particularly well to the bush-casualty stereotype.

Although he was rash, untutored in the ways of the backcountry, and incautious to the point of foolhardiness, he wasn’t incompetent-he wouldn’t have lasted 113 days if he were and he wasn’t a nutcase...McCandless was pilgrim, perhaps”(84). Because McCandless was a believer during the whole duration to his destination, when he died he was at peace with himself and the life that he was given the privilege to live. He no longer was worrying about his father’s betrayal ways, and his mother’s childlike mind. McCandless got what he asked for, and that was to live and to die alone after achieving his dream. Before Chris was at his final ends of life, he took his last breaths to thank god and send everyone his blessings(199). Chris McCandless was born to be an overachiever and died taking pride in who he knew he was and what he had done. He’s more than just a hitchhiker, he’s a

pilgrim.