Character Analysis: Into The Wild By Jon Krakauer

I think that Chris is a very motivated person. He knows what he wants and he is willing to do anything to get there. This quote describes when Gallien was trying to persuade Chris not to go through with his hitchhiking plan, “But he wouldn’t give an inch. He had an answer for everything I threw at him” (Krakauer 7). This quote shows the depth of his motivated character because of his unwillingness to change his mind. Additionally, I also think that Chris has a very optimistic character and outlook on life. Chris is not willing to totally accept the danger of what he is about to do because he is quick to hope for the best. Proof of this character trait can be found in the following quote, “‘I’m absolutely positive… I won’t run into anything I can’t deal with on my own’” (Krakauer 7).

Chris does not agree with a lot of the values of society. He shuns the day-to-day sheltered routine that comes with the security of the material world. Chris does not hold the security of the government with a high esteem, as shown in the following quote, “‘H*ll, no… How I feed myself is none of the government’s business. F*ck their stupid rules’” (Krakauer 7). Chris doesn’t even enjoy the comfort of modern living. He prefers minimal

comfort, “Chris had lived off campus in a monkish room furnished with little more than a thin mattress on the floor, milk crates, and a table” (Krakauer 17). His blatant dislike for modern living is like a foreshadowing to his leaving. I personally don’t agree with his decision to leave but I do understand why he decided to leave because he felt that it was the best option for his situation and mindset.

Alex has the opportunity to experience the great outdoors of America in a way that most people never will. It’s almost as if he belongs to the land and Alex is perfectly happy with that. Alex has found a sort of peace from his newfound freedom that he would have never been able to achieve if he had never dared to adventure out of Atlanta. I think the following quote accurately sums up Alex’s feelings about the lifestyle he leads, “As for me, I’ve decided that I’m going to live this life for some time to come. The freedom and simple beauty of it is just too good to pass up” (Krakauer 24-25).

“Plastic People” describes the regular American citizen who lives a material life. Alex does not approve of these plastic people because they live an empty life, in his opinion. Plastic people can never experience the true freedom that Alex has achieved by abandoning everything he has known. In fact, Alex’s inspiration is Jack London, the author of “The Call of the Wild”. Alex hold the same values as London and I feel that this quote accurately describes everything that Alex dislikes about the “plastic” society, “London’s fervent condemnation of capitalist society, his glorification of the primordial world, his championing of the great unwashed—all of it mirrored McCandless’s passions” (Krakauer 31-32).

Alex is very fortunate to have someone like Franz in his life who cares so much about him. Franz cares for Alex so deeply that he is willing to drop everything whenever Alex needs help. Krakauer displays this relationship to the reader in quotes like the following, “‘Will you come pick me up?’ McCandless asked. ‘Yes. Where in Seattle are you?’” (38). Franz didn’t even think for a second that Alex’s was a bother and promptly went to meet his every need. Someone that reliable in Alex’s life was a very valuable resource to him. However, most of the people who meet Alex tend to become very attached and put Alex before themselves. For example, Franz became so attached to Alex that he wanted to adopt him, “‘Now that my own boy’s dead, I’m the end of the line. When I’m gone, my family will be finished, gone forever. So I asked Alex if I could adopt him, if he would be my grandson’” (Krakauer 39). Alex refuses, of course, and ends up hurting Franz’ feelings. It seems to me that their relationship is a bit one-sided. Alex seems to get lots of perks and a reliable person in his life while Franz is left just with an empty heart after his “son” rejected him.

Sometimes it seems like McCandless changes his “rule” around whenever it benefits him. Wayne wanted McCandless to work an extra 10 days and to make up for lost time Wayne offered to buy Alex a plane ticket. I think that Alex refused because he did not want to stay and work any longer, not because he had any harsh feelings about taking a plane. McCandless claims to shun society but other instances prove differently such as, “On McCandless’s final night in Carthage, he partied hard at the Cabaret with Westerberg’s crew. The Jack Daniel’s flowed freely,” (Krakauer 48). Additionally, McCandless says he prefers to live a wild life without the hindrance of money but this quote proves otherwise, “On the morning of April 15, everybody gathered at the elevator to see McCandless off. His pack was heavy. He had approximately one thousand dollars tucked in his boot,” (Krakauer 48).

Both Chris and his father share the quality of wanderlust. They both thrive in the outdoors and enjoy all that nature has to offer, as shown by the McCandless’ summer camping/ exploring trips when Chris was in grade school. Additionally, both characters are stubborn, but in a good way. Once Chris sets his mind on something, there is no changing it. This is a quality inherited from his father because Walt is very firm in his beliefs, as shown by the following quote, “Both father and son were stubborn and high-strung,” (Krakauer 46). On a separate note, both Chris and his dad were gifted piano players.

Chris and his grandfather were fairly close in Chis’ childhood years. Chris admired his grandfather’s qualities, “And Chris adored his grandfather. The old man’s backwoods savvy, his affinity for the wilderness, left a deep impression on the boy,” (Krakauer 75). These are some of the qualities that Chris adopted later on in his life. The McCandless family regularly took camping/ exploring trips that just fueled Chris’ wanderlust qualities. It seemed as though these trips were the beginning of Chris’ need for adventure. Krakauer explains to the reader how deeply Chris’ character was affected by these trips, ““We camped out of the back of the truck, the Chevy Suburban,” Walt explains. “Later we bought an Airstream trailer and traveled with that. Chris loved those trips, the longer the better. There was always a little wanderlust in the family, and it was clear early on that Chris had inherited it,” (75).

Chris began losing respect for his family because he felt embarrassed by their wealth and enraged by his father’s hypocrisy. The McCandless family still held Chris with high regards and worried about his safety and wellbeing all the while Chris was on the other side of the country doing everything in his power to completely forget about and break off contact with his family, as shown by the following quote, “Chris just didn’t like being told what to do. I think he would have been unhappy with any parents; he had trouble with the whole idea of parents,” (Krakauer 80). The Thoreau quote at the beginning of the chapter is perfectly paired with this chapter because it basically states that no matter how rich with money and material goods someone is, it is all worthless if that person is a lying hypocrite. This quote accurately describes how Chris feels about his father’s previous marriage problems. The following quote shows that Chris shares the same viewpoint as Thoreau about the uselessness of money, “When the future finally arrived, they didn’t flaunt their modest wealth, but they bought nice clothes, some jewelry for Billie, a Cadillac…They took the kids to Europe, skiing in Breckenridge, on a Caribbean cruise. And Chris, Billie acknowledges, ‘was embarrassed by all that’” (Krakauer 80).

Read the italicized passage on page 168 that McCandless wrote and the italicized passage he highlighted from Tolstoy on page 169.

Based on these writings and events in this chapter, what convinced McCandless that it was time to return to civilization? What did he learn from his time “in the wild”? Support your answer with specific details.

Krakauer observes that it is not “unusual for a young man to be drawn to a pursuit considered reckless by his elders.” Identify two details from this chapter where McCandless exemplifies this observation. Explain whether or not McCandless would agree with Krakauer. Finally compare McCandless’ view with that of one of the following men mentioned in this chapter: Andy Horowitz, Gordon Samel, Roman Dial, Sir John

Franklin.

McCandless wanted to completely live off the land, a feat considered very hard, if not impossible, by most other Alaskan hikers. In fact, Krakauer says, “By design McCandless came into the country with insufficient provisions, and he lacked certain pieces of equipment deemed essential by many Alaskans: a large-caliber rifle, map and compass, an ax,” (123). While attempting to cross the river to return home after months in the wilderness, Alex failed to look downstream to discover a passable trail after deeming the river impassable. Many of McCandless’ “elders” deem this decision reckless because he could have prevented his death in so many ways but was instead very irresponsible. In this chapter Alex is compared to Sir John Franklin, a British naval officer whose mistakes cost the lives of his followers. Alex is similar to Franklin because both of them died of starvation, lacked enough provisions to last them, and “possessed insufficient respect for the land,” (Krakauer 124). However, they were different in the way that Franklin relied on military technology to battle nature (unsuccessfully) and McCandless went in the complete other direction and chose to live completely off of the land (also unsuccessfully).

Krakauer goes on to claim that McCandless’ “life hummed with meaning and purpose. But the meaning he wrested from existence lay beyond the comfortable path.” Do you agree with Krakauer? Support your response with two specific quotes from this chapter.

I do agree with McCandless because Alex could never really be put in any category. Earlier in the novel the stories of three other hikers similar to Alex are retold but none of the stories can fully relate to Alex; he is a special case and does not follow the given “trail”. Krakauer explains that Alex leads a very different life than your “average” person, and as I said before, he cannot be put in a category. Some people use disorders to explain Alex’s decisions but, “It’s not clear that much of value is learned by reducing Chris McCandless’s strange spiritual quest to a list of pat psychological disorders,” (Krakauer 126). Living comfortably, to Alex, would have included bringing enough provisions to last his time in the bush so naturally he did the exact opposite. Roman voiced Alex’s need to live “uncomfortably” when he was quoted to have said, “Living completely off the land like that, month after month, is incredibly difficult… And I’d bet you that very few, if any, of the people who call McCandless incompetent have ever done it either… Living in the interior bush for an extended period, subsisting on nothing except what you hunt and gather—most people have no idea how hard that actually is,” (Krakauer 127).

The Doctor Zhivago quote talks about how all of your life you’re just eluding death by keeping busy. The real point of life, according to this quote, is “love of one’s neighbor” and “the idea of life as a sacrifice” (Krakauer 128). This foreshadows to Chris’ later revelation that, “HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED,” (Krakauer 129). Chris realizes how lonely he is and how badly he wants to reunite with people. The Zhivago quote talks about how humans are capable of amazing things, but what is the point of it all if everyone is just basically just trying to elude death. Later in the chapter Chris reads, “Oh, how one wishes sometimes to escape from the meaningless dullness of human eloquence, from all those sublime phrases, to take refuge in nature, apparently so inarticulate, or in the wordlessness of long, grinding labor, of sound sleep, of true music, or of a human understanding rendered speechless by emotion!” (Krakauer 129) which supports the earlier Zhivago quote.

I do not think that McCandless is responsible for his own death. It was a very risky thing to do to go out and live off just the land for 112 days but Chris was pretty smart about it all the way up until the end. Chris made smart decisions, it was just a few small mishaps that ended up costing him his life. Chris made the mistake of eating potato seeds but he had no way of knowing that they were poisonous because not even any books noted it. Krakauer describes it as, “McCandless wasn’t quite as reckless or incompetent as he has been made

out to be. He didn’t carelessly confuse one species with another. The plant that poisoned him was not known to be toxic—indeed, he’d been safely eating its roots for weeks. In his state of hunger, McCandless simply made the mistake of ingesting its seed pods. A person with a better grasp of botanical principles would probably not have eaten them, but it was an innocent error,” (133). Everyone just assumed that Chris was too dumb to be able to handle himself in the wild and that he never knew what he was talking about. In the case of the moose vs. the caribou Chris was able to prove his knowledge and ability to survive on his own. Krakauer reported that McCandless carelessly confused a moose with a caribou, a very stupid mistake to make. This report lead everyone to believe that Chris was incompetent. Later Krakauer changed the report, “Contrary to what I reported in Outside, the animal was a moose, as a close examination of the beasts remains now indicated and several of McCandless’s photographs of the kill later confirmed beyond all doubt. The boy made some mistakes on the Stampede Trail, but confusing a caribou with a moose wasn’t among them,” (122). This just shows that Chris did not cause his own death because he was, in fact, educated on how to live in the Alaskan brush even though everyone else though differently.