Chris Mccandless Analysis

In the book, “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer, the main character Christopher McCandless is foolish,brave, and psychotic. He is foolish for dropping everything to go on an impossible “hike” through the Alaskan backcountry, brave for sticking through it, and psychotic.

Chris McCandless is foolish when he drops everything, his riches, schooling, and more, just to go on an impossible trip through the backcountry of Alaska. “...he donated the $20,000 in his bank account to Oxfam, loaded up his car, and disappeared. From then on he scrupulously avoided contacting either his parents or Carine, the sister for whom he purportedly cared immensely.” (Krakauer 134). Why would he want to leave everything, his future, just to die out in the middle of nowhere

Although going up into the Alaskan bush alone is foolish, Chris is brave for doing it. He fought off the cold, walked miles a day, and even went days without food while snowed in a school bus. “McCandless had difficulty killing game, and the daily journal entries during his first week at the bus include ‘weakness,’ ‘snowed in,’ and ‘disaster.’ He saw but did not shoot a grizzly on May 2, shot at but missed some ducks on May 4, and finally killed and ate a spruce grouse on May 5. But he didn't kill any more game until May 9, when he bagged a single small squirrel, by which point he'd written ‘4th day famine’ in the journal.” (Krakauer 138). He is also brave when he is sick and knows he is going to die while stranded out in the middle of nowhere. “And then, on July 30, he made the mistake that pulled him down. His journal entry for that date reads, "Extremely weak. Fault of potato] seed. Much trouble just to stand up. Starving. Great jeopardy.’ McCandless had been digging and eating the root of the wild potato Hedysarum alpinum, a common area wildflower also known as

He is psychotic when he buries his money and a lot of his gear when his car breaks down in the Arizona desert; “In July 1990, on a 120-degree afternoon near Lake Mead, his car broke down and he abandoned it in the Arizona desert McCandless was exhilarated, so much so that he decided to bury most of his worldly possessions in the parched earth of Detrital Wash and then-in a gesture that would have done Tolstoy proud- burned his last remaining cash, about $160 in small bills.” (Krakauer 127). Going out into the Alaskan Bush alone with little supplies is foolish and crazy enough, but burning and burying almost the last of what McCandless had is just psychotic. Finally, McCandless is psychotic when he planned to return home, but he forgot the river he needed to cross would not be frozen over in the height of summer. This was how McCandless became stranded. “Then, on July 3-the