Chris McCandless was born in a beautiful but very ugly situation. He was fortunate enough to be born in a fairly wealthy family with the vacations and cars, but during his childhood, he experienced the mistreatment of his mom and the situation that his dad put him and his siblings in.In Into the Wild,Jon Krakauer characterizes Christopher McCandless as independent and rebellious.
The book portrays Chris as somebody who is very independent as he look be be self-sufficient. We see this trait through several examples like, “ Whenever they offered him a ride home after work, he made excuses and politely declined.” (Krakauer, 41) This quote shows how Chris didn't even accept the slightest bit of help. Another person may have gladly accepted the ride, but Chris compelled to walk instead of receiving aid from his own co-workers. Furthermore, Chris seldomly made relationships as, “ He just didn't make the connection. It was
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like he was off in his own universe.” (Krakauer, 40) Chris always being distant from others and keeping to himself just goes to show how discrete he is. Being independent and self-conscious would help Chris as it gave him the confidence he needed to embark on his journey into the wilderness in Alaska. Chris is also characterized in this book as rebellious in nature.
“To symbolize the complete severance from his previous life, he adopted a new name...he was now Alexander Supertramp.” (Krakauer, 23) Chis abandoning his name shows his rebellion of his past and how the name represents his family. He completely rejects who is is because his pursuing his dream and that name is seen as a barrier to him. He also rids of materialistic things as his mom was surprised that he abandoned something she thought was dear to him. ‘“He loved that Datsun so much it was mind-boggling to me that he would ever abandon it and travel on foot.”’ (Krakauer, 32) This makes it evident that Chris was also willing to abandon materialistic things that represented his past. Although having that car would have made his trip a lot easier, he abandoned it, defying normal standards of traveling long distances. Chris being in rebellion also helped him find what he thought was his happiness. He believed that his past was corrupting him along with society so he decided to leave
that. Chris McCandless in this story is seen as a rebellious and independent young man which is present through his various actions. Chris truly embodied characteristics of a transcendentalist by abandoning societal norms. He did what he did to end his internal suffering and seek personal happiness which is truly essential.
Chris McCandless was a young man who did everything in his power to try and represent that freedom he was searching for. McCandless had everything before we went out but he decided to go out and travel by choice. He was considered a selfish man because when someone offered him to help him he rejects it in a nice way since we wants to do things himself. In the book Into the wild he states that,"You don't need to worry about me. I have a college education. I'm not destitute. I'm living like this by choice."
Chris's disposition is elicited by other characters' attitudes toward him. This method of educating the audience allows us to see "the true Chris McCandless" by recounting his interactions with and behavior toward the people he meets on his Emerson-inspired journey to self-reliance. The manner in which Krakau...
In a certain sense that’s how Chris lived his entire life” (112). Chris was creative in everything he did, separating him from his classmates and most of society in general. He was also intensely spiritual from such a young age and viewed running an almost religious exercise. “Chris would use the spiritual aspect to try and motivate us,” recalls Eric Hathaway, another friend on the team. “He’d tell us to think about all the evil in the world, all the hatred, and imagine ourselves running against the forces of darkness, the evil wall that was keeping us from running our best. He believed doing well was all mental, a simple matter of harnessing whatever energy was available. As impressionable high school kids, we were blown away by that kind of talk” (112). McCandless was wise beyond his years to say the least. Testimony from Eric Hathaway’s experiences with Chris should be more than enough to prove how individual Chris was, even in high
According to others, Chris McCandless was inherently selfish. Please, let’s beg to differ, for goodness sake, he was a grown man! It was his life and he was living it the way he wanted to. Chris gave his sister fair warning. He bid to her, “Since they won’t ever take me seriously, for a few months after graduation I’m going to let them think they are right, I’m going to let them think that I’m “coming around to see their sides of things” and that our relationship is stabilizing. And then, once the time is right, with one abrupt, swift action I’m going to completely knock them out of my life...” (Krakauer 64) He knew what he had to do. He had to show his parents how they had made him feel his whole life. As a graduation present they offered him a new car, his old Datsun apparently was to their standards. Chris became infuriated. That was his pride and joy, how dare them try and take that away! They ignored what he was saying, as he did many times before, he o...
Chris McCandless lived a life in which he disgusted by human civilization, and left it, eventually being led to his death in Alaska. McCandless entered the Alaskan wilderness severely unprepared, a brutal error that cost him his life. In the novel, Into the Wild by John Krakauer, Chris glances into his mindset by they way of his journal, history, and analysis of his life reveals that Chris McCandless as an arrogant and judgemental narcissist, while not mentally unstable, had a condescending attitude towards society and perished not only from his reckless stupidity but also from his unparalleled ego. Chris McCandless was immune to love and had an obsession with nature and society, him showing characteristics that created the appearance of McCandless
... every aspect of his life whether it be his education, physical endurance, or making it through the Alaskan wilderness with nothing more than a rifle, a backpack, and a road map. Chris was aware of his differences and that he did not fit into society. He fully embraced that and and chose to lead his own path. Chris led a happy life according to one of his last journal entries he wrote, “I have had a happy life and thank the lord. Goodbye and may God bless all!” (Krakauer 199). Chris was willing to risk everything to gain that happiness. His ambition to enter the wilderness, in the end, took his life but that did not stop him. He would have rather died a happy man than lived a miserable one. Chris ventured out into the wilderness and found himself; a tragic story for a tragic hero.
Into the Wild, written by Jon Krakauer, is the story of a young man named Christopher Johnson McCandless who ventured off to Alaska and tried to survive in the wild. McCandless grew up in Annandale, Virginia where he attended school and made very good grades, rarely bringing home anything below an A. His father, Walt worked for NASA for a little while, before starting his own business with Chris’s mother, Billie, out of their own home. They worked hard and for long hours to get the business up and running and it finally paid off. The McCandless family was wealthy, but had many emotional problems. After graduating from Emory University in 1990, Chris McCandless donated twenty-four thousand dollars from his savings account to charity, changed his name to Alexander Supertramp, and then disappeared. This book tells the story of his life and travels. Some critics say that Chris McCandless was a very admirable person. He was a brave man that followed his dreams. However, given all of his flaws, attitudes, and actions, he is un-admirable. McCandless walked into the wild very unprepared and stubborn. He also treated his family poorly as well as anyone who got emotionally close to him. Chris was additionally too impressionable in a way that he admired authors along with the books they wrote, and tried to imitate them. He was very rebellious in his actions as well, and did not try to change the world or help others.
To begin with, McCandless’s decision to walk into the wild was acceptable because he wanted to become an inspiration and an individual. Emerson states, “There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance: that imitation is suicide” (Emerson). Chris McCandless left to shun the conformist society that he could feel changing him. Chris wanted the chains that bound him to be broken. Society takes the individual and locks it up and destroys it. According to Emerson, “It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion: it is easy to in solitude to live after our own: but the great man is he who in the midst of the crow keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude” (Emerson). McCandless left his materialistic family to be his own person ad to be unique. The world’s opinion does not make the man wh...
Turning his back on society, Chris McCandless throws away materialistic comfort and immerses himself in the values he believes to be important and pursues the ideals that he feels are worthwhile. He branches away from his family, friends, school and entirely abandons his identity as Christopher McCandless and creates a new one as Alexander Supertramp. His actions, often considered to be selfish and cruel, might have been necessary and almost noble change for him. By not even communicating with his sister, Carine, the one person to whom he was quite close to, Chris makes it quite obvious that he does not want to be found. Before, Chris had pushed himself through university, academically and physically as a top student and athlete and later on his journey, pushes himself to be completely independent because, “…it was important for him to see how independent he could be” (Krakauer 125). This quote illustrates the side of Chris that challenges himself to simply challenge himself— not a result of his romantic infatuation for self ...
Into the Wild, a novel written by Jon Krakauer, as well as a film directed by Sean Penn, talks about Chris McCandless, a young individual who set out on a journey throughout the Western United States, isolating himself from society, and more importantly, his family. During his travels, he meets a lot of different people, that in a way, change his ways about how he sees the world. There are many characteristics to describe McCandless, such as “naïve”, “adventurous”, and “independent”. In the book, Krakauer described McCandless as “intelligent”, using parts in his book that show McCandless being “intelligent”. While Krakauer thinks of McCandless as being “intelligent”, Penn thinks of McCandless as a more “saintly” type of person.
What Chris meant when he had proclaimed this is that he wants to leave his current state of life and start fresh on this “Epic Journey”. On Page 22 Chapter 3 the story says, “Driving west to Atlanta, he intended to invent an utterly new life for himself, one in which he would be free to wallow in unfiltered experience.” “To symbolize the complete severance from his previous life, he even adopted a new name. No longer would he answer to Chris McCandless; he was now Alexander Supertramp, master of his own destiny.” In this quote it is explained, Chris wanted to abandon his old way of life to head west and start over, even changing his name.” I agree with his motivation for leaving as shown in this quote, Chris just wants to start over, and be free. Chris wants to live a life that he chooses, not his parents, hence why he even decided on renaming himself to what he wants his name to be, not his
Chris didn’t like his background because he was rebelling because of the writers he read and his childhood. He learned that his father had another family and his father was abusive to mother physically and verbally. That combination could cause anybody to want to escape and numb his problems. Chris was already interested in nature and adventure so him leaving the home is no surprise. Also, him living in an affluent neighborhood and his father causes him to rebel more than ever. Since, his life was already predetermined to Chris and he already was rebellious he had to find answers on his
One of the biggest problems that influenced some of his decisions was the conflict that went on with his parents. He sent many letters to his sister Carine addressing his rage toward his parents, but he doesn't seem to blame them for all of his actions. The relationship between him and his father and mother seems to the one subject that defined some of his motives for going out into the wilderness. As stated by Chris in a letter to Carine, “Since they won’t take me seriously… I’m going to make let them think that I’m ‘coming around to see their side of things’ and that our relationship is stabilizing. And then… I’m going to completely knock them out of my life…” (McCandless, Letter to Carine; Krakauer, 64). He seems to have some hatred towards them but his reasoning doesn’t all particularly go towards that hatred. He is a person with an intellectual way of reasoning. And as previously stated, his psychological reasoning for doing the things he did don’t just come from the influence of his
Will there ever be happiness? Surely Chris McCandless claims he lived a happy life! The insane adventure of Christopher McCandless’s survival into the great Alaskan wilderness portrays his anxious depiction for the truth of reality. The film adaption of Jon Krakeur's non-fiction book, Into the Wild expresses a story of an underprepared, self-centered young man. McCandless’s original name changed to Alexander Supertramp. It was his way of escaping falsehood and his undesired past. The movie genuinely intrigued and motivated me to achieve what my heart claims to attain. Whether the circumstances lead to brutal or victorious results, the guilt of not accomplishing it is worse. McCandless believes in disconnecting with individuals and living a solitary life to achieve happiness for himself. To explore atrocious environments in the wilderness alone, courage is key. Personally, I wouldn’t attempt it. It’s captivating, however, to see different perspectives of people regarding how they attempt to live their lives looks demanding.
Chris had suffered from his childhood from poverty, violence, alcoholism also having illiteracy family didn't help Chris to have positive role models to look up to beside that being Chris also his mother and his siblings abuse by his stepfather placed him and his sibling in foster house twice. However he managed to finish high school at age 18 and joined the navy. After that he worked as a medic in North Carolina then left to work at a hospital in San Francisco. On the other hand Chris was struggling to keep his marriage together, but he failed moreover w...