Chris Mccandless The Wild Philosopher Essay

Young Hearted Philosopher

Entrapped by other’s expectation of his life and goals, a young man runs away from home to Alaska with minor assistance to create the life he will personally value. He goes by the name of Christopher McCandless, a former successful student who graduated from Emory University, destined by his parents to become a lawyer. Despite the multiple recognitions of achievement and possessing large potentials to become a wealthy American McCandless was not content with his current status. Stuck by the burden of his unaccepting parents for his desires, McCandless ventured off to the wilderness to live a life in contrast to American society as a way of following his own philosophies. The life McCandless created exposed the imperfections

of American social standards residents lived by today and demonstrated the values derived from the risks he took.
Two years after leaving his hometown in Atlanta, Georgia, Chris McCandless’s corpse was found in the Fairbanks Bus 142 refuge in Fairbanks, Alaska.

The cause of death was starvation by the consumption of expired wild potato seeds. At a glance, critics commented McCandless a naive individual who wandered through dangerous places for pure excitement. This assumption became debatable whether or not Chris McCandless was indifferent from other adventurers like Everett Ruess or Gene Rosellini. Based on the journal McCandless recorded of his adventure, there are numerous evidence that makes him unique from others. His original motive that drove him to leave home was the feud between McCandless and his abusive father whom McCandless was not proud of after the discovery of the double-family relationship. McCandless was not acceptable of his parent’s future plans sought for him, leading to the creation of Alex Supertramp, a man reincarnated to seek a new society. Chris McCandless was not simply an adventurer looking for truth; he was a trekking

philosopher.
As a person who followed his own philosophies and morals, McCandless indirectly compared his ascetic adventure to American society, proving that it is not compatible with everyone.

McCandless was unable to experience life by personal choice as long as his enduring mother continued assisting his violent father. Chris’s younger sister Carine, author of The Wild Truth, proclaimed that although she and Chris had a childhood life greater than an average child, the domestic violence revolved around the household was discomforting to Chris. During Chris’s hitchhike trip, he discussed to his friend Ron Franz that, “So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future” (Krakauer 56-57). McCandless had the life which any American teens would have wished for: wealth, intelligence, and a safe home. Even with all these attributes, the anger that circulated in his home created unrest, testifying the irony of receiving harm within a haven. It is because of this that led to McCandless’s initiate flee to Alaska. During the last weeks of McCandless’s residence in Alaska, he noted that American society could have improved if, “HAPPINESS [is] ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED” (Krakauer 189). If Chris’s parents, Walt

and Billie, shared the happiness they earned by allowing Chris to partake his own path to a successful life, it is a possibility that Chris would have never ran away. Even if Chris had exhaled the final breath of his venture, he managed to find his ideal life, one that was fulfilled with greatest content a young man could perceive.
Despite recognizing Chris’s accomplishment, he was still considered reckless by actions as though Chris lacked fear. From a stranger’s perspective, Chris seemed foolhardy for canoeing through treacherous canal rapids, hitchhiking on prohibited freight trains, and so on throughout his trek. After McCandless’s death was publicized by Outside, native Alaskans were quick to criticize his character as a human being. Critics like Nick Jans asserted that McCandless was just another wanderer like any other who were arrogant of their capabilities. However, McCandless’s biographer, Jon Krakauer, understood that McCandless was an unique individual. From Krakauer’s realization, it is considered that, “...there are plenty of other Alaskans who had a lot in common with McCandless when they first got here, too, including many of his critics. Which is maybe why they’re so hard on him. Maybe McCandless reminds them a little too much of their former selves” (Krakauer 186). It is similar to the cycle of life, where the elders who are wise, cares the children who were young and learning. In this case, it is the elders who look down on children for their mistakes. It is simple to speak freely of one’s opinion, as what critics had done with McCandless, than to step in his shoes to experience what McCandless had gone through in the past. McCandless never expected to meet his demise, nor would he be judged of his deeds. He used his pen name Alex Supertramp as a form of a new birth to find his true identity as a human being. McCandless intended to go sightseeing through dangerous remote forests to become like one of his idols, Henry David Thoreau, a writer who lived off the land and studied nature closehand. According to McCandless’s journals, he specified that when sightseeing, “It is the experiences, the memories, the great triumphant joy of living to the fullest extent in which real meaning is found.” (Krakauer 37) The meaning McCandless found was noticing the basic concepts of life, its complexity at its own like a tree composed of multiple cells. This philosophy of noticing the small things was what motivated McCandless continue his adventure through prohibited boundaries, and from that, McCandless discovered more knowledge based on his adventure.
Indeed, McCandless’s pathway to his true self reflected controversy regarding his actions and American social beliefs. That was the idea McCandless intentionally devised, he wanted to show the world that people who never stepped outside their comfort zone and conformed to American social standards were leaving themselves to rot with an unhappy lifestyle. Even though McCandless committed hurtful actions like running away from his family and coming to his unfortunate expiration, McCandless successfully found the life that he enjoyed. It is the life that was an opposition to the American societal life he despised and an opportunity to open new insight of society. In the end, McCandless exclaimed that he, “... HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND [he] THANK THE LORD” (Krakauer 199).