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Christopher McCandless and his knowledge
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Chris McCandless took great inspiration from various authors, whom he admired, on his journey. One of which was Leo Tolstoy, a Russian writer who lived during the nineteenth century. There are many similarities between Tolstoy and Chris, which can explain why Chris was so inspired by him. Tolstoy and Chris both came from well-off families, but traumatic home life led them both to rebelling from their families and pursuing a love for nature. Chris’ selection from Tolstoy’s Family Happiness, sets the scene for Chris’ journey and demonstrates a contrast between Chris’ past and his present. Tolstoy captures Chris’ desire to escape his home and his family. Tolstoy wrote, “I felt in myself a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quiet life”(Tolstoy). In relation to Chris …show more content…
McCandless, he found no energy in his home life with his middle class family.
He believed that being at a university in a classroom setting was not the way to learn and expand the mind. Rather, exploring yourself in nature was the real way to learn and explore new thought. The energy Chris held inside did not fit into his society; it only found a place through self exploration in the wild. Chris said, “ The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security” (McCandless 56). Chris explains that in order to find real joy and meaning in life, you must escape comfort and sameness and find a place were every day is a new adventure. This excerpt shows inspiration from Tolstoy because Chris acknowledges that energy and the desire for life fit nowhere in the quiet, mundane life that Chris grew up in. The line from the epigraph that reads, “I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence” (Tolstoy) describes Chris’ desire for change
from his home life. While it wasn’t always “calm”, Chris still needed movement. When describing Chris’ home life, Carine, Chris’ sister described, “Both Walt and Billie are tightly wound, emotional, loath to give ground. Now and then the tension erupted in verbal sparring... The rancor was more smoke than fire” (McCandless 107). Walt and Billie, Chris’ parents, raised him in a traumatic environment of stress, violence, and fierce expectations. These arguments, stemming from middle class values, turned Chris away from that lifestyle, sending him off into the opposing universe of the wild. The importance of the epigraph in the novel Into The Wild is that through Tolstoy’s experiences, and Chris admiration for Tolstoy, the motive for Chris’ journey is revealed. Chris needed to find himself in nature because his “energy” and desire for “movement” had no place in his previous life. The experiences from his childhood built Chris up for the need for his journey to a new life into the wild.
All three writers influenced Chris immensely with the aesthetic movement. He reread Call of The Wild by London repeatedly, creating an image of the Alaskan wilderness that fueled him to go in the first place. He admired Tolstoy’s values on celibacy and living in simplicity and Thoreau’s poetry on living away from society and in the wild. He found validity in their works. Krakauer comments that, “He was also able to forgive, or overlook, the shortcomings of his literary heroes” (Krakauer 122). Willfully, Chris disregarded that none of these men practiced what they preached: London died at home overweight; Tolstoy was anything but celibate; and Thoreau lived a stone’s throw from civilization. This shows the characteristic youth that Chris kept with him into his mid-twenties. While Krakauer asks the reader forgive Chris, he does empathize Chris’ altruism and
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 one the passage was highlighted in the book “Family Happiness” that Chris brought with, the author Leo Tolstoy talked about how a person's life should be. “I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. … which found no outlet in our quiet life.” (p.15) Tolstoy explained how a life should be excited and interesting not just living day by day without any enjoyment. Chris followed his beliefs. He believes that he should live a life that he would not regret later on. That could be one of his reason he was going into the wild to make an excited life. Another passage was also found with McCandless’s belongings is from Henry David Thoreau’ “Walden”. “All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. … a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched.” (p.47) This passage explains the fact that happiness can found in nature. McCandless wanted to found his purpose of his life and Thoreau stated about the importance of the nature. And McCandless believed Thoreau. If Chris McCandless had believed some authors, he would follows that in his whole
Chris McCandless was a man who paved his own path in society. He didn't wait for
Although living this life is not always easy for Chris, he embarks on this adventure to achieve what truly matters to him in life.
The author skillfully uses literary techniques to convey his purpose of giving life to a man on an extraordinary path that led to his eventual demise and truthfully telling the somber story of Christopher McCandless. Krakauer enhances the story by using irony to establish Chris’s unique personality. The author also uses Characterization the give details about Chris’s lifestyle and his choices that affect his journey. Another literary element Krakauer uses is theme. The many themes in the story attract a diverse audience. Krakauer’s telling is world famous for being the truest, and most heart-felt account of Christopher McCandless’s life. The use of literary techniques including irony, characterization and theme help convey the authors purpose and enhance Into The Wild.
Along with many of Chris’ books, Walden, a book about reflection of simple living immersed in nature, was found among his belongings giving people a better understanding to Chris’ mind. “Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth”(Chapter 18, Walden); this passage was highlighted in Chris’ copy of the book in which he wrote “TRUTH” on top of it. These words represent the morals he preached and practiced. The “truth” for him was an answer he wanted to know to uncover his purpose in life. The truth of life and existence is only achievable through personal satisfaction of goals and breaking away from the expectations of society. Chris was not one to stand by and let society define his path instead he took control of his own destiny and found his own “truth”.
... 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.
Excerpt #4→ Chris marked several sections in a book he finished in Alaska. One section reads, “I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor—such is my idea of happiness (169).”
He went through many obstacles that could have proved fatal. From canoeing in the Colorado River to picking the right berries, he was testing his intelligence. Chris had a true confidence in the land and in himself to set out on a mission so dangerous. “Wilderness appealed to those bored or disgusted with man and his works. It not only offered an escape from society but also was an ideal stage for the Romantic individual to exercise the cult that he frequently made of his own soul. The solitude and total freedom of the wilderness created a perfect setting for either melancholy or exaltation” (Nash; Krakauer 157). Chris longed to escape from society and rely on only mother nature. An innumerable amount of people desire to withdraw from society as Chris did; but they are so comfortable and secure with a normal life they do not dare take such a gutsy
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...
This passage shows appreciation for the significance of following ones dreams. Even with all that Chris had accomplished he knew that something was missing and this resonated deeply in his soul. It is refreshing to discover that not all young people are focused on materialistic success. Neal Karlinsky demonstrates this in the quotation, “Today, young idealistic pilgrims post their adventures on YouTube as they follow in the footsteps of Alexander Supertramp and visit the now famous “ magic bus” deep in the Alaskan interior.” This passage describes how some young people use Chris’ journey as a catalyst to discover their own identity and purpose as they travel to Alaska also.
Chris McCandless went into the adventure, not knowing what to do. He looked up his literary heroes for inspiration, and one that he mostly looked up to was Leo Tolstoy. He looked up to Leo because they both were accustomed to nearly the same way of life. For Example, “accustomed to calli...
“Into The Wild” by John Krakauer is a non-fiction biographical novel which is based on the life of a young man, Christopher McCandless. Many readers view Christopher’s journey as an escape from his family and his old life. The setting of a book often has a significant impact on the story itself. The various settings in the book contribute to the main characters’ actions and to the theme as a whole. This can be proven by examining the impact the setting has on the theme of young manhood, the theme of survival and the theme of independent happiness.
Chris McCandless consumes an abundant amount of wild animals, fruits, vegetables, and other plants. Slowly he becomes fragile and is unable to collect his own food. He eventually starves to death in an abandoned bus due to unknown causes. Before his death, he managed to scribble two notes: “ I have had a happy life and thank the lord. Goodbye and May God bless all.” And “Attention possible visitors. S.O.S. I need your help. I am injured, near death, and too weak to hike out of here. I am all alone. This is no joke. In the name of God, please remain to save me. I am out collection berried close by and shall return this evening. Thank you, Chris McCandless August ?” Only nineteen days later a group of people stumbled upon to the bus (Timeline). Chris McCandless took the journey of a lifetime. He ventured out of the “normal comfort zones” in order to find his true identity, not blinded by materialistic or societal demands (Once More). However he was not the only one who influenced by the work of Henry David Thoreau and went on to lead a life stripped from the grasps of delusional wants.