Into The Wild Argumentative Essay On Chris Mccandless

Christopher McCandless was only 24 when he died. He came from a wealthy family and was very successful in college. It seemed like he was on the right path with a lot of fortune in his near future. So what caused him to drop everything he had, and run away to Alaska where his dead body was found? It is easy for one to assume he was mentally ill to do something as ridiculous as so, however it turns out his life wasn’t so perfect after all. Chris had his own family problems and emotional damage, which could also be a reason why he had such strong philosophical beliefs. These two factors of his personality are what sent him into the wild.

On the outside, the McCandless family was picture perfect. A wealthy mom and dad with two children, one boy

and his little sister. However, his parents, Walt and Billie McCandless didn’t have the best relationship with their son. Earlier in their marriage, Walt had an ongoing affair with his ex wife and even had another son with her. Jon Krakauer, an author, grew very obsessed with Chris’s case and published a book about everything about and that led up to it. Krakauer wrote that when “Walt’s double life came to light, the revelations inflicted deep wounds.” (121). Chris even declared to his sister Carine that what he had discovered “made his entire childhood seem like fiction.” (123). However, instead of lashing out on his father he expressed his anger by distancing himself silently.
It wasn’t rare that Chris would go on “adventures.” After he graduated high school, he left to travel the country and kept in touch through letters, but returned by the end of summer.

When Chris started his following journey after college he again kept in touch with letters to his sister and parents. It is made clear through the letters how different his relationship with his sister and with his parents were. In his letters to his sister, Chris was very open and wrote a lot more, he even complained about their parents in them. For example, in one letter he wrote to his sister, “I’m going to have to be real careful not to accept any gifts from them in the future because they will think they have bought my respect,” referring to Mr. and Mrs. McCandless. (21). On the contrary, the letters to his parents were withdrawn, robotic and short. I think it is clear that his family problems took a toll on Chris and left emotional damage. It’s somewhat typical to resent one’s parents as a teenager, but Chris’s situation was very different. He had a lot of built up anger and hatred towards his mom and dad. It would make sense that he left to Alaska because it was an alternate option to him rather than taking out his anger on his parent’s

directly.
Aside from his issues at home, Chris had a very different mindset and personality.

He was very stern on his philosophical beliefs and did not care at all for materialism. In fact, before he left on his last journey he burned all of the cash in his wallet, gave away $25,000 to charity, and abandoned his car. Chris also had an affinity for nature. His idea of getting as far away from materialism was anywhere in nature. I believe he had the same idea as Henry Thoreau in his poem “Walden.” Thoreau writes, “I went into the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not when I came to die, that I had not lived.” Basically what this quote means is that the author doesn’t want to settle for anything less than his potential. He wants to continue to grow. The woods was his place in which he feels most “awake” or “alive.” Chris matches Thoreau’s personality in a way because his fix or go to is nature as well. Alaska, more specifically. He romanticized the state very much which could have led to his downfall, however that’s another subject. Chris, according to Mrs. Westerburg, one of the many friends he made on his adventure, was “hungry to learn about things. Unlike most of us, he was the sort of person who insisted on living out his beliefs.” (67). Again making that connection to Thoreau on the subject of always wanting to “grow” when Mrs. Westerburg used the word “hungry.” Because

Chris seemed to be such a philosophical person and thinker, I believe that was also a motive that led him into the wild. His lack of concern for materialism and passion to grow was enough motivation for him alone.
In conclusion, I can firmly say that Chris McCandless’s emotional damage caused by his family problems as well as his philosophical beliefs are the main reasons he left his mediocre life for something less appealing. To him, this journey was one of his biggest life goals to achieve, above graduating college and pursuing a career in law. With no attachment at home and the one of a kind personality he had, he was more than happy to leave everything behind.