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Now and then character analysis
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Into the wild character analysis
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Have you ever felt stuck? Wherever you are, it’s the absolute last place you want to be. In the book Into the Wild, Chris McCandless feels stuck just like the average everyday person may feel. Chris finds his escape plan to the situation and feels he will free himself by going off to the wild. I agree with the author that Chris McCandless wasn’t a crazy person, a sociopath, or an outcast because he got along with many people very well, but he did seem somewhat incompetent, even though he survived for quite some time. Chris McCandless, later known as Alexander Supertramp had a deep down to earth personality and felt all things around him to the extreme. He grew up living with his mom, Billie, dad, Walt, and sister, Carine. As he was growing up he wasn’t considered one of the normal kids, in his high school years, he didn’t attend parties but instead visited the homeless or even prostitutes sometimes and allowed them to sit down and talk about life. “Billie’s dad didn’t quite fit into society and in many ways he and Chris were a lot …show more content…
Although they were fiction, he still aspired to live out the stories he read about. Chris read a book from Jack London and was so inspired, “little did he know that Jack London only spent one winter in the north living comfortably.” As Chris was on his journey he was living the life he dreamt of for some time, but “living off the land month to month is incredibly difficult.” He lived in the wild for 112 days, and then passed away from starvation. “I have had a happy life and thank the lord. Goodbye and May God bless you all.” Chris was proud of his journey and was able to find peace in the mind. He was seeking for independence, love for himself and nature. Chris McCandless thought about life deeply and lived accordingly, mostly without harming others; that’s not being crazy. However, many local people would have survived the conditions he was in if he had more
Christopher McCandless is seen by many individuals as an inspiration, an inspiration to not be afraid. “Chris was fearless even when he was little.”(Walt McCandless) Chris’s father made a comment about how he believed Chris was fearless, Chris was a fearless individual even was he was just a young boy, he showed how he was fearless and brave, his strong character was acknowledged as a young age by his father and his family. How many people have packed up a few of their belongings and just took a journey into the wild? Chris did and he took nothing along just what he could carry on his back, he proved to many individuals that all you really need is yourself to get you through the tough situations that you will encounter along they way. Chris’s actions and his way of thinking is what people are mostly inspired by, he showed individuals not to be held back by fear. Fear is a powerful feeling that can overpower someone very quickly, but fear did not seem to hold Chris back on his outrageous journey. “Happiness is only real when shared.”(Chris McCandless) Chris believed real happiness has to be shared, he shared that happiness with people he came across his journey. He shared his happened with the people he met along his way, by telling those stories about his adventures. He inspired many people; Christopher McCandless is a well-known individual. Chris’s journey made an impact; there are books, articles, and a movie published just to tell the story of the boy who went into the wild. The New York Times published the article Death of an Innocent that was written by John Krakauer in 1996, the article was a summary about Christopher McCandless. John Krakauer was intrigued by Christopher McCandless character that he wanted to go more in de...
Christopher McCandless can be described as a thrill seeker for many reasons.One example is he would always be thinking about adventure and always wanted to be on the move. On page 45, it states “I thought Alex had lost his mind when he told us about his ‘great Alaskan odyssey’ as he called it. But he was really excited about it. Couldn’t stop thinking about his trip.” This shows that he was ready to go and explore and to be able to go where he wanted. Another example is he would write down everything he was doing day by day as it was his own little adventure book. “The trip was to be an odyssey in the fullest sense of the world, an epic journey that would change everything.” found on page 22. Therefore Chris would go on about how he would make it on his own to where he wanted to go. From these examples, it is clear that Chris made
Although it may be true that Chris McCandles was stubborn, people should consider that he had family problems, he loved nature and he also had an adventurous spirit. I believe that the motives that led him to the wild were family problems and emotional damage as well as his love of nature and his adventurous spirit. In Chris’s journal it seemed like he had lived for 113 days in that “magic bus” but in his last days he had written that “death looms” and that he was “too weak to walk out”. There are many evidence that connect with family problems as well as his adventurous spirit. As I go on with this essay I will state my theory on why Chris was led into the wild as well as evidence that support my claim.
In Into the Wild, Chris McCandless was a young man from Virginia who loved living his life on his own. On an adventure to Alaska, Chris ran into the some trouble and perished. While Chris’s death is a horrible event that will burn in the memory of his family and friends, it could have been easily prevented. If Chris was smarter he would have thought about his preparation, his motivation, and the possibility that he was mentally ill. He could have been able to live out in the Alaskan Wilderness and survive his adventure and return home safely.
Many people dream about leaving everything behind and starting a new life, but it’s not as easy as it seems. Learning how to adapt to a new environment may be a challenge. In the book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, Christopher McCandless has no knowledge of the conditions he’s going to face when he arrives in Alaska. I would classify Christopher McCandless as a fearless crazy guy, because he leaves his well-shaped life behind. McCandless is not prepared for his expedition to Alaska, because he’s not familiar with the different lifestyles. Making all of these changes to his life like, detaching himself from his family and changing his name to Alexander Supertramp was a bad idea; because losing all of his connections means that he has no help from the people who really know him.
Chris McCandless was not the typically kid. He grew up in a well-to-do family that cared for him very much although they exhibited certain flaws that Chris could never look past. Chris was a simple man. He was very idealistic and had an infatuation with nature and adventure unparallel to the average person. He was said to have snuck out various nights to break into the neighbor’s house to steal candy. His father, Walt, recollects the time when they had gone on a family road trip and how much Chris had loved every aspect of the road and the wild. Chris was a huge fanatic about authors like Henry Thoreau, Tolstoy, and Jack London who wrote about
He took everything in his life to the extreme. As stated earlier, “It is hardly unusual for a young man to be drawn to a pursuit considered reckless by his elders; engaging in risky behavior is a rite of passage in our culture no less than in most others. Danger has always held a certain allure….”(Krakauer 182). People want to live while their young, therefore they take risks. However, what McCandless did was more than just risk taking. He contained something along the lines of an excessive hubris. ‘“He didn’t think the odds applied to him. We were always trying to pull him back from the edge,” vocalizes Walt McCandless (Krakauer 109). Trudging into the vast Alaskan wilderness without proper provisions is taking the extreme too far. As Krakauer states, “...[Chris] was fully aware when he entered the brush that he he had given himself a perilously slim margin for error” (182). Only someone with an extensive hubris would commit an act so dangerous and be confident in their survival. Although he lent himself to a handful of stupid mistakes, McCandless was far from an idiot. Even though the extreme he took his Alaska adventure to was ill-advised, there is something about Chris that is almost admirable. Many people have dreams and passions that get shoved into an old chest and are never to be visited again. In today’s society it seems as though everyone is
Chris McCandless- a name immortalized due to his inexplicable desire to escape the civilized life for one in the wild. This desire inadvertently led to Chris McCandless’ death by starvation. Chris was an arrogant young man who believed he could do nearly anything. Little did he know that this excessive self-confidence would lead to his demise. Many readers still care about Chris McCandless and yearn for the answer to Chris’ death. Some adore Chris and try to emulate him. Others are adverse to these views and condemn Chris’ choices hoping others will not follow his self-destructive path.
wealthy suburb. Usually when you hear the words “wealthy suburb” in a statement you’re used to selfishness and close-minded arrogance. Chris was the contrary to such a cliché family reputation the McCandless’s were. Such a retrograded 23 year old with an extroverted, warm smile and easy-going conversation. But those who came across him, throughout his self-crusade found him to be a very introverted, disclosed hitchhiker. Which personality was Christopher? An extroverted ambivert is a true way of describing him. Not only introverted occasionally but extroverted and socially adventurous. His travelling entailed hitch-hiking to his next ambitious location, traversing new grounds. Chris met so many on the way including Jan Burres, Bob, Wayne Westerberg, Ron Franz, Gaylord Stuckey, and many more. But, the last man to ever see Christopher McCandless alive was Jim Gallien. The man who spared an extra pair of boots, a sandwich, and two bags of corn chips to him. Those were the people Chris would never forget and they would never forget him. Supertramp wanted to find peace within him and nature. His reputation was not a “nutcase
McCandless is a very independent person, a person with high hopes, that has a lot of courage, and is a very brave man for going out by himself in the wild of Alaska of the Stampede Trail. Chris McCandless had a lot of courage on going to Alaska by himself at a young age. While Chris was at any city or anybody’s house, he was ready to go to Alaska. But while he was there, close to the end of his life, he left a note on the back of the bus saying, “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 collecting berries close by and shall return by evening. Thank you, Chris McCandless. August?” Chris McCandless was by himself at the time. He shows his courage because while by himself, he went back out even though he was near death. He went out for food. Food for his health. That shows how much courage he had for his trip. Chris McCandless encouraged many young men to ...
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."
He chose to live deliberately to find real happiness. While living in college, Chris lived off campus in a spartan like apartment, with a couple of crates, electricity and water. After graduating college, he left behind a middle class life full of education and materialistic items to set out on a adventure that would allow him to go into the wild to find his true self. What most people in society would call crazy. A quote from Henry David Thoreau says, “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!” (Walden) Thoreau is saying that people should live a simple life, with out the material possessions controlling their happiness. Chris understood that materialism doesn’t create real happiness and satisfaction. He gave up the comfort of his home to go out to the wild. He gives away his possessions, something society values too much . He gives his money to charity and burns the money he has left in his wallet. He began a simply life hitchhiking, finding food and shelter in the wild and being adventurous with the land and sights around him. In this way making a statement that he rejects the social views and values of property in the search of a higher purpose within
The story of Christopher McCandless is that of an over-ambitious youth trying to find himself. Chris’ story, as told in detail in Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, ended tragically in his death within the Alaskan wilderness many months after running away from home with no contact to his family. In Krakauer’s work, he recounts interactions between Chris during his travels and multiple strangers. In this, one may conclude that Christopher McCandless is simply a reckless narcissist, who is selfish and privileged enough to think he can do and get away with whatever he wants. This is, in an emotional analysis, incorrect. Chris was subject to a severe Icarus complex, his ambitions being more than his body and life can handle. He refuses to contact his
...emselves. They endure mosquitoes and rain and tough walking and bad river crossings and the possibility of bears. The burden the pilgrims carry to the bus is so heavy, laden with their frailties and hopes and desires, with their lives that don’t quite satisfy. Well, so many of them are young, and they’re lost, somehow, just as he was.” What makes Chris McCandless such a hero to young men is that he is easily relatable to those young men. As Neal Karlinsky writes of Chris McCandless,“McCandless tramped his way across North America determined to live completely free of the trappings of modern society. He was intoxicated by nature and the idea of a great Alaskan adventure — to survive in the bush totally on his own. In his last postcard to a friend, he wrote: "I now walk into the wild."
Into the Wild, written by John Krakauer tells of a young man named Chris McCandless who 1deserted his college degree and all his worldly possessions in favor of a primitive transient life in the wilderness. Krakauer first told the story of Chris in an article in Outside Magazine, but went on to write a thorough book, which encompasses his life in the hopes to explain what caused him to venture off alone into the wild. McCandless’ story soon became a national phenomenon, and had many people questioning why a “young man from a well-to-do East Coast family [would] hitchhike to Alaska” (Krakauer i). Chris comes from an affluent household and has parents that strived to create a desirable life for him and his sister. As Chris grows up, he becomes more and more disturbed by society’s ideals and the control they have on everyday life. He made a point of spiting his parents and the lifestyle they lived. This sense of unhappiness continues to build until after Chris has graduated college and decided to leave everything behind for the Alaskan wilderness. Knowing very little about how to survive in the wild, Chris ventures off on his adventure in a state of naïveté. It is obvious that he possessed monumental potential that was wasted on romanticized ideals and a lack of wisdom. Christopher McCandless is a unique and talented young man, but his selfish and ultimately complacent attitude towards life and his successes led to his demise.