Into The Wild Chris Mccandless Essay

Alexi Wong

Freshman English

Mrs. Pratt

March 29, 2017

Chris’s Upbringing Shaped His Life

In April 1992, 24-year-old Chris McCandless decided to hitchhike his way north to the harsh lands of Alaska. After 114 days in the wild and losing touch with his family for more than two years, McCandless reached the end of his life. Chris's journey to Alaska inspired many people including author Jon Krakauer and director Sean Penn. In 1996 Krakauer publish a book, Into the Wild, following McCandless’s story to Alaska. Shortly after, a movie and a documentary based on Chris’s adventure were released. In all three mediums it was evident that Chris’s decision to hitchhike to Alaska was strongly based on his upbringing.

Since a young age, Chris’s

relationship with his father was never the best. Carine, Chris’s younger sister, thought that his main reason to leave civilization was to separate himself from his parents. At the time, Chris’s father, Walt McCandless was abusing his wife, Billie McCandless, verbally and physically. During one of Carine’s interview in the documentary, Return to the Wild by PBS, she mentioned how her mother would scream “Kids, come see what your father is doing to me.” while Walt would reply with “Children, come see what your mother is making me do.” Billie and Walt would force their children watch them fight so they could become witnesses. Other interviews with Chris’s half sisters confirmed that Walt would torture Marcia, his first wife, by shoving, choking, and threatening her. During one summer in high school, Chris discovered Walt was living a “double life”. “Long after falling in love with Billie, long after she gave birth to Chris, Walt continued his relationship with Marcia in secret, dividing his time between two households, two families.” (Krakauer 121) In order to get away from his parents and childhood lies, Chris changed his name to Alexander Supertramp and left town without informing anyone.
Chris McCandless was raised into a wealthy family in Annandale, Virginia.

Even though Chris McCandless’s family had more than enough money, he did not think wealth was important. After graduating from Emory University in 1990, Chris denied his parents graduation gift of a new car. He claims he worked very hard to get enough money to buy his 1982 Datsun and will never replace it. “ ‘I can’t believe they’d try and buy me a car,’ he later complained in a letter to Corine, ‘or that they think I’d actually let them pay for my law school if I was going to go… I’ve told them a million times that I have the best car in the world, a car that has spanned the continent from Miami to Alaska, a car that has in all those thousands of miles not given me a single problem, a car that I will never trade in, a car that I am very strongly attached to - yet they ignore what I say and think I’d actually accept a new car from them!’ ” (Krakauer 21) Aside from not wanting a new car, Chris also didn’t want the extra money for law school. A family friend gave Chris forty thousand dollars to pay for his last two years of college but more than twenty-four thousand dollars remained after he graduated. Chris’s parents thought that Chris would use the remaining money for law school. They were terribly wrong. Instead, McCandless donated the rest of his college funds to OXFAM America, a charity for hunger. Chris McCandless “believed that wealth was shameful, corrupting, inherently evil”

(Krakauer 115) He didn’t think money had any relation to happiness which is why he burned all of his money and abandoned most of his possessions on his trip to Alaska. “He buried his Winchester deer-hunting rifle and a few other possessions that he might one day want to recover. Then, in a gesture that would have done both Thoreau and Tolstoy proud, he arranged all his paper currency in a pile on the sand - a pathetic little stack of ones and fives and twenties - and put a match to it. One hundred twenty-three dollars in legal tender was promptly reduced to ash and smoke.” (Krakauer 29) McCandless thought wealth and possession was not necessary for living a long, cheerful life.
From the book, movie, and documentary, it was clear that Carine played a major role of Chris McCandless’s life.

All the hard times as children, made Chris and Carine extremely tight siblings. The documentary, Return to the Wild, revealed that Carine received many letters referencing their childhood from Chris when he was in college. Carine shared that “Chris would be my protector” while their parents fought. Their relationship was very close which is why Sean Penn decided to have Carine narrate the movie. Having Carine narrate the movie would make the audience feel closer to Chris because they shared much of the feelings and emotions. During Chris’s journey to Alaska, he created some friendships that were similar to his and Carine’s. Wayne Westerburg, Ronald Franz, and Jan Burres all became great friends with Chris. Even though Chris only saw them for a couple days, they all felt the distant relationship that he had with his parents. After going his own way, Chris would make a great effort to stay in touch with them through letters like he did with Carine when he was in college. All three mediums included these letters because they showed that Chris didn’t cut off all communication and cared for them. Everyone who ever met Chris knew that he and his sister had a very strong bond, one that would never be

separated.