What Is Chris Mccandless Like In Into The Wild

A young man journey into the deep wild to escape the pressure of society and in seek of the meaning of happiness. Into The Wild, a non-fiction biography written by Jon Krakauer, a story of a man named Chris McCandless, who is a well educated, wealthy young man, that seek his answer to true happiness in the wild of the Alaska region. As his journey continue onward, he met many new people that he had influence to do things against the current. Chris McCandless is a wealthy young man who hitchhiked to Alaska shortly after graduating from college. That answers Chris’s basic information, but Chris’s characteristic is identified differently from both admirers and critics. Gallien is one of the few people that met McCandless while he on his journey.

One reason for “Chris’s smoldering anger, it turns out, was fueled by a discovery he’d made two summers earlier, … when Walt’s double life came to light, the revelations inflicted deep wounds. All parties sufferer terribly” (Pg. 121). Walt McCandless’s double life cause a lot of mistrust in people for Chris. He was not able to accept the truth of the lie his father had told him for years which lead to him unable to forgive his Walt. Moreover, he became uncomfortable with civilization and decided to left for the wild, for his adventure to Alaska. Another component to Chris resentment for his parent is their materialistic life as he shared with Carine in a letter, “I’ve told them a million times….. yet they ignore what I say and think I’d actually accept a new car from them!…. they will think they have bought my respect” (Pg. 21). Chris’s parents have a materialistic life where they use every chance they have to convince McCandless into materialism. However, as non-materialistic as he is, McCandless refuse to accept their ideal which is evidenced in his reaction to the car they tried to buy for him. To Chris McCandless, it disgust him that people are ranked by their level of wealthyness, so he conclude that the wild without anyone to define him would brought him

However, his adventure wasn’t meaningless, he was able to influence many and define the meaning of happiness that he seek for on the journey. One person that McCandless influenced most is an old man named Ron Franz; McCandless encourage the old man to move old and live a wild life, and “Astoundingly, the eighty-one-year-old man took the brash twenty-four-year-old vagabonds advice to heart. Franz ... moved out of his apartment and set up camp on the bajada” (Pg. 58). Ron is an old man living a secure life, but with no excitement whatsoever. In listening to McCandless, he moved out to the wild to appreciate the living of nature and lived a more thrilling life. McCandless’s adventure is also an influence for those who hasn’t fulfil their dream to enter the wild to have more motivation to do so. Furthermore, Chris realized the true meaning of happiness from his journey in Alaska, and defined it as “happiness [is] only real when shared” (Pg. 189). At first, McCandless ideal was to be alone and be himself so he would not have to live to anyone expectation. However, after a stay in Alaska, he found the meaning in have friends, family, and in which lead to happiness.

As he seek for the truth, McCandless advent to the wild of the Alaskan region unprepared. Chris’s characters were defined entirely on his action of going into the wild unprepared, but it were interpreted differently according to admirers or critics.