Who Is Chris Mccandless In Into The Wild

Upon hearing the story of Chris McCandless, many critics dismissed him as an arrogant kid for his seemingly thoughtless decisions he had made during his life. While others argued, claiming him to be an incredible source of inspiration that should be celebrated beyond his death. In the book Into the Wild, Chris McCandless, after graduating with honors from Emory University, anonymously donated $24,000, the remainder of his savings, to an organization dedicated to fighting hunger. Without telling any friends or family, he then proceeded to travel across the country on his final journey carrying very few of his possessions. McCandless is forced to abandon his car, a yellow Datsun, after its battery died in a flash flood, outside of Atlanta, and

However, it is obvious that much of his motivation to pursue the journey stemmed from the resentment he harbored towards his parents. He despised their materialistic lifestyle and how they would often try to force it onto him. In an interview with Walt McCandless, Krakauer writes, “Seven weeks after the body of his son turned up in Alaska wrapped in a blue sleeping bag that Billie had sewn for Chris from a kit, Walt studies a sailboat scudding beneath the window of his waterfront townhouse. ‘How is it,’ he wonders aloud as he gazes blankly across Chesapeake Bay, ‘that a kid with so much compassion could cause his parents so much pain?’” (Krakauer 103-104). This quote is representative of the gaping hole at the center of McCandless’ story. From his research on the boy, Krakauer learned from the people in McCandless’ life is that they saw him as a deeply compassionate person. Also, that his disgust directed towards how lavishly and selfishly Americans lived was a fuel for his two-year journey. However, Krakauer also uncovered McCandless’ deep self-involvement and selfishness incorporated in his risky behavior, greatly hurt his loved ones, especially his family. Cutting his parents out of his life was not only a side effect of his journey but an aim, and the resentment he held towards his family always held him back when it came to true intimacy between himself and the

Similar to this song, McCandless found happiness in nature and worked desperately to follow that joy. In his distorted romanticism of surviving in nature, McCandless shed his possessions in an attempt become closer with nature. In his response to the question of the reason behind people’s love of hiking, Eivind Kjørstad states, “It’s empowering. It’s a meaningful accomplishment. You set out to do something that required a significant amount of effort, then you carried through with it and are now standing on the top. You feel good about this” (Kjørstad). Escaping into the wild and leaving his family was McCandless’ great adventure. He longed for the taste of freedom from his parent’s materialistic lifestyle. He found happiness in the achievement of his goal of eliminating his reliance tangible objects and instead living off the land. In Vedder’s song Society, he writes, “When you want more than you have, you think you need.../ and when you think more then you want, your thoughts begin to bleed. /I think I need to find a bigger place... /cause when you have more than you think, you need more space” (Vedder). This song can be interoperated as McCandless’ rejection of society and instead pursue what mattered, which he believed to be happiness. To truly experience the find his happiness and