Our Relationship With Nature Explored in Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild

The young, Chris McCandless brought to life in Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild is admired immensely for his courage and noble ideas carried out his dream of living in Alaska for as long as he could. Some would say that he was a reckless idiot, a wacko, or a narcissist who perished out of arrogance and stupidity, others would say that he was an admirable hero. The truth lies in his motives which were to face the raw challenges of life on his own. Chris McCandless was a brave soul who chose to challenge life in real terms in order to test his personal boundaries against nature.

Multiple accounts assumed McCandless was “entering the wilderness purposely ill-prepared…” and “hardly unique…almost a collective cliché” (Krakauer 71). Krakauer refutes this claim by displaying evidence supporting his argument while also acknowledging counter claims that McCandless was rash, foolhardy, but stressing he was definitely competent (85). Krakauer compares and contrasts the journeys of Rosellini, Waterman, and McCunn to that of McCandless defending that McCandless was not incapable or oblivious to survive in Alaska. Later parallels between McCandless and Ruess demonstrate their desires to become connected to nature and strong determination.

Chris McCandless, an idealistic naturalist, searches for personal liberty through a journey of solitude and self awareness as told in Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild. Rejecting his well-endowed life, McCandless strays away from society and embarks on a quest of existentialism. Krakauer conveys the central theme of identity with the use of parallels from his own experiences as well as testimonies from McCandless' journals during his odyssey into the wild.

Jon Krakauer’s odyssey Into the Wild follows Christopher McCandless through his last year of his life traversing the North American frontier. As a biography based on McCandless’ journals and interviews, much of the details of Chris’ journeys are speculated. Yet, Krakauer succeeds in developing the enigma of Christopher McCandless, or as he would be immortalized in the bus on the Stampede Trail, Alexander Supertramp, in a way that tugs at the buried wanderer inside of everyone.

In the book “Into the Wild”, Jon Krakauer tells us the story about the life of a young man named Chris McCandless. Raised in a middle class family in Virginia, McCandless lived with his father, Walt; his mother, Billie; and his sister Carine. Chris was intelligent, athletic, extremely well rounded, and had a natural talent for anything he attempted. After graduating from Emory University with a bachelor’s degree, he tells his family that he plans to “disappear for a while”. What Chris does is he abandons his possessions, donates his entire life savings to charity, and hitch-hikes his way to Alaska to live alone in the wilderness. McCandless spent 112 days hunting animals and gathering plants for survival, however, on September 6th, 1992, his decaying body was discovered on an abandoned bus, starved to death. Although Chris made heedless decisions that subsequently drove him to his death, I admire him for his self-reliance, perseverance, and bravery.

In the end of the book Krakauer described the death of Chris McCandless in Alaska in the magic bus, died from starvation because he was unprepared. Krakauer's purpose is to show how reckless, selfish, and courageous someone can be in order to discover themselves and finding the meaning of life while also impacting others’ lives. Jon Krakauer adopts an empathetic tone for people who want to discover themselves and travel to do so. If Chris McCandless were to look back at his inspirational journey and see the grief and pain he caused his family, he would have still went on this journey because it was the only way for him to find his independence and find himself. Chris McCandless had met many people, went unprepared on purpose, traveled on his own, and depended on himself. Although Chris McCandless went on a difficult journey while leaving pain and grief to his family, he did live an inspiring life because he followed his dream journey to discover himself without letting anything stop

“Into the wild” novelle by jon krakauer shows how he views the world/nature differently from his family, friends, and everyone else. He went out and did what he dreamed of doing, he shows us on how he followed his dreams and how he was determined to do them in his own way. This novelle also gives us a brief thought of how we should see life and compare it to everyone else life. How he came in wanting to fit in with everyone else. When you think of someone going the opposite direction or doesnt fit in,it makes them feel different like they don't belong.

McCandless, a highly intelligent, ambitious, and talented person who had grown indifferent toward his family and civilization as a whole, so he embarks on a journey to the Alaskan wilderness planning to live off the land, seemingly in search of something. But what exactly was he looking for? Why did he decide to risk his life in the wilderness? What could have possessed him to abandon his treasured belongings? Many questions and mysteries surround Chris McCandless. Most critics view him as an ignorant, arrogant, and narcissistic fool who had thrown away his life due to an insincere ascetic attitude he adopted from books. However, to Krakauer’s and his

In Jon Krakuer's novel Into the Wild, the main character, Chris McCandless, seeks nature so that he can find a sense of belonging and the true meaning of who he is. However, it is the essence of nature that eventually takes his life away from him. At the end of his life, he is discovers his purpose and need of other people. After Chris McCandless death in Alaska, Krakuer wrote Into the Wild to reflect on the journey that McCandless makes. Krakuer protrays McCandless as a young man who is reckless, selfish, and arrogant, but at the same time, intelligent, determined, independent, and charismatic. Along with the irony that occurs in nature, these characteristics are the several factors that contribute to McCandless death.

At first, Chris McCandless attempted to return to a life of normality. In Bullhead City, Arizona, McCandless found a job working at McDonald’s. With this job, Chris almost deserted his original plans and stayed in Bullhead City, but the job required socks and a clean manner. Chris did not believe in these things, and the bearing normality forced Chris to quit his job and return to his plans of going into the Alaskan Wilderness (Krakauer, 38-41). When Chris McCandless was about to leave into the Alaskan Wilderness, he encountered Jim Gallien. Jim Gallien was a man who knew the dangers of the bush and how treacherous the land can be. McCandless didn’t want any supplies or help Gallien had to offer, but Gallien was pleading for McCandless to take the supplies that would help him. Chris McCandless did not know how far he should push his judgement on how life should be lived, further worsening his circumstances in the wilderness without many supplies (Krakauer, 4-8, 164-166 and 189). Chris McCandless did not know when to turn back home and mentally, could not overcome a dangerous task. McCandless, “Satisfied, apparently, with what he had learned during his two months of solitary life in the wild, McCandless decided to return to civilization…” (Krakauer, 168). This thought came with an over challenging obstacle, the Teklanika River was a raging water source that was difficult to pass, and McCandless was stuck on what to do. With a weak swimming ability, McCandless decided to turn back rather than crossing the dangerous waters, thus isolating him in the wilderness, leading to his death (Krakauer, 168-170). In addition to constant internal conflicts, McCandless had numerous conflicts with nature along his journey that lead to his

Nevertheless, he followed his passions. He wanted to live off the land and not rely on anything or anyone. Some who knew him or heard of his story thought that he “was born into the wrong century [and] was looking for more adventure and freedom than today’s society gives people” (174). Despite modern-day advances that we might consider conveniences (for example, watches and maps), he viewed them as setbacks that stunted his growth as a person, and decided to proceed through his life without them. As McCandless is being dropped off in Alaska he tells his driver “I don’t want to know what time it is.

In his work “Into the Wild”, author Jon Krakauer tells the story of Chris “Alexander Supertramp” McCandless and his journey across the United States, beginning outside Atlanta, Georgia, and ultimately concluding in McCandless’ death in an abandoned bus in the wilderness near Healy, Alaska. Despite the strong criticism of many Alaskans , Krakauer argues that McCandless wasn’t, as Christian claims, “Stupid, tragic, and inconsiderate,” but instead paints a sympathetic picture of a young man with a profound moral compass seeking a higher truth. According to Alaska Park Ranger Peter Christian “Alaska is populated with people who are either running away from something or seeking themselves in America’s last frontier.” Chris McCandless was doing just that. It all

Transcendental ideas filled the veins of Christopher McCandless throughout Into the Wild. Over the course of his life, especially his journey through Alaska, he came across many complex issues. However, he always seemed to find solace in the text of great, progressive minds such as Thoreau and Emerson. Through the accounts of people who once knew McCandless or those found in his journal, the keys he led his short life by ultimately shaped his character, lifestyle, and who he strived to be.

His entire journey throughout North America and inevitably up to Alaska was because of his views of individualism. He believed that in order to be happy, you had to know yourself and be your own person. He rejected the ideas that conformed to society and hated authority. Society will complicate and confuse our existence, making us forget who we really are by causing us to become obsessed with that which we are not and McCandless understood that. He wanted to live completely alone, in a world where the only laws he felt the need to follow were those of nature. The final passage of Into the Wild brings together all the book’s themes and questions into a single, compact description of a found object that could be taken as a metaphor for both Christopher McCandless’ destiny and for Jon Krakauer’s careful collation of the evidence of his

Captivated by the rugged and wild challenges that Alaska had to offer, he set off to have a chance to live like his hero, a novelist, Jack London. In the book, Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, a troubled man by the name of Chris McCandless goes on adventurous journey to the Alaskan wild to experience more to life and satisfy his thirst for adventure. Along the way he meets various of different people on the road. He tried to give them advice but failed to follow any, including his own, as his past showed otherwise. McCandless rejected his privileged life, family, and the rest of civilization in order to achieve what he was looking for which ultimately led to his death. Krakauer goes as far as trying to connect to McCandless because of his fondness for the outdoors as well. Life on road for McCandless was thrilling and treacherous and everything in between. Some argue that he was naive and foolish for going on such a dangerous voyage unprepared and lacking survival skills. However, McCandless carried certain characteristics that allowed him to survive as long he did in the wild. At certain points, the nomadic life didn’t seem suitable for McCandless, and on other occasions he seemed dominant of what he was doing. With advantages and disadvantages, life