Into The Wild

In April of 1992 a young man named Chris McCandless, from a prosperous and loving family, hitchhiked across the country to Alaska. He gave $25,000 of his savings to charity, left his car and nearly all of his possessions. He burned all the cash he had in his wallet, and created a new life. Four months later, his body was found in an abandoned bus. Jon Krakauer constructed a journalistic account of McCandless's story. Bordering on obsession, Krakauer looks for the clues to the mystery that is Chris McCandless. What he finds is the intense pull of the wilderness on our imagination, the appeal of high-risk activities to young men. When McCandless's mistakes turn out to be fatal he is dismissed for his naivetй. He was said by some to have a death wish, but wanting to die and wanting to see what one is capable of are too very different things. I began to ask myself if Chris really wasn't as crazy as some people thought. Then I realized it was quite possible that the reason people thought he was crazy was because he had died trying to fulfill his dream. If he had walked away from his adventure like Krakauer, people would have praised him rather than ridicule. So I asked the question, "How does Krakauer's life parallel Chris McCandlesses?"

Chris and Jon's life have many parallels and contrasts at the same time. Both gave up most of their possessions to go after a dream they had. Ones dream was to live off the land in the remote regions of Alaska, the other too climb the Devils Thumb, a mountain peak that had never been scaled by man. Each man was aware of the risks, but were they equally prepared when each began their own adventure? I feel that Chris McCandless was at a disadvantage when he first started off. Raised by a wealthy family and just graduating from Emory University I feel he wasn't as prepared as he could have been. Fortunately his father had taken him on hiking trips so he was at least somewhat familiar with the wilderness but in no way was he prepared at all for the severity of the Alaskan wilderness. I think it would have been quite a feat just for Chris to have been able to live off the land in a local forest. To be fair to Chris I'm sure Krakauer didn't start off by just one day deciding he would climb the Devils Thumb after he was inspired by making it up the climbing wall at the local county fair. Both men had to gradually work their way up to accomplishing their goals. Jon did this by many other smaller climbs and Chris worked his way up by studying nature books and roaming across the U.S. So in this way Jon and Chris were alike even though their goals were different.

Another way the two were similar was the fact that they both had family problems. Though his parents and sister loved him Chris secretly despised his parents for covering up the fact that his father had been raising two separate families. Just like Chris's father Lewis Krakauer had already begun to prepare him for a career that he didn't want to be any part of. I think both sons were consumed by a sort of blind rage when they found out that their fathers were less than perfect. This anger fueled them to rebel and go against their fathers wishes to make their own futures.

The biggest (and most obvious) difference between Jon and Chris is that one died living out his dream and the other lived to walk away from it. Most people would say that Chris failed because his goal was to survive in the wilderness. Others would say that Jon succeeded because he made it too the top and lived to tell his tale. However were the incidents really that different? Chris lived in the Alaskan wilderness almost a hundred days before his fateful mistake that cost him his life. Jon also had a few fateful mistakes that could have cost him his life but didn't, like the time he caught his tent on fire or when his supply plane couldn't come because of bad weather. Most people wouldn't even dream of doing either of these feats. When the risks are as high as either of these men faced, even the most simple of mistakes can prove fatal. I think that if Chris was seen as a failure then so should Jon. I think this because Jon's original goal was to climb the unclimbed section of The Devils Thumb. When Jon could not accomplish this he backtracked and found an easier, already climbed path. However I think that both men were successful in their own ways. Chris survived for an extended period of time without the help of civilization but due to the poisonous potato seeds he ate he was too weak to hike back to civilization. Jon realized his limitations and knew he was forced to lower his goal or face death. If anyone was a failure it was Jon because he backed down from his initial goal.

Ever since I