Into the Wild

Into the Wild

Many people have the need to go and discover themselves, but lacked the bravery to do it. The non-fiction book titled "Into the Wild", written by Jon Krakauer; portrays the journey of Christopher McCandless to the Alaskan wilderness, and the events that had led to his departure. His youthful self-centeredness, unfamiliarity of the wild and overconfidence all proved him responsible for his own demise.

Christopher McCandless is not just any other stupid hitchhiker who had thrown his life away. He was educated man who had been raised by relatively wealthy family.

He took isolation from the society to the extreme; donated all his savings to charity, gave away most of his possessions and abandoned his past. Unfortunately for his family, in his youthful self-centeredness he failed to acknowledge human relationships. Though perhaps as Krakauer thinks, given more time, he would have.

Chris challenged himself and went to the wilderness, with little amounts of food supply and equipment. The fact that he had chosen to enter the wild and take such huge undertaking; one would think he lacked common sense. He knew what the risks were and consequences, but he still did it. "It was important for him to see how independent he could be" (page 125). The unforgiving nature of Alaskan wilderness does not take part human's fragility and Chris understood that fact; "If this adventure proves fatal and you don't ever hear from me again I want you to know you're a great man. I now walk

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into the wild" (page 3), but then he was reckless, "He had no axe, no bug dope, no snowshoes, no compass"(page 5). He was not fully prepared for a life of hunting and gathering, which means he provided unstable, unreliable food source. Chris lack of knowledge about the wilderness and the area was a major factor in his death, "His ignorance is what killed him" (page 72). Also he was offered supplies that could have helped him survive, but instead he denied them. He knew he was severely under supplied; his death could have been avoided if he was open-minded.

Towards the beginning Chris' trip, you will notice his stubbornness; "Gallien asked whether he had a hunting license. Chris replied with hell, no. How I feed myself is none of the governments business. F*ck their stupid rule." (page 6). He was an obvious risk taker, gaining strength from each goal he set for himself. But he became too confident that he started making several mistakes when things started going down the hill. Each mistake ate away at his overconfidence, leading to his ultimate demise.

As young people, we feel that death is something that is far off, and we find that with each risk, we take that we survive and that makes us stronger. Chris was no exception and this