Into The Wild Persuasive Essay

On April 28, 1992, Chris McCandless stepped foot into the woods, a journey that would last four months, coming to an end much earlier than he would’ve hoped. In August of 1992, just four months after Chris walked alone into the wild, his perishing body was found by a party of moose hunters. Chris went into the wild hoping to get away from corrupt society and to live a transcendentalist lifestyle. His bold journey was going well until he made a silly mistake when he came across seeds from the wild potato. The seeds themselves are not what killed Chris, it was the amino acids in the seeds that caused him to slowly become paralyzed due to his malnutrition and physical state. Krakauer believes Chris died of starvation, but not because he wasn’t able to hunt and gather food, it was because he physically couldn’t move to get up and find the food he needed to sustain his body. To this day, his journey is still being talked about with extensive discussion and disputes; it was very controversial and many people are forming their opinions on whether or not Chris should be praised or disregarded. Although Chris entered the wild with positive intentions for himself based on his potential in the real world, readiness to go on a solo expedition, and ignorance Chris never should 've stepped foot into the wild and for that matter should not be praised for his foolhardy decision. Prior to embarking on this solo expedition in the wilderness, Chris had a very positive childhood, and he had a lot going for him. He was very intelligent and attended Emory university where he excelled and graduated at the top of his class. “[He] had distinguished himself as a history and anthropology major with a 3.72 grade- point average.”(Krakauer 20). “His grades were nearly perfect. He started writing for the school newspaper. He even talked enthusiastically about going on to get a law degree when he graduated.”(Krakauer 119). Doing this well in school, and being as smart as he was, opened up many opportunities that could’ve led Chris to a very successful life ahead of him. Along with the intelligence Chris had, he was also blessed with a family who cared a lot about him. They gave him everything he could’ve hoped for, yet he was not content and decided to go on with his selfish ways and leave them without notice, to fulfill his dream. As Sean Penn depicted in the movie, everywhere Chris’s mom went, she felt as if he was present. When she was driving home from the store, she saw someone on the side of the road with a backpack and immediately thought it was Chris; she followed him with her eyes, but to her disappointment, it was not him. “With almost a year having passed since Chris ' disappearance my parents ' anger had turned to desperation. Their guilt was giving way to pain. And pain seemed to bring them closer. Even their faces had changed. She convinces herself it 's Chris, that 's her son whenever she passes a stray.”(Penn). They were absolutely devastated that their son, the one who had so much potential, died and they had no idea where he was the prior months. Krakauer and Penn similarly depicted Chris’s life before he decided to embark on this crazy expedition. It was evident that …show more content…
His motives for going out into the wild were to isolate himself and “…it was important for him to see how independent he could be” (Krakauer 125). Chris didn’t leave to later be written about for the whole world to see, he was trying to get away and not be found. By not even communicating with his sister, Carine, with whom he was quite close, he made it evident that he did not want to be found. He walked into the wild on April 28, 1992, and was never able to make his way out of the woods. Not going into the wild would have solved most of Chris’s problems, but there was no way from stopping him on his way to pursue his dream. Nonetheless, he should not be getting praised for embarking on a journey that was foolhardy and poorly planned considering the bright future he had ahead of