Analysis Of Christopher Mccandless In Into The Wild, By Jon Krakauer

Into The Wild by John Krakauer is a novel that depicts a story about a man name Christopher McCandless who ventured from place to place with the motive of reaching Alaska. In the novel, Chris was generalized as insane, crazy, or even relatable to other adventurists by different perspectives; and this constructs a controversial profile of his character since we will truly never understand who he was. However, I say otherwise. My viewpoint upon who Christopher McCandless “is” is that he is an individual who rejected his past. His perception of reality was altered from his childhood to adulthood, which such circumstances led him to developing the truth that the majority of his life was falsely lived. This lie then served as a catalyst that awoke his motive to seek the truth, establishing the mentality of his own. We can see this new mindset as it is evident by his ambitions of reaching Alaska along with his negative behavior towards his parents, which eventually sparked the persona called Alex. …show more content…
One of his notable companions, named Westerberg, characterized Alex as “the sort of person who insisted on living out his beliefs”(pg.67). Yet, to his surprise, he never explained to Westerberg why he’d changed his name. The significance of this detail revealed that Christopher didn’t even mention his family to his encounters with people, not even the slightest bit. This led to many prejudices and criticism towards Alex, to an extent he was regarded as a “pale 20th-century burlesque of London’s protagonist” or a “dreamy half-cocked greenhorn” from nearby townspeople. However, none of these folks understood that to Chris, Alaska was his sanctuary, his safe-haven towards the