Christopher Mccandless Argument Essay

Christopher McCandless was born on February 12, 1968 in California. He ended up studying at Emory University, and after graduating gave the $24,000 in his bank account to charity before disappearing from his family. McCandless then travelled around the country by means such as hitchhiking, and identified himself as Alex Supertramp. Alex arrived in Fairbanks Alaska in 1992, with the intent of living off the land, and his dead body was found a few months later about 19 days after McCandless’ death. Many who hear of McCandless’ story claim he died a meaningless death, and was foolish for it. However, the decision McCandless made to abandon his previous lifestyle was a justifiable decision, that not only made his life purposeful, but far more purposeful than the average person. …show more content…
In his book, Krakauer discusses the reasoning behind McCandless’ extreme actions. Krakauer writes “It is hardly unusual for a young man to be drawn to a pursuit considered reckless by his elders; engaging in risky behavior is a right of passage our culture no less than others... It can be argued that youthful derring do is in fact evolutionarily adaptive, a behavior encoded in our genes.” (182) Krakauer explains how is it entirely normal for young men to do risky things without thinking them through, and eventually goes on to explain this how this is why militaries recruit to many young men. Krakauer explains how the recklessness of young men is actually believed to be in their DNA, meaning that the risky actions of the young men may be out of their control. The act of Chris McCandless going through with the risky venture of living off the Alaskan land is indeed normal, with the only difference being that McCandless went a little farther than the norm, and was unlucky enough to lose his