When things get too much for me I usually try to take a break and let something else distract my mind, and that exactly what Chris McCandless did except his break lasted 113 days. In Jon Krakauer’s book Into the Wild he depicts and analyzes the journey Chris took to get away from society. Chris was only 24 when he left home and went onto his own into the wilderness and was 24 when his body was found in an abandoned bus off the Stampede trail in Alaska. He was unlike any person you could meet, an opportunist, an ambivert, and independent. To some Chris’ idea to go into the wild was foolish but to him it was exactly what he needed. Chris’ interpretation of happiness was profoundly simple; he wanted to find who he really was. He didn’t want
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Even with all the complications Chris had with his family I’m not convinced he purposely wanted to hurt his family. He was a caring person who would sometimes pick up homeless men and drive them back home and set them up a place to stay for a few nights. Nick Jans a school teacher from D.C says this about McCandless “…Same story: idealistic, energetic young guys who overestimated themselves, underestimated the country, and ended up in trouble. McCandless was hardly unique; there’s quite a few of these guys hanging around the state, so much alike that they’re almost a collective cliché. The only difference is that McCandless ended up dead. His ignorance, which could have been cured by a USGS quadrant and a Boy Scout manual, is what killed him. And while I feel for his parents, I have no sympathy for him. Such willful ignorance ... amounts to disrespect for the land” (71). The natives in Alaska took it as a sign of disrespect sheer stupidity for him to go out into the wilderness unprepared. What they don’t comprehend is that there was a purpose for being unprepared, he wanted the challenge. He was aware of the risk he was taking on his life, he was intelligent, and always had his rifle on himself. He just wanted to live as naturally as he was able to. He wanted to feel the pride of working for everything he got in the wilderness
Even with all the complications Chris had with his family I’m not convinced he purposely wanted to hurt his family. He was a caring person who would sometimes pick up homeless men and drive them back home and set them up a place to stay for a few nights. Nick Jans a school teacher from D.C says this about McCandless “…Same story: idealistic, energetic young guys who overestimated themselves, underestimated the country, and ended up in trouble. McCandless was hardly unique; there’s quite a few of these guys hanging around the state, so much alike that they’re almost a collective cliché. The only difference is that McCandless ended up dead. His ignorance, which could have been cured by a USGS quadrant and a Boy Scout manual, is what killed him. And while I feel for his parents, I have no sympathy for him. Such willful ignorance ... amounts to disrespect for the land” (71). The natives in Alaska took it as a sign of disrespect sheer stupidity for him to go out into the wilderness unprepared. What they don’t comprehend is that there was a purpose for being unprepared, he wanted the challenge. He was aware of the risk he was taking on his life, he was intelligent, and always had his rifle on himself. He just wanted to live as naturally as he was able to. He wanted to feel the pride of working for everything he got in the wilderness