Into The Wild And Free Choice Analysis

Augustine was a Christian philosopher who believed that people have the free will to make their own decisions and choices. One example is the choice between good or evil. He also believed that people should be searching for and obtaining eternal goods, rather than desiring temporal goods. In many aspects Chris McCandless from Into The Wild was searching for eternal goods and the divine. McCandless was a vagabond who sold all of his belongings and decided to hitchhike across the United States. He eventually hitchhiked to Alaska, where he wanted to live in the wilderness where he eventually died. Through careful examination of both Into the Wild and The Problem of Free Choice, Augustine would criticize Chris McCandless for living a reckless and selfish life. However, some may argue that Augustine would praise McCandless because he was searching for deeper life meaning and the divine. …show more content…
He was a vagabond who hitchhiked across the United States. He did all of this without communicating with his family. “As she studies the pictures, she breaks down from time to time, weeping as only a mother who has outlived a child can weep…” (Into the Wild pg. 132) McCandless didn’t take into consideration the feelings of his friends and family when he travelled to Alaska. Chris didn’t recognize how his lifestyle would affect his family, and the people he met along the way. He lived a selfish life because he took unnecessary risks that would not only affect him but those who loved him. Augustine would criticize McCandless for his selfish lifestyle because he didn’t treat his family in a just way. Even though Chris didn’t have the best childhood, his family still deserved to know where he was and the amount of danger he was putting himself