A Hero's Journey In Into The Wild By Jon Krakauer

Superior Essays
Certain patterns emerge, such as a traditional hero on a journey towards self actualization. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer portrays this hero’s journey. The protagonist of the novel, Chris McCandless, hitchhikes to Alaska and walks alone into the wilderness, north of Mt. McKinley. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. He thought that the reality of the modern world was corrupt and uncompassionate, so he went on this journey in order to find a life of solitude and innocence that could only be expressed through his encounters with the beautiful wild. He was the true adventurer that everyone only dreamed of being. During …show more content…
He donated $24,000 to a charity trying to end world hunger, ditched his car not only because it got ruined by a flash flood but because it was useless to him, burned his cash in his wallet and kept in touch with the people he met on his journey. This man who left his family was still a very bubbly and warm hearted person. Although he didn’t like huge social gatherings he made a very strong impact on the strangers he met along on his fatal journey. Each and every person, Jan, Wayne, Jim, Charlie, Ronald and many more all were impacted by Chris and his open personality that was loving and caring. Many people look up to Chris McCandless because of the stories he made and people he met on this life adventure that most people can’t imagine doing. Ronald Franz grew such an affection towards Chris that he asked him if he could adopt Chris and be his grandfather. Mr. Franz said “What do you say… you let me adopt you?... I could be a… say your grandfather?” and Chris responded with “ Could we talk about this after I get back from Alaska?” and Ronald said “Okay” (Penn). For an elderly man who lost his wife and only child and in his late 70s to offer this big of an intimate relationship reveals that Chris is actually a great young man. Because no one openly offers to adopt a random child you met off the streets, but this gentleman could see right through Chris and was able to see he was a talented and bright …show more content…
His family was very wealthy. He had a nice fund of money for himself, graduated from a prestigious college and was on his way to becoming a Harvard law student. All of this and you think he was some what crazy for dropping it all and leaving it behind. Many people see it that way but the other side sees it as some significant turnaround in this poor boy’s life. He never learned by himself how to earn anything, because everything was bought with money, other than his GPA, but besides the fact that he was a genius he never learned how to work for anything. This is why he took his skills he acquired over his life and applied them to living like a poor man and the great outdoors. A risk that Chris took that made him an extreme adventurer was his last and final exploration of the Alaskan Bush. Gill said “He wasn’t carrying anywhere near as much food and gear as you’d expect a guy to be carrying for that kind of trip” (Krakauer 4). This shows that Chris wanted to be independent with himself and how he attacked the outdoors. Part of what made him such a great adventurer was the fact that he didn’t want to have to rely on people or things being given to him, but instead to do it for himself. He lived for the experiences not the

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