Chris McCandless Essay

Throughout the semester we have been taught nothing more than Transcendentalism and about how Chris McCandless survived months on end until he ate the wrong thing one day. To me Transcendentalism means letting go of everything, such as technology, to go back into the nature or roots that our founding fathers had to endure. Chris McCandless before this semester meant nothing to me because I had never heard of him or even knew that someone had done something like this. I think that this…

or wants. And as such in the novel, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, tells the story a young man named Chris McCandless, who after journeying into Alaska’s wilderness, ends up dead after failing to survive the harshness of the wild. This young man had gone into the wilderness for personal reasons that were never clearly answered by him himself, although there is evidence to suggest that McCandless went into the wild because he had family issues which had caused emotional damage as well as his…

Alyssa Giardina Ms. Cleghorn American Literature 1 April, 2024 Into the Wild: Survival Guide: The Paper “If it isn’t clear, Christopher McCandless was an asshole. He was a selfish bugger who put himself in harm’s way and who was so self-absorbed he abandoned his sister to the (reportedly) abusive hands of their parents” says enraged blogger Daniel Kelley. Chris McCandless, the now famous, forever twenty-four-year-old, has made a name for himself in one of the most controversial adventures in…

In Chris McCandless’s family, one can clearly see the authoritarian family dynamic at work. For instance, when Chris tells his parents that he does not want to go to college, Walt says how “that put . . . [Billie and him] into kind of a tizzy” because “both [of them] come from blue collar families,” so “ a college degree [was] something [they didn’t] take lightly” (Krakauer 114). Chris’s father argues that “[he] and Billie worked hard to be able to afford to send [their] kids to good schools”…

were not capable of doing. It is the desperation of survival it is out of instinct we surprise oneself performing impossible tasks; Chris was at a point where he was physically weak incapable of functioning well anymore. It might appear as if though at his last moments of life he would have called for help, but I believe he would have not. In the first place, McCandless wanted to get away completely from everyone and everything he decided to leave his car behind, which he truly enjoyed; He…

Krakauer, Chris McCandless, was one who went through and saw a lot of abuse of his mother. Chris had a childhood that no one would ever want to experience, he wanted to be on his own without the orders of his father. We can learn and pray for a new opening, but being pushed to the extreme, how Chris has, lead to his crashing point of leaving society. In one scene of the movie when he was taken to the man he worked with about his upcoming adventure, the man had the attitude that Chris was…

eat and what not to eat in the wild, as well as walking with enough food and equipment, McCandless’s adventure would’ve been a success and he could have ended up writing about it in the near future. Unfortunately both characters, Beowulf and Chris McCandless had way too much pride in themselves that made them think they could do anything without anyone’s help in order to succeed. Subsequently, Nick Bartel author of the abridged and adapted version of the 1999 Oedipus The King shows Oedipus…

embracing life instead of conforming to society and appreciating only the “details” of life. In the film Into The Wild Christopher McCandless agrees with Thoreau’s belief. Christopher McCandless started his journey with the intention of escaping from society, which is why I believe Thoreau’s and McCandless’s thoughts on society were aligned. Throughout the film, Christopher McCandless goes against the norms of society. Specifically, Christopher’s parents offer him a new car as a graduation…

I believe that Chris would have been able to have the adventure he was hoping for if he did more research. Not only would it have helped him find suitable food to eat, it more than likely would have saved his life. McCandless still would have been out in the wilderness alone meaning his journey would still be successful. If Chris brought along a map I believe that his story would have been less compelling. The story struck many people as either brave or incoherent. Bringing a map along would…

people to get help.Chris McCandless, a huge proponent of Henry David Thoreau, studied and believed he was living the transcendentalist life that Henry David Thoreau preached. McCandless drifted around the country subsiding by the transcendentalist ideals, making several stops along the way where he would generally make a profound impact with those life paths he crossed. Eventually he made his way to Alaska where he would live off of the land, and ultimately, perish. McCandless and Thoreau both…