What was Chris Mccandless Seeking in the Wilderness?

writer-avatar
Exclusively available on PapersOwl
Updated: Apr 30, 2024
Listen
Read Summary
Download
Cite this
What was Chris Mccandless Seeking in the Wilderness?
Summary

This essay will explore what Chris McCandless was seeking in the wilderness, as depicted in Jon Krakauer’s “Into the Wild.” It will discuss McCandless’s motivations for his journey, including his desire for adventure, escape from societal norms, and search for personal identity. The piece will analyze how McCandless’s quest reflects broader themes of individualism and the human relationship with nature. Also at PapersOwl you can find more free essay examples related to Chris Mccandless.

Date added
2019/04/28
Pages:  4
Words:  1082
Order Original Essay

How it works

In April 1992, Christopher McCandless lands at the remote zone only North of Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska. Seeing Chris' ineptness, the newcomer who drops him off gives him a pair of boots. Chris goes into the wild and sets up an campfire at the relinquished automobile, which he calls "the Magic car". At first, McCandless is happy with the separation, the excellence of world in him, and the energy of living off the earth. He carries with him a .

Need a custom essay on the same topic?
Give us your paper requirements, choose a writer and we’ll deliver the highest-quality essay!
Order now

22 caliber rifle, perused books, and keeps the diaries of his thoughts as he sets himself up for another life in the wild.

Into the Wild makes viewers have a completely different outlook on life when it comes to things we value. Materialistic things such as: money, cars, and designer clothes aren't as important as the true essentials in life. The movie shows us different themes pertaining to a person's happiness that are far more important than materialistic things. Chris McCandless shines light on what is more important to him like being socially isolated, finding true happiness, and traveling to Alaska. This film leads up to a moment of self realization for him by going through different themes like disconnecting from society, finding his identity through character development, and letting go of materialistic things.

Dropping Out of Society to Live in The Wilderness

Chris began his isolation from society when he left his parents house without warning. He had spent four years fulfilling the absurd and tedious duty of graduating from college, and now he was emancipated from the world of abstraction, false security, parents and material excess, the things that cut Chris off from the truth of his existence. (Carine McCandless 26:48) Carine, Chris's sister, gave incite on the thoughts of her brother and his reasoning for his life behind. She felt as if she could only understand where Chris was coming from since his parents could not. Chris's parents constantly sent him letters to his apartment just to check up on him. Unknowingly, these letters were getting sent back to their house because he moved out two months prior to them finding out. This was just the beginning of Chris's journey to disengage from society.

Throughout his trip he meets different groups of people that contribute to the development of his character. As he travels into the wild, he meets Jan and Rainey, hippies who pick him up in a SUV, who initially put a description of what phase he is going through in life in his journey. Rainey and Jan tell him he is a leather tramp, because he travels on foot to get what he wants by hitchhiking . After this scene, Chris decided to give himself a new identity with the name Alexander Supertramp. Once Alex goes onto something new, he meets Wayne Westerburg, he gave Alex work on his farm, who he talks to about why he wants to isolate himself from society. Wayne perceive with his decision, but he doesn't want him overthinking it all. This is a mistake. You can't be thinking too deep into all this kind of stuff Can't be juggling blood and fire all the time. ( Wayne 47:30-47:52) Wayne strongly felt that what Alex planned to do was a mistake because he has so much to live for. What Wayne, Jane, and Rainey says to Alex impacts his thought process for the rest of his journey which played a crucial part in his character development.

Alex's view on materialism throughout the film shows he had a huge disconnect on what he thought was important. He didn't find the importance of clinging on to things that were not essential to him. When Alex was offered a brand new car in the beginning of the movie by his parents he declined it. He was perfectly fine with having a busted down car because he didn't need something new. Along his travels Jane even found it crazy that Alex burned his money due to the fact he was fine without it. Two years he walks the Earth. No phone, no pets, no cigarettes. (Alexander Supertramp - ) This shows how adamant about having no materialistic attachments. When it came to separating himself from a world that has people focused on materialistic things in life, he was successful by doing so.

One of the essential characteristics McCandless always displayed, which thus driven numerous to regard him, was his adherence to standards. He doesn't just lecture that his parents are excessively materialistic, or express that he won't be as greedy as he believes them to be. Rather, he lives by his enemy of realism totally, giving without end an incredible majority investment funds to charity, just making the absolute minimum of cash that he needs to survive, and keeping as couple of his belongings as he can.

While this adherence to standard is honorable and, unfortunely, bizarre, McCandless seems to put his standards above individuals, which drives him to make hurt without truly expecting do as such. For instance, in school Chris concludes that he has an ethical issue with blessings, thus will never again acknowledge or give them. In spite of the fact that this choice depends on a feeling of ethical quality, it in truth makes McCandless hurt the individuals who care about him. This might be identified with his closeness issues, for whatever length of time that he doesn't give individuals a chance to get excessively close, he won't be set in a place of picking them over his standards.

Christopher McCandless Diary

Many individuals choose to live their life in solitary, but a few choose to live in the wilderness. To McCandless, the wild has an unmistakable charm. McCandless sees the wild as a purer state in life, a place free of the wrongs of present day society, where somebody like him can discover what he is extremely made of, live by his own principles, and be totally free. Furthermore, this isn't simply gullibility; McCandless' diary demonstrate that he finds a few answers, some keys to living the way he needs to live.

However, it is likewise evident that the truth of everyday living in the wild isn't as sentimental as he envision it to be. McCandless invests so much energy attempting to discover sustenance to keep himself alive that he has a brief period to deliberately value the wild, as is confirm by the way that his diary comprises exclusively of arrangements of the nourishment that he needs to find and eat each day.

The deadline is too short to read someone else's essay
Hire a verified expert to write you a 100% Plagiarism-Free paper
WRITE MY ESSAY
Papersowl
4.7/5
Sitejabber
4.7/5
Reviews.io
4.9/5

Cite this page

What Was Chris Mccandless Seeking In The Wilderness?. (2019, Apr 28). Retrieved from https://papersowl.com/examples/what-was-chris-mccandless-seeking-in-the-wilderness/