Analysis Of Chris Mccandless In Into The Wild, By Jon Krakauer

Most people, if they saw an unmarked door tucked away in an ominous and unfamiliar alley, would not bother giving it a second glance, speeding up their pace. Chris McCandless, on the other hand, would slip through the unmarked door, too curious to pass by such an unmarked territory. Chris McCandless walks to the beat of his own drum, ventures onto the unbeaten path, and dives head first into the depths of the unknown. He spends his entire life chasing the frontier. Jon Krakauer, in his novel Into the Wild, uses Chris McCandless to challenge America to return to the frontier, and all it has to offer. Society today thrusts us toward cookie cutter, secure, and stationary lives, and Chris McCandless spends every waking moment breaking his way

In Into the Wild, Chris McCandless serves as an example of what rediscovering the frontier can give us as he undertakes both a symbolic and physical frontier. He is proof of the adventurous spirit buried deep within every American, that draws them into the frontier, and into the wild. Taking the first step into the unknown is the most taxing step of the journey, which is why Jon Krakauer frequently returns to the end of Chris’s college experience, which is when he begins the first steps toward the frontier. Chris sees hope in an endlessly changing life. He sees adventure and new experiences where others might see danger and peril. The excitement Chris feels for the beginning of his journey is similar to what to anyone would when sparking hope, and Krakauer provides his insight on Chris’s hopes when he writes, “The trip was to be an odyssey in the

“He intended to invent an utterly new life for himself, one in which he would be free to wallow in unfiltered experience. To symbolize the complete severance from his previous life, he even adopted a new name… he is now Alexander Supertramp, master of his own destiny”, says Krakauer, calling attention not just to Chris’s new name, but also the start of his new beginning, as he steps foot into the frontier (23). Krakauer stresses the tattered relationship between Chris and his family throughout his novel, which describes why the frontier seems so appealing to Chris. In a world that gives few second chances and forgets little, a new beginning can seem completely and utterly unobtainable. However, Chris chopps off the connections to his past, including his family, friends, and lifestyle, to achieve a new beginning. The encumbering truth about his family follows Chris around his entire youth, as he is stuck living with those who disappoint him. Yet he stays, because that is what family does. Alexander Supertramp, in the eyes of Krakauer, is able to venture into the frontier because he has no family or friends depending on him and creating expectations for him. Krakauer admires Chris’s ability to achieve a clean break from his family, because most humans look for approval in human