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

781 Words4 Pages

Most people in modern society measure success by wealth and social status, they conform to a dull life of security and stability. Christopher McCandless also known as “Alexander Supertramp” was not one of them. Chris McCandless went on an extended journey to Alaska which ended up costing him his life, many critics question if it was worth the hassle and what were his motives to embark on this solitary journey. Christopher McCandless was no ordinary member of society, he defined success as finding truth and happiness, and for him the only way there, was Alaska. Many interpretations of Chris’s purpose for his journey have been made public; the most popular is from the author Jon Krakauer. In his book Into the Wild, Krakauer affirms “McCandless …show more content…

On one of his journal entries, Chris recorded he had killed a moose, many people including two veteran Alaskan hunters claimed Chris had mistaken the moose for a caribou, Krakauer confessed a “lot of people used “his misidentification of the caribou as proof that he didn’t know the first thing about surviving in the back country” (Krakauer 178) they claimed Chris had no idea what he was doing and that he was stupid for not being able to tell them apart (Krakauer 177). But in fact Chris did know what he was doing; Krakauer asserts “McCandless shot exactly what he’d said it was…. The animal was a moose, as a close examination of the beast’s remains now indicated and several of McCandless’s photographs of the kill later confirmed beyond all doubt” (Krakauer 178). This proves McCandless was competent enough to be able to tell the species apart, something that not even the two veteran Alaskan hunters we able to do “he wasn’t incompetent—he wouldn’t have lasted 113 days if he were." (Krakauer 85) There were several factors that led to McCandless’s death, but being incompetent was not one of

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