Analysis Of Into The Wild, By Jon Krakauer

The importance of relationships on one’s happiness Defining a fulfilling life can be a rather difficult task because one may not know what proponents of their life make it enjoyable. One way to define a happy life is having people that are constantly supporting one another and caring for each other as well. Similarly, in the nonfiction novel, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, Christopher McCandless goes through much of his life not knowing how to find pure happiness. Chris was the son of wealthy parents, and he attended Emory University after high school. He was also a top student and athlete. After college, he decided to travel the country in his car, and his main goal was to visit Alaska. He ends up traveling the country on foot while hitchhiking,

Chris never liked his parents because they did not have the same ideals in life as him, but he did have a good relationship with his sister Carine. When he left for Alaska he thought his family was not important enough to stop him from his road trip, and he did not contact them about any of his whereabouts. While reading a passage from the book Doctor Zhivago he bracketed a paragraph that related to him and wrote a comment of what it meant to him personally. Chris writes, “HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED” (Krakauer 189). What Chris means by this is that happiness is only achieved by being surrounded by other people, and in this moment chris finally realized the true importance of his family. He discovered what he had been looking for in Alaska which was the key to his happiness, which ended up being strong relationships, and in Chris’s case one with his

Krakauer conveys the importance of relationships through Chris’s struggles in life revealing the theme that to live a happy life, it is necessary to build strong committed relationships. Chris has many relationships with people in his life, but he greatly struggles with keeping them, like with his family and Ronald Franz. This causes him to have many issues with his life, because he goes out to Alaska to find a purpose for his life. While in Alaska, he realizes he has left behind what can make him truly satisfied with his life, which is other people that are significant to him. Chris does not only leave behind his family, he also leaves behind his friends and the people he met on the way to Alaska, and he had no intentions of revisiting them and keeping the relationships he had with them. The idea of having committed relationships is extremely relevant today. Some people like Chris want to leave their family behind because they may have differences with them, but what would be best to do is never leave them behind. Many people, like Chris, in society think that maintaining friendships and relationships with their family is too difficult to do. In reality, one may struggle to maintain certain relationships, but it is the only way to feel content in life.