In the 2013 online article, “The Chris McCandless Obsession Problem”, author Diana Saverin describes the Alaskan wilderness travel phenomenon along with attempting to uncover the ‘McCandless Pilgrims’ “root of motivation. Sparked by the release of both Jon Krakauer’s and Sean Penn’s “Into the Wild”, numerous individuals pack their backpacks and eagerly step into their (sometimes newly-bought) hiking shoes and tramp into the Alaskan Wild to pay homage to their hero Chris McCandless. Filled with personal anecdotes and interviews, Severin’s Outside article takes a new approach Into the Wild commentary by directing attention to the lives McCandless’s story affected indirectly rather than critiquing on McCandless himself. In response to what appears to be a huge amount of troubled McCandless-inspired tramping stories, Saverin provides an unbiased rationale as a attempt to explain why so many are “willing to risk injury, and even death, to..visit the last home of Alaska’s most famous adventure casualty”. Saverin begins her article with anecdote- telling the unfortunate experience of young lovers and adept adventure seekers, Ackerman and Gros.
Richard M. Donovan wrote the book “paddling the Wild Neches”. Once the story is fully read, the realization of what a human will do in order to keep an important place that values so much, it is magnificent. Richard was 66 years old during his 200 mile canoeing expedition, he did not think that he was going to make it happen. However, he accomplished what he felt he needed to do so he can open minds about a place that needs their help. He captured what was hidden in the river and wanted to tell his story about it.
Into the Wild Essay Most people go into the wilderness to go camping for a week or less than a week, then leave. Some stay for more than a week. Chris McCandless was in the wild for at least one hundred days. “ I’ve decided to live this life for some time to come. The freedom and the beauty of it is too good to pass up.”(pg.92)
The woods can change a person’s way of life. May people can account that they are forever changed, and that the way they process situations and perceive the world are entirely different. Not only that, but the wild can provide numerous opportunities to learn new information, even things they never knew about themselves. Franklin Crabbe retained a lot of new information from his time spent in the forest that he will be able to use upon his return to civilization. Firstly, Crabbe learned about placing blame.
Going out into the wild all by yourself can be nerve wracking and lonely. Jon Krakauer makes Chris McCandless seemed like a noble person who took the initiative to try to go out and live into the wild. The book Into the Wild written by Jon Krakauer, is about a teenager named Chris McCandless leaving society and traveling to Alaska by himself with nothing else but a bag of rice and a small .22 caliber gun. Chris is heroic because he went to Alaska by himself without any knowledge of Alaska and didn’t know any of the dangers of Alaska. One way Krakauer make Chris seem noble is when Chris is about to enter Alaska he tells Gallien “ I’m goin’ to get on up there live off the land,go claim me a piece of the good life” (Krakauer 4).
Throughout his time alone in the wilderness, Brian went through many changes that left him more able to handle the extreme situation he was thrust into and this ultimately helped him to survive. The first major change that could be observed in Brian is his growth in patience. An excellent example of this can be observed in chapter 17 after the tornado lifts the plane’s tail out of the lake and Brian makes plans to get into the aircraft in order to retrieve the survival pack. The quote states, “He fought impatience to get on the plane project and remembered sense, remembered what he had learned. First food, because food made strength; first food, then thought, then action.”
In the second section of the book, “Unbroken”, the author talked a lot about the experiences of the crew that Louie was with when he joined the army. Louie ended up with Phil and several other men to form a crew with their plane, a B-24 model, which they named “Superman”. They were all great pals who went through thick and thin together, but they believed the chance of survival was slim. One day, they barely managed to get it back to home base on one mission when the enemy relentlessly attacked their plane. However, one crew member was beyond help and several more had injuries that rendered them unsuitable for battle, their plane was also unrepairable.
When entering the wilderness, Chris was unprepared both materially, and ultimately mentally. The test of Chris’ common sense skills is also apparent as he embarks on his journey. Chris arrived in the wilderness without proper supplies, including shoes, which he got in the form of work boots from Jim Gallien. “before Alex left the pickup, Gallien reached behind the seat, pulled out an old pair of rubber work boots, and persuaded the boy to take them” (Krakauer 7). Chris’ hunting skills were long forgotten by the time they were needed.
Chris was not just your average vagabond who didn’t know what he was doing or the dangers that lay ahead of him. He spent two years on the road learning and experiencing new things, finding out his strengths and weaknesses. He prepared every day leading up to his journey into the wild. The man who gave his a ride into town said that, “Alex said he wanted to go out to the university to study up on what kind of plants he could eat.” So you see, he did not underestimate the treachery of the wild, but instead did everything in his power to prepare for it.
Christopher McCandless, whose life and journey are the main ideas of the novel “Into the Wild”, was about an adolescent who, upon graduating from Emory College, decided to journey off into the Alaskan wilderness. He had given away his savings of $25,000 and changed his name to Alex Supertramp. His voyage to Alaska took him two years during which he traveled all across the country doing anomalous jobs and making friends. He inevitably made it to Alaska were he entered the wilderness with little more than a few books, a sleeping bag and a ten pound bag of rice. A couple months after his first day in the wild, his body was found in an abandoned bus.
Into the Wild tells the story of Chris McCandless, a young man who embarked on an adventure across the U.S. Chris lived for adventure, and sadly met his demise in the Alaskan wilderness. Chris’ death brought about a large debate as to whether Chris was insane or simply idealistic. Krakauer wrote Into the Wild to prove Chris’ sanity and soundly completes that task by using rhetorical devices to persuade his audience. Throughout the book, Krakauer uses ethos to develop Chris’ credibility by providing examples of people who are similar to him. For example, Krakauer provides multiple examples of people who were very similar to Chris, such as Everett Ruess.
The short story of a man wandering across the Yukon Territory in midwinter creates a multitude of feelings in the reader. However, no feeling is stronger than the suspense about the survival of the main character. The man sets out alone to cross the Yukon Territory alone, despite warnings about the dangers of doing so. These dangers as told to us through through the eyes of a narrator develop the anticipation that keeps the story entertaining. Jack London’s effective use of basic literary techniques such as narration and conflict in the short story “To Build a Fire” is successful in keeping the reader involved throughout the story.
Have you ever been stuck in the wilderness alone? 13 year old Brian Robeson has. He was stuck in the Canadian Woods for 54 days. He had to use survival strategies like these to help him survive. He uses trial and error, his hatchet, and he thinks positively.
The Alaskan Bush is one of the hardest places to survive without any assistance, supplies, skills, and little food. Jon Krakauer explains in his biography, Into The Wild, how Christopher McCandless ventured into the Alaskan Bush and ultimately perished due to lack of preparation and hubris. McCandless was an intelligent young man who made a few mistakes but overall Krakauer believed that McCandless was not an ignorant adrenalin junkie who had no respect for the land. Krakauer chose to write this biography because he too had the strong desire to discover and explore as he also ventured into the Alaskan Bush when he was a young man, but he survived unlike McCandless. Krakauer’s argument was convincing because he gives credible evidence that McCandless was not foolish like many critics say he was.
What really drove Chris McCandless into the wild? I believe the top three of the countless reasons that drove McCandless into the wild was the emotional damage from his parents, rebellion of the youth & risk taking tendencies, and his hubris and detestation against authority and/or someone telling him what to do. Some may believe that Chris McCandless went into the wild because of his literary heroes Leo Tolstoy, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau , and Jack London but the real reason he left everything was because of those reasons. In this essay I will elaborate on why I believe those are the reasons that drove McCandless into the wild.
