Chris Mccandless In Into The Wild By Jon Krakauer

The story of Chris McCandless has come to confuse many, and after hearing his story people formulate opinions about him. One side believed he was just another idiotic man like the men before him who traveled to Alaska, while others believed McCandless was an intelligent man who just got trapped in the midst of his journey to a reality that differed from his and others stereotypical lifestyle. Conclusions can easily be drawn to both theories of McCandless’ death. This is why so many are drawn to his story: right when a connection to or about McCandless is made, this will suddenly take a turn because his story is so unpredictable, leaving you in deeper thought than you were before. Although Peter Christian and others believed that McCandless

After McCandless’ death was discovered, it left his family “bewildered” and “clutching the shards of a fierce and painful love” (Krakauer 3). This shows the view of how McCandless was an arrogant and selfish person to have not considered how his death would affect his closest friends and family. McCandless’ parents felt confused when they became aware of his death and travels into the bush because he had not told them about his whereabouts, let alone his reasoning behind it. On the other hand McCandless’ father admitted that he and the rest of his family had “misread him” when they found out that McCandless had “[donated] all the money in his college fund to OXFAM America” (Krakauer 20). This sheds a different light on Chris; maybe he did not take the time to tell his family where he was traveling to because they simply would not understand, no matter how many times he tried explain it. Chris had a view on life, one that his manipulative parents would never be able to comprehend. In a way one could say that Chris was ignorant to have not shared his whereabouts with his family, but on the other hand one might have to wonder if it would have made his death any less tragic than it already

McCandless was someone who was clearly shown as someone who may have been viewed as selfish for not sharing his whereabouts with his family, but would knowing where McCandless was really affect the outcome? McCandless’ intentions were to pack less, which led people to believe that he was unprepared. He did this to allow himself to feel as though he was accomplishing more; he knew that in doing so he was challenging himself. McCandless himself was not misleading, yet the opinions made about him were. Many believe McCandless was just like the group of mentally ill men before him, but in the end Chris was not really looked at as the same; he was a legend that just fell short of his