The book “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer describes a man by the name of Christopher McCandless that ventures out into the wilderness of Alaska unprepared which causes him to struggle during his adventure. This leads many people to question whether Chris was mentally sane or had problems. As time goes on during his stay in the wilderness, it started to make him realize all of the skills he had and didn’t have.
Although his actions show that he was very inept at living in the wild. Burres was concerned but also knew that “He was smart. He’d figured out how to paddle a canoe down to Mexico, how to hop freight trains, how to score a bed at inner-city missions. He figured all of that out on his own, and I felt sure he’d figure out Alaska, too.”(46).
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As time started to go on, he started to wonder and look back and tell himself, “I have lived through much and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. And then, on top of all that, you for a mate, and children, perhaps-what more can the heart of a man desire?”(169). With everything that happened to him, he was still happy and was willing to risk his life throughout his journey to find happiness. The environmental conditions were beginning to become too harsh for him to keep going all because he wanted to be on his own. People walk into the wilderness to “No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild.”(163). Being alone had made him happy but it started to come up to him that happiness isn’t real until it is shared. Even though that made him happy, this experience that he had led him to think that it isn’t so bad being with other people and he can return to civilization.
Throughout the story, Chris had tried to find his purpose in life and tried to be happy but didn’t realize how unprepared he was. This leads to the conclusion that Chris could not conquer the wild on his own especially with the skill set that he had. When he wanted to live outside, he wanted to abandon the life that he had during the time he spent in civilization. Although his goal was to get a life that was more fulfilling, he was willing to reach his goals by risking his lie just to get excitement and danger. His experience had changed his mind even though he thought being alone was his key to