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Into The Wild By Jon Krakuer

568 Words3 Pages

Morgan Newton
Debbie Kincaid
English 12
8 February 2023
Into The Wilderness Into The Wild written by Jon Krakuer in 1997, sheds light on the true story of a twenty four year old man. Christopher McCandless’ 113 day odyssey, which was cut short by a fatal mistake. McCandless’ journey took place in 1992, and his body was discovered after spending approximately four months in the bush. Christopher Mccandless’ journey or even life was full of chance and bad luck, but unfortunately during his odyssey his bad luck outweighed his luck. McCandless was completely unprepared, uneducated, and ignorant, which all led to his downfall in the end. McCandless went into the wild completely aware of how dangerous it was but he didnt care, he wanted to escape from safety and security. McCandless wanted to be perfectly self reliant, he wanted and thrived for the …show more content…

So many people tried to help McCandless, but those were the same people he wanted to leave behind. One of them, Gallien recognized that McCandless lacked the basic necessities to survive in the Alaskan Bush, “he has no food except for a ten pound bag of rice, his hiking boots are not waterproof, and his rifle is too small for the large game he will have to kill in order to survive…” Gallien tried to talk McCandless out of an unsafe, unmarked route, but McCandless was too hot headed and ignorant to take that into consideration. Another man, who went by Stucky bought rice for McCandless and told him he's too early, that there was too much snow out and nothing is growing yet. But McCandless shrugged him off and went anyway. “Stucky points out, ‘Alex you're too early. There's still two feet, three feet of snow on the ground. There's nothing growing yet.” If McCandless was to listen he would've been able to find food along his journey. Very early into McCandless’ odyssey, he killed a moose then failed to properly preserve the meat, leading to it going bad and to waste, “McCandless kills a moose, and he is so proud he

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Everyone makes mistakes, no one’s perfect, although he made mistakes he would try and find another way around it and try to survive on his own not relying on anybody. He made friends on his journey like the couple, the young girl, and also the old man. They helped McCandless go the right way and not the wrong way. The last mistake he made costed him his life by eating the wrong plant making him paralysed, nauseous, dizzy and much more. The biggest mistake of all was him leaving ending his life with hunger.

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Into the wild is a biography and nonfiction book written by Jon Krakauer. The book is about the journey of Christopher Johnson Mccandless ( Alex )journey throughout the west coast of the USA. Christopher’s journey takes him places such as the the snowy state of Alaska, and the mountainous terrains of the Sierra Nevada’s. The main protagonist Christopher Mccandless is 24 years old, and believes that life is best lived alone. Testing his theory Christopher goes to live alone in the western US, until testing his limits and venturing to Alaska.

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I fully agree with callarmen that McCandless made a lot of mistakes, because he wasn’t prepared for the harsh wilderness of Alaska. McCandless wouldn’t even consider it. “Once Alex made up his mind about something there was no changing it” (P67) McCandless was intelligent he wasn’t playing crazy because know what he was doing in some of the things he did in his life when he was still alive “ You could tell right away that Alex was intelligent”...

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On his expedition across the United States, Chris McCandless was unprepared for obstacles. In Into the Wild, an observation of McCandless is “His gear seemed exceedingly minimal for the harsh conditions of the interior; which in April still lay buried under the winter snowpack” (Krakauer 5). McCandless planned to live in the Alaskan wilderness for an extended period of time with gear that was insufficient for the weather and terrain. The bitter temperatures, rough terrain, and aggressive wildlife characteristic of Alaska’s backcountry require sufficient preparation and supplies for survival. Additionally, McCandless only brought a basic map with him which he later threw away “Because he has no topographic map, however, he had no way of conceiving

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I believe McCandless was inconsiderate and an idiot for his actions because he was living a good wealthy life, and he decides to abandon it. Not only did he abandon his family and belongings, he also underestimates the environment of Alaska, which allowed him to become

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Where there wasn’t anyone to tell him, no, don’t follow that route. We don’t want you to hinder all that we have indure, your parents want more for you.. He grew weary of his surroundings, he tried too hard to make sense of the everyday world. Tired of the representation of a good samaritan, McCandless could care less what everyone else did, prior to that very moment. He wanted to choose the path that he wanted, just like his heroes Jack London and David Thoreau.

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This statement, made by Shaun Callarman, pertains to Chris McCandless’s trek into Alaska that ultimately led to death by starvation. Since the recovery of Chris’s body, there has been much speculation about the prevention of Chris’s death and the possible causes. Despite Callarman’s plea of craziness, there have been both eye-witness accounts showing that Chris was sane and prepared when leaving for the Alaskan wilderness, many natural

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“His rifle was only .22 caliber, a bore too small to rely on if he expected to kill large animals like moose and caribou, which he would have to eat if he hoped to remain very long in the country. He had no ax, no bug dope, no snowshoes, no compass. The only navigational aid in his possession was a tattered state road map he’d scrounged at a gas station. “(Krakauer 6). McCandless brought only a few materials to survive, the amount or supplies and the items he brought definitely showed Chris McCandless was unprepared.

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Critics argue that McCandless is rather unprepared nor does he have the necessary survival skills to survive in the hypothermic winter in the Stampede Trail. McCandless’s unpreparedness leads him to “overestimate [himself], underestimate the country, and [end] up in trouble” (71) Upon McCandless’s return to the Carthage grain mill, he tells Westerberg “he [plans] on staying until April 15th, just long enough to put together a grubstake” (62). Westerberg undoubtedly did not agree with McCandless’s stubborn determination of his vagabond voyage and says, “there [are] gaps in his thinking” (63). In mid-April, Westerberg is shorthanded on employees and makes a final attempt to post pone McCandless’s departure by offering to fly him out to Fairbanks, but “Once [McCandless] made up his mind about something, there was no way of changing it” (67). Despite Westerberg’s endeavour, he could not compel McCandless to stay as he has an extremely headstrong nature and iron-willed stoutheartedness.

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402 Words | 2 Pages

He gave away his possessions, including his savings, and set out on a journey that would ultimately lead to his death. There are several reasons why McCandless can be seen as a fool. First, he was unprepared for the harsh Alaskan wilderness. He lacked proper gear, supplies, and training. He didn't bring a map or a compass, and he didn't have any experience living off the land.

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679 Words | 3 Pages

After hearing this Galien realized that he did not have nearly enough supplies on him to survive for months. He tried to discourage McCandless to go with that little supplies. McCandless would not listen to him and eventually went out anyway. McCandless did not let anybody tell him how he should live his life. Even if it could be dangerous he still did it despite multiple people telling him that he shouldn’t.

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532 Words | 3 Pages

In April, 1992 a young man named Chris McCandless walked into the Alaskan bush never to be seen or heard from again. He entered the bush with minimal supplies- a firearm, ammunition, a ten pound bag of rice, a small library, and a few other basic survival items- and confidence in his abilities to survive (Krakauer, 162). Four months later, six hunters found the remains of his decomposing body inside an abandoned bus amidst the thick vegetation of the Alaskan wilderness (Krakauer, 13) . Upon hearing Chris’ story locals and critics promptly labeled him as an “ill-prepared kook”, but were they right? If his critics were correct, then McCandless would not have survived quite as long as he did  in complete solitude.

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836 Words | 4 Pages

McCandless managed to survive in the Alaskan wilderness for 113 days. At one point he decided he wanted to turn back and retire from his Alaskan adventure, but it was too late, a small stream became a massive river over the summer and he could not traverse it any longer. In his final moments staring in the face of starvation and death McCandless helplessly curses at the world. He was not ready to die. McCandless did not find what he was looking for before he died.

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He lost a couple of his survivor tools and that costed him some some of the food he wasn’t able to catch. McCandless was going on his own to test his strengths and weakness and see how far and long he will survive in the wilderness, He was

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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.

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