Into The Wild Gender Analysis

The novel “Into the Wild” is about a man known as Chris McCandless, who takes a spontaneous journey across America and into the wilderness of Alaska where he attempts to live off of what he thinks he knows about survival. McCandless embarks on this adventure because he wants to escape his family and the way his parents live. Throughout the book, elements of the gender theory are present as far as what McCandless does and how he handles different situations in the novel. According to the gender theory, people adjust their behaviors to fit in with the gender norms and expectations of their culture. As you read you can pinpoint things in the book that can be considered both masculine and feminine. Going off on adventures across America and rebelling against his family’s norms is more of a masculine thing to do whereas the way he presents his feelings about his family and his vulnerability as he nears death is more of

Both his emotions and unpreparedness provide a sense of femininity because he is both fearful and he too naive to bring a map to help him. Once McCandless realized he could not cross the river because it would be suicide had he attempted to do so, he went back to the bus and wrote in his journal, “Disaster [...] Lonely, scared” (McCandless 170). His journal entries about the way he feels shows his vulnerability, which is a big portion of the femininity in the novel. Another feminine aspect in the novel is his ignorance of preparedness when he decides to go into the wild. In chapter 17 it is explained that had he had a topographic map readily available, McCandless would have been able to return to civilization by finding a gauging station with a thick steel cable that crosses the river. By analyzing how he feels once he knows he is stuck on his side of the river you can lucidly see signs of