Similarities Between Into The Wild And Avoidance Behavior

Chris McCandless, Into the Wild, and Avoidance Behavior

By: Emma Bruhl

Prompt Two:

“Avoidance is a part of life” (PsychCentral), it is a human's response to pain. This basic element of human response is demonstrated by the character of Christopher McCandless in the novel entitled Into the Wild written by journalist Jon Krakauer. Krakauer’s story follows the cross-country venture of post collegiate McCandless in his journey to find his identity and freedom as he disappears from his family and what he views as societal constraints. Krakauer reflects on the journal kept by Chris outlying key aspects of his journey and important characters he meets along the way. His disappearance after college begs the question if he was avoiding something, someone,

When Krakauer describes aspects of Chris’s college life, he outlines how Chris hadn't seen one of his classmates for two of the years they were in college together; Chris had removed himself from the possible relationships, or threats that his classmates and friends imposed. Another example of Chris’s avoidance, are the short and shallow relationships made throughout his journey. His ability to cut relationships short demonstrates how, “He [Chris] had again evaded the impending threat of human intimacy, of friendship, and the messy emotional baggage that comes with it” (page 55). Additionally, Chris demonstrates avoidance behavior through his travels as seen in his first trip to the West returning to where he grew up, where he considered home. Though normally this action is considered common, ‘just someone traveling back to a place they love,’ when compared with Chris's other actions, it seems as if he wanted to avoid something about his life in DC and find something more fulfilling in his home state of California. Furthermore, Chris departs for the second time without leaving a paper trail; his parents had no lead, further demonstrating an avoidance behavior because he completely escaped from a cumbersome situation. These specific examples described above display Chris’s physical avoidance, but he also demonstrates mental avoidance

Chris was inspired by authors of the transcendentalist type, and writers depicting life in the wild. Krakauer addresses a key point in saying that “he [Chris] seemed to forget they were words of fiction…” (page 36) when referring to fictional books such as Call of the Wild. His obsession with the idealized works of fiction represents Chris’s distracting fantasies that are a defined part of cognitive avoidance. Combining protective avoidance with cognitive avoidance, Chris stays firm in his belief that he is well-prepared enough and knowledgeable enough to survive in Alaska. This belief persists despite multiple warnings made by more experienced individuals, regarding the Alaskan bush. As explained by a driver of Chris named Gallien, “...[I] tried repeatedly to dissuade him…when that didn't work, I tried to scare him…he had an answer for everything I threw at him” (Page 5 & 6). These two examples illustrate Chris’ obsessive nature, reflecting aspects of cognitive avoidance buttressed with obsessive compulsive aspects of a protective