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Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Into the Wild is the fascinating tale of by Jon Krakauer’s about Christopher McCandless,

a brilliant university graduate who mysteriously deserts his family, networks, and all the luxuries

of civilization in pursuit of absolute independence, an honorable form of life closer to nature and

detached from the dangerous avariciousness of the American society. Krakauer devotes most of

the book trying to explicate the inspirations and mental state of McCandless, a man who would

flee home and lives like a hermit. In Jon Krakauer’s narrative, Into the Wild, by, the protagonist,

Chris McCandless, renounces all kinship ties and isolates himself from the world because he had

become disenchanted with his position and role in society.

Into the Wild recreates Christopher McCandless’s real-life pilgrimage towards the rough

countryside of Alaska. McCandless travels through North America to ultimately segregate

himself from humanity in the Alaskan wilds. His callous lack of self-regard leads to his demise

through hunger exacerbated by food poisoning after more than one hundred days in the

wilderness. It is only natural to link McCandless’ misguided ideals with Henry David Thoreau ‘s

philosophy reclusiveness. Like McCandless, Henry Thoreau also escapes to the wilderness in
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pursuit of spiritual renaissance in a classic human fashion of relating with nature to answer vital

questions about human existence.

For reasons only known to him, McCandless seems discontented with the way his life is

evolving within the traditional limitations of society. Upon graduation from Emory University,

McCandless donates all of his money to charity, acquires a new name, and adopts a vagrant

existence, drifting itinerantly through the western regions of the United States of America. He

relishes the simple allure of the natural world. Assuming his alias Alexander Supertramp,

discarding earthly belongings and personal ties, McCandless regards himself as an “aesthetic”

explorer destined for the road (Krakauer 163). Once on his way, McCandless feels finally

unfettered, liberated from the oppressive ecosphere of abstraction, materialism, and security, a

world where he feels significantly alienated from the raw essence of existence (Krakauer 22).

This so-called oppressive or “stifling” existence refers to civilization that McCandless so

despises, and ultimately castoffs. Nature, to McCandless serves as an independent entity that can,

thus, be regarded either as a sanctuary or a purposeful end in itself. McCandless accordingly

finds himself connected, not by his conduct towards nature or even his experiences during his

quest, but by his objective for a specific divine change in his life and by his attitude towards

economic and social development of the American society. Written as an exploratory

commentary, Into the Wild transpires in the form of a narrative. Krakauer’s representation of

Christopher McCandless is quite realistic, exposing, according to some Alaskans, just a fledgling

man’s foolishness (Kollin 41).

Through this journey, McCandless meets new friends who admire his aptitude and

austerity. However, he avoids maintaining close bonds with the likes of Westerberg and Burres,
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quickly crossing from an adventure to adventure in fear of losing his freedom (Krakauer 55).

Having cut-off familial for more than two years, “McCandless sets off on his final exploit into

the Alaskan backwoods. McCandless, for There he supposes to find a sanctuary from the toxic

civilization that he is escaping. However, McCandless ironically dies from starvation and food

poisoning from poisonous seeds.

Throughout the tale of Into Wild, Krakauer defines McCandless's passage as a struggle

between detaching himself from civilization, his family, and creating close relationships with

nature. The tale commences with a broken family, progresses through a succession of meetings

with the solitary and the misplaced people, and ends in a senseless, untimely death. While

sociable with the outsiders that he encounters on his way, McCandless disconnects with his

family. While exchanging friendly journal messages with his new friends, McCandless alludes to

feeling tremendously “uncomfortable with society" in one of his messages. Nevertheless, all

through Into the Wild, Krakauer constantly endeavors to cast-off the traditional stereotype that

emotional despair is the sole motivator for young people’s actions. Based on the interviews that

he carries out, Krakauer deduces that the materialistic society drives McCandless towards nature

for a particular spiritual renewal. McCandless is not a sociopath, castaway, or insane; he is just a

young pilgrim fascinated by the prospect of a communing with nature and the universe itself

(Kollin 67)

To McCandless and others that share his belief system, the rough country has a particular

appeal. He is at once an anxious, thoughtless boy and a heroic and devoted spiritual pilgrim.

While McCandless does not seem to court trouble, danger somewhat surrounds him, at first

thrillingly, and then fatally, on the road to happiness. McCandless perceives the wilderness as an

untainted place, one devoid of the trappings of the contemporary society, where people of his ilk
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can discover themselves, live by their own rules, besides being entirely unrestricted. This

approach is not just a show of mere simplicity, as McCandless reveals in his journal. Some of his

entries reveal that show that McCandless finds some answers to his challenges, including how to

chart his life the way he desires. McCandless’s writes a jubilant note found in the bus wreckage

that he seeks refuge in that serves as the unwavering indication of the mental settings of his

expedition, and his view about nature. Civilization is corrupt in his perspective, a sentiment that

undertones of disgust. Though McCandless seemed as one pursuing spirituality, his sentiments

inexorably supersede the mission. A personal fixation on becoming one with nature guides

McCandless’ journey. This emotional barricade that McCandless puts between himself and

society and his former family life is his way of asserting his freedom. An unexpected river

obscures his path and prevents him from rejoining society. In an unforeseen turn of events, he

becomes one with nature. McCandless seems agonizingly cognizant of the circumstances of his

segregation and is anxious to reemerge himself as much psychologically as considerably in the

world of humans.

Nevertheless, it also emerges that the reality of everyday existence in the Canadian

backwoods is not as idealistic as McCandless and his kind envisage. McCandless devotes so

much time searching for food to sustain himself that he leaves so little of it to enjoy nature

consciously, more so the wild terrain that hosts him for several years, as is exemplified in his

journal entries that comprise nearly exclusively of the varieties of food that he discovers and eats

day-to-day.

McCandless is a victim of society, as his character depicts. His persona and his drive for

living alone like a hermit or pilgrim on the in dangerous terrains of the Alaskan wilderness form

the fundamental motif for the narrator and the audiences of Into the Wild. Questions of
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McCandless’ frame of mind arise, with some people alluding to insanity and others speculating a

spiritual pursuit as the motivations. His seeming obliviousness of the risks that his decision poses

for other people around him and not just himself is apparent. Krakauer pores through different

sources of evidence to construct the idea of McCandless as a victim of circumstances before and

throughout his voyage into the wild. As he meanders initially from Atlanta, California, and later

Mexico then Canada, Alaska, McCandless leaves a trail of inscribed evidence in the form of a

journal, photos, drawings, and notes.

His communications, although occasionally verbose and other times brief, contains

specific, imperious advice inferring that the Americans should forego materialism and adopt

simplicity as McCandless had. McCandless uses the third person point of view for his journal

entries, signifying that he recognizes himself as a character in his ostensible adventure tale, and

even adopts a stage name that both protects him from his close relatives’ efforts to trail him and

seems to validate his portrayal of a part way beyond conventional norms. Part of his motivation

to abandon the wearisomeness of society and delve into the unfamiliar wild world is his

upbringing. He reflects a lot about his childhood, particularly his amorphous relationship with

his parents. Though McCandless does not endure extraordinary pressure within his family while

growing up, he seems like a complex being, an edgy, disgruntled soul who regularly seems in

conflict with his setting. McCandless’ relationship with his father is rather frosty, and his way of

reckoning with the situation is fleeing, the soonest possible and as far away as he can, possibly

without a trace. McCandless looks as if he wants to detach as far away from such an experience

as possible. He seemingly uses his parents’ relationship as a generalized benchmark of the way

society operates as a whole. McCandless remarks that individuals wed for the wrong reason or to

the wrong spouse, an aspect that the character wishes McCandless could correct. All through his
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life, McCandless holds a dismal opinion of society, and it appears as if he thinks all materialistic

people are fated to live unhappily for the rest of their lives.

Throughout the story, McCandless seems like a conscientious and keen reader. Some

aspects of his range of literature, such as the Alaskan guide about edible plants, are useful in wild

( Trout 98). This book predominantly reflects his effort to obtain as much knowledge as possible

about survival in the wilderness. McCandless’ view of society as toxic drives him to depend

solely on his intellect, a factor that contributes to knowledge gaps about the geography and

ultimately cost him his life. His death occurs as a result of coming across an impassable, swollen

river that delays his departure from the wilderness by four months and leads to the unexpected

food-poisoning incidence (Trout 978). A careful study of the terrain would have shown him

crucial landmarks like the river and would have allowed him to look for alternative routes.

McCandless woeful unpreparedness for life in Alaska’s rough country, in terms of gear,

familiarity, and experience are his undoing. In this context, one can deduce that McCandless

engages in dangerous behavior, with the risk of death escalating from his lack of necessary skills

and groundwork. Therefore, one can deduce that McCandless makes choices that lead to his

demise, but his chronicles show that he is at peace at the culmination of his life and so instead of

allotting fault on him, perhaps one should basically assume that he chooses to live in a way that

threatens his life, but since this does not threaten others, it was only a free choice that he makes

as a fully-grown man and not a blameworthy issue. The fact that McCandless does not equip

himself for a wild existence characterized by hunting and gathering, both of which are unreliable

and unstable sources of food compounds hi woes. Even though he makes some provisions, such

as carrying a guide on edible wild vegetation and a shotgun, he does not assume a proper
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mindset, nor does he take better safety measures against starvation. His action is a seeming

suicide mission.
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Works Cited

Kollin, S. (2000). The Wild, Wild North: Nature Writing, Nationalist Ecologies, and

Alaska. American Literary History, 12(1-2), 41–78.

Krakauer, J. (2011). Into the wild. London: Pan Books.

Trout, L. (2013). Politics of survival: Peirce, affectivity, and social criticism. New York: Fordham

University Press.