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Bao-Vi Doan
Ms. Moore
ERWC
January 26, 2016
Chris McCandless, An Idealistic Young Man
Into The Wild is a nonfiction story written by Jon Krakauer published on February
1997. Krakauer reports a compel and tragic adventure of a young man from a well-to-do family
hitchhiked to Alaska, walked himself alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley and found
his decomposed body after four months by the hunters; his name was Chris McCandless.
Krakauer states in his authors note that Some readers admired the boy immensely for his
courage and noble ideals; other fulminated that he was a reckless idiot, a wacko, a narcissist who
perished out of arrogance and stupidity - and was undeserving of the considerable media
attention he received. (Krakauer, Authors Note). Many readers and people in the Outside
magazine believe that Chris is a hero who left everything aside, walked himself alone into the
wild, and be a part of nature . Which is not every human can do such thing as McCandlesss
legacy. However, McCandless is a reckless idiot with his stubbornness is as high as his stupidity,
who run to live in the wild and then died after four months trying to find a way back to the town.
Therefore, McCandless is simplify just a guy who is trying to run away from the reality toward
his parents by pushing everybody away along with his idealistic from all of his fiction books.
Chris McCandless commences running away from the reality toward his parents by
pushing everybody away when he first discovered the truth behind his father. Chris pieced
together the facts of his fathers previous marriage and subsequent divorce - facts to which he
hadnt been privy. (Krakauer 121). Nevertheless, Maricia and Walt McCandless continued
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going back and forth while having Chris and Billie, Walts recent wife. Between Chris and
Carine, there is still one child that Walt had with Marcia, his name is Quin McCandless. Which
are what Chris gathered from his summer during his cross-country to California, a state where he
grew up.This fact angered Chris the most when acknowledging his father did such a disgusting
thing to his mother as well as Chris himself and Carine. By that time, he begins to push
everyone, who tried to get close to him, away. Eric Hathaway, one of Chriss best friend, says
that it was hard to get Chris to open up. I saw Chris at a party after his sophomore year at
Emory, remember Eric Hathaway, and it was obvious he had changed. He seemed very
introverted, almost cold. When I say Hey, good to see you, Chris, his reply was cynical: Yeah,
sure, thats what everybody says (Krakauer 120). Chris is trying to push people away;
additionally, he starts to shun the world, the truth of his father, and the reality. Thus he donated
$25,000 dollars, alone walked into the wilderness simultaneously with his idealistic of his fiction
books under prepared.
Chris was born with his stubbornness and was carrying that personality since he was a
child until he, himself, into the wild. McCandless distrusted the value of things that came easily.
He demanded much of himself more, in the end, than he could deliver (Krakauer 184). The
author is saying that Chris walked into the wilderness completely in prepared. That he tried to
not use any modern technologies, nor he would like to challenge himself with the wild. He did,
yet unfortunately, he failed to. After two months since he walked into the Alaska forest, he
decided to return to civilization. However, when he crossed the river, the river was only above
his knees in May, now is July, The water, opaque with glacial sediment and only a few degrees
warmer than the ice it had so recently been, was the color of wet concrete. Too deep to wade, it
rumbled like a freight train (Krakauer 170). Krakauer and his friends also discovered that a few
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miles above the river, there is a way to cross. Only if Chris accept to take a map or a compass
with him, he could have live until today. But he refused.
In the end, every family has different stories that no one could ever understand it. Chris is
an intelligent young man, who was good at almost everything. He could have chosen to live
another life, as happy as Carine, who knows the truth but chose to accept it, and importantly, he
could still exist in this world if he did not choose the wild. When you look up, you are nothing
compare to others, but when you look down, you are still better than many people. Even though
Chris is an adult, but at a certain point, his mind is still thinking like a child. Chris could have
had to use his knowledge on something else.
