Chris Mccandless The Wild Analysis Essay

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When someone young dies, it usually generates interest. If that person is also wealthy, educated, and handsome, like McCandless was, it leaves people wondering how they ever came to such an end. Many of those that read the article from the magazine, Outside, immediately branded Chris McCandless as an arrogant idiot. Thousands of letters poured in just to express the contempt that the readers held for the recently deceased boy. There are many reasons that those who read the article detailing his Alaskan adventure felt such outrage towards McCandless. Perhaps it was because they thought he was a boy with the world laid at his feet but wasted it on a mere camping trip. The more sympathetic readers wrote of their sadness that his life was ended…show more content…
He called himself Alex Supertramp without a hint of humor to his voice, and he worked every odd job he was offered. All of this was in the pursuit of a dream that his family would not have understood. A dream that barely anyone he met while on the road understood. Nothing and nobody could keep him from going to Alaska. Even those who told him of the treacherous dangers of the wild were unable to discourage him. He was a man with a goal, a dream, something that was so important to him that he was willing to risk his life for it. Keating from ‘The Dead Poet’s Society’ seemed to sum up Chris’s own feelings easily: “You are not an indentured servant! It's not a whim for you, you prove it to him by your conviction and your passion! You show that to him, and if he still doesn't believe you - well, by then, you'll be out of school and can do anything you want” (Dead Poet’s Society). One of the main themes of ‘The Dead Poet’s Society’ was to follow ones dreams, no matter where they went or who they disappointed. McCandless had waited until he had completed his education to leave, to appease his parents, despite the unhappiness it brought to him. The young man was patient, and when the time came, he did whatever it took to make his passion a reality. If Chris truly lived and died in such a fashion, then his travels were not a waste of his life, no matter how gruesome the ending had turned out to…show more content…
Chris listened to advice from some people, allowing them to help him, but overall, he wanted his adventure to be just that- his. That does not mean that it was a foolish camping trip, it doesn’t mean that he had been completely careless with his own life when going into the wild. Through his letters and postcards sent to friends he met along the road, it was clear that this was more of a religious experience and less of a trip for McCandless. In a letter to Ronald Franz, Chris had written: “You are wrong if you think Joy emanates only or principally from human relationships. God has placed it all around us. It is in everything and anything we might experience. We just have to have the courage to turn against our habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living.” Chris had been searching for peace for his entire life, knowing that the only place he could find it wasn’t with people, but with nature and himself. He chose to find his own peace by traveling and not stopping until he found it, “He is smiling in the picture, and there is no mistaking the look in his eyes: Chris McCandless was at peace, serene as a monk gone to God” (Krakauer 199). During the last days of his life, McCandless had seemed to have found what he was looking for. He died not regretting anything he did from the moment he left his personal belongings behind and burned his

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