Into the Wild: themes and character analysis

¶ … led Chris McCandless to this idealistic path? Describe the path.

In his book Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer portrays the amateur outdoorsman Chris McCandless as a man starving for transcendence in a relatively confined and privileged existence. McCandless, although he adopted the life of a homeless wanderer in the Arctic, attended Emory, an elite university in the South and was a talented athlete. McCandless came from a well-connected family that apparently loved and supported their son but by the time he made his fatal, final journey he had not spoken to them in three years. Because of his intelligence and erudition, McCandless became enchanted with the ideas of the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy and the American Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau, and resolved to live a life in the wild.

McCandless gave away his life's savings, and forever after resolved to life on the land, sustained only by whatever life brought his way. He even left behind the only money he had left (85 cents) and a roadmap in James Gallien's car, the man who reluctantly took him to his final, fatal destination when McCandless was hitchhiking in Alaska. Whenever he had more money than he needed, McCandless gave it away or burned it. He buried all of his personal possessions, and the only thing he seemed intent upon keeping was his journal, which he wrote in religiously until his death.

Why did McCandless (and some of the other explorers mentioned in the book) need to experience the extremes of life and the extremes of the wild?

McCandless seemed uncomfortable with the life of privileged into which he had been born and with the idea of false status and hierarchy. When he was offered membership in Phi Beta Kappa, he declined it, saying he did not want to be a member of any elite and exclusive societies. When traveling in the Southwest, before he headed to the North, he lived amongst homeless people in Las Vegas. People without status seemed to fascinate McCandless -- he desired to be stripped entirely naked of all aspects of civilization, such as family, identity, money, and a home. He did not want the security of knowing where his next meal was coming from (and died of starvation as a result). When offered assistance, such as the opportunity to buy better gear for his journey, he rejected it. When his employer in South Dakota, Wayne Westerberg, offered him a plane ride to Alaska, McCandless responded that accepting a ticket would be cheating. Some people would see his determination as an attempt to be as miserable as possible, but McCandless saw it as part of his quest to live at mercy of fate and the elements.

What prevented McCandless from being able to experience emotional intimacy with others (and perhaps with himself)?

McCandless rarely found fulfillment in emotional relationships. The source of his discomfort could have been his difficult relationship with his parents. But relationships would have tied him down: having a relationship with another human being would have meant limiting his quest for self-fulfillment and self-improvement. A girlfriend, or even a close friend, might balk at living on rice and wandering in the wild for months.

Although Krakauer rejects McCandless' refusal of all aid as a form of suicide, it seems justifiable in interpreting McCandless' determination to push aside all attempts to make his journey safer as a kind of unconscious misanthropy, or hatred of humanity. Having people care about him would have meant that he would have to take more responsibility for his safety. The farther away he pushed people from him emotionally, the more risky his behavior could become. Much like alcoholics or drug abusers' self-defeating behaviors, McCandless' embrace of asceticism and risk could be interpreted as a way of keeping people emotionally and physically distant. Only a person with no social responsibilities can burn money, refuse to send regular letters and postcards, and take from the world only as much as he needs for a day. McCandless loved humanity in the abstract (hence the donation to Oxfam) but wanted minimal contact with individual humans.

On a personal note, how were you affected by reading McCandless' story? What insights did you gain into your "self"?

Despite his seemingly suicidal recklessness, I identified with McCandless. So much of modern life seems false. We spend so much time dealing with 'disembodied' aspects of the world, making virtual connections through the Internet or dealing with bureaucracies that are necessary to function in modern society. Figuring out what credit card to use, worrying about having a job that pays us enough money to afford to go to college, worrying about what other people will say regarding one's clothes and life choices, all feel profoundly false. However, there is a limit to how much one can opt out of certain aspects of society, unless one rejects society entirely.