Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer - Essay Example

Into the wild by Jon Krakauer Introduction Into the Wild is a true-life story about the life and death of a twenty four year old man bearing the name Christopher McCandless. McCandless was a young man who seemed to have all the needed advantage. Chris grew up in a successful, and self-made family in an upscale suburb near Washington, D.C., he graduated with honors from the University of Emory. When he finally enters the world as an independent young adult, Chris had the rare privileges that many people of his age did not have. These privileges include a loving family, a college degree, a car that he adored as well as money worth $25,000 in his savings account (Krakauer 6). This spurs the question as to why and how would such a young man shut all contact with his parents and family, abandon his vehicle, give out all his money, and leave to spend the next two years as a lonely and homeless drifter. Prior to all this prestige, Chris abandons them, and ventures into the unknown world to look for the rare adventurous life without fully planning and preparing for it. This paper will specifically outline how the young man bearing the name Chris McCandless related with nature during his adventures especially in the wilderness and how the nature treated him back. Chris's McCandless relationship with nature as presented in the film Alaska has long been a magnet that attracts dreamers and misfits, and people who think that their miserable shortcomings will be patched up by wild adventure. Chris experienced the same illusion because he believed that the wilderness was the best destination. McCandless saw the wilderness as a place free from modern society and its evils as well as a purer state where he could find his identity, and be completely free (Krakauer 13). However, it is not true that the real experience of day-to-day living in the wilderness is as real as Chris and others like him to imagine. The unreality of the wild escapades is shown by Chris’s relationship with nature, which turned out to be unpredictable because at one time the nature seemed very soothing while at other times the same nature was cruel. In the beginning of his adventure, nature attracted McCandless with rare relaxation when he came across natural thermal pools on the Alaskan Highway. Chris bathed in the soothing water and rested in this particular destination as he pondered his next move (Krakauer 27). On the third day, nature presented Chris with the unexpected by offering him a friend named Alex who too was attracted by the pool that had become Chris’s companion for the few days that Chris had remained in the pool next to the highway. However, nature’s reality began to bite as McCandless spent a lot of time trying to find food to keep his soul alive so that he had time to consciously appreciate the wilderness and its adventures as anticipated before. The lack of food depicts itself through his written journal which consists of lists of the food that he found and ate every day. For a period of six weeks, Chris feasted regularly on spruce grouse, squirrel, duck, goose, and porcupine. He survived by fate because he had to try all means to hunt in order to get food, and the hunting task in itself was a tedious experience that exhausted Chris (Krakauer 86). Prior to food and hunting, nature did not offer Chris the desired satisfaction because he walked for more than five hundred miles towards the tidewater, but later reconsidered his plans and came back to where he had spotted the bus and settled there. Surprisingly, Chris’s settlement was not for long because a few weeks later, he changed his mind and decided to go elsewhere. However, the unpredicted nature was at it again and Chris’s journey was cut short by the flooded river (Krakauer 245). He was a weak swimmer and all he could do was turn back to his unsatisfying environment, and unwillingly Chris had to obey nature by turning back to his bus that had become his home. The reason why Chris seems dissatisfied with nature is because he personally claimed it in his journal where he wrote, “Disaster… rained in, river looks impossible, lonely, scared.” Hence, Chris’s relationship with nature was not pleasing because in most circumstances nature hit him hard. How Chris McCandless experienced nature Generally, nature was both unpredictable and a force that needs taming because of the numerous incidences portrayed in the film. Ironically, when Chris made up his mind to experience adventure in the wilderness his thoughts were full of inexperienced fairies that would come by, yet the outcome of the adventurer was completely the opposite. Chris seemed to believe that there was some core truth that hid beneath all the layers of civilized modern life, only found in the wilderness. More so, the ability to survive the challenges posed by this way of life provided a feeling of deep accomplishment for these ambitious or competitive men. Nature proved otherwise when Chris lacked survival skills because he mostly relied on the kindness of others to get him to where he was going. He relied on the fact that people would pick him up as he thumbed to Alaska, and so Chris could not sustain the overwhelming nature and his only option was to rely on others for help and support. More so, nature taught Chris the wild hardships because when his only bag of rice got finished, he had no option other than to surrender to nature by eating what was available and at reach (Krakauer 246). This led Chris to hunting for wild creatures, which included squirrels that would not be recommendable as edible food, but due to the extent that nature had hit him, Chris had no option. Additionally, nature taught Chris the necessity of modern technology because he had to walk for long and tedious distances in the wilderness, sometimes with no food or water. Long distance trekking in the unclear paths of the wilderness was not adventurous at all because it was tedious and exhausting, and experienced fellows like Chris understand the pain that accompanies such events. Prior to the harshness of the wild nature, Chris experienced unexpected events that nature brought forth. One of the unexpected events was when he was tired of living in the ‘bus’, and opted to relocate elsewhere only to find the stream flooded intensely (Krakauer 289). These natural surprises did not ease Chris’s life but rather made it harder, especially when Chris sank in to the Alaskan wilderness. When examined in a different way one could say that the unexpected fullness of the river forced Chris to back to his ‘bus’ where he starved to death and so, such unpredicted events of nature caused his death. Still the whole episode of Chris leaving his parents and the city behind and venturing to unknown destination was unpredicted in itself because what Chris expected to experience in the adventurous wild turned out the opposite, hence instead of the joyous experiences of planned adventure Chris’s adventurous case was full of hardship and frustrations. Conclusion The film shows the reality of day-to-day different circumstances that people go through with others suffering secretly while others like Chris are trying to change the situation by all means possible. This means that many people live unhappy lives and yet will not initiate steps to change or improve their situation. This is usually because of conditions like conservations, which may seem to offer individuals peace of mind, but when their lives are dug deeper, evidence of deep secrets and desire spurs. The joyous side of life comes from people’s encounters with new experiences hence experiences of joy come when people have endless changing horizon, where each day brings in a different sun. Therefore, for an individual to get more out of life, he must let loose of his inclination for monotonous security and freely adopt a more fulfilling lifestyle that one would desire to experience and once individuals become familiar with such a life they will definitely experience the full meaning and the incredible beauty of life. Hence, adventure is incredible, but it should be limited because too much of anything is definitely poisonous. Chris’s episode show how people in the society are alarmed by almost everything that surrounds them, as well as the thoughts that veer them away from the usual society’s standards. The people as part of a society are told what is good or bad for them, what smart and awful decisions are, and what they should do with their lives. Generally, people restrict themselves to what society wants and expects them to do and be. The average person does not take chances or risks in their lifetime, but they rather play cool, simple and safe and do only what they believe to be right for them and the people they live together with. Contrary, Christopher McCandless was not one of such people because he rose up by beating all odds and social expectations and eventually became the person he had always dreamt of being. He had the ability to live off the land, despite having virtually no hunting or wilderness experience (Krakauer 306). Readers may have different opinions about Chris’ story but what readers and viewers should remember is that Chris managed to survive on his own for many months before he died. Personally, I would say that in spite of all the hardships that Chris went through in search of adventure, he usually got it by experiencing both the good and the bad side of wild adventure. Therefore, Chris McCandless died a heroic death because he died a satisfied and happy man since he accomplished his crazy desire of living far away from people and society in general. His inner satisfaction is evident because in just about a month before he died, he underlined a passage from Thoreau’s Walden. The passage claims that if any person has the rare opportunity to great both the day and night with joy, and that life would emit a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, then life would be more flexible and immortal. According to Chris, this is how success is a successful life is measured. Work cited Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. London: Macmillan, 1998. Print. Read More