(just related to the details below) - Essay Example

The resulting paralysis caused his gradual inability to move, forage and hunt. This, therefore, resulted to Chris’ death from starvation. He died in a converted bus that was used as a shelter in backcountry, near Lake Wentitika (Krakauer 218). Chris was born in El Segundo, California. His family settled in Annandale, Virginia in 1976. This was after his father got employed as an antenna specialist for the NASA. His mother was a secretary at Hughes Aitcraft. She later assisted her husband in a home-based consulting company that he had opened in Annandale.

At school, Chris was unusually strong-willed. During his adolescence, he showed physical endurance and intense idealism. He was the team captain of the cross-country team. Chris used to urge his teammates to consider the running exercise as a spiritual exercise of running against darkness forces, all the hatred and evil in the world. Chris graduated from high school in 1986 in Fairfax, Virginia. After the graduation, he travelled he travelled throughout the country using his car. This was one of Chris’ major adventures.

His academic success and middle class background acted as drivers for contempt of seeing the materialism nature of the society. In 1990, Chris graduate from college with a Bachelor’s degree in anthropology and history. . Chris loved reading and most of the people he encountered described him as intelligent. He worked at a grain elevator in Arizona, California. Chris survived being washed away by floods. However, his car was washed out, which made him to dispose off his license plate. In 1991, Chris paddled a canoe in the remote stretches of River Colorado to the California Gulf.

He crossed the border and travelled to Mexico, where he got lost in the many dead-end canals. Later, Chris was rescued by duck-hunters who took him to the sea, where he stayed for some time. This made him to take pride in surviving with less funds and gear. All his life, Chris wished for an Alaskan Odyssey, where he would live in the wilderness of the land of Alaskan, free from civilization. He hoped to find his real self while in the wilderness. He kept a journal that described his progress physically and spiritually as he faced forces of nature.

In 1992, he was given a ride by Jim Gallien from Fairbanks to Stampede Trail. Gallien showed concern for Chris, who showed little surviving the experience in the wilderness and had minimal supplies. He did not even have a compass. He tried to persuade him to defer the trip and offered to give him a drive to Anchorage to buy supplies and suitable equipment. McCandless, however, turned down offer. Gallien allowed Chris to wander off, believing that he would head back to the highway after being struck by hunger within a few days.

This was the last time Chris was seen alive. In the wilderness, McCandless came across an abandoned bus that was parked near Denali National Park and was used as a hunting shelter. He started living in the bus, off the land. He had 4.5kg of rice, a semi-automatic rifle, 400 rounds of ammunitions, some camping