Abigail Fricke

Mrs Stanford

ENG124

26 October 2018

Idealism and Curiosity Killed the Cat

Although only being listed on page four, there is a quote from ​Into The Wild t​ hat helps to

perfectly summarize the entire novel. The quote reads, ​“Alaska has long been a magnet for

dreamers and misfits, people who think the unsullied enormity of the Last Frontier will patch all

the holes in their lives. The bush is an unforgiving place, however, that cares nothing for hope or

longing.”​ ​Into The Wild ​is a book written by Jon Krakauer that tells the true story of Christopher

McCandless. Chris McCandless was a young man from the Virginia suburbs of D.C, who in

August of 1992 was found dead in the Fairbanks 142 Transit Bus. ​Into The Wild, ​is the

captivating account of his actions and what lead him to Bus 142. Along with personal statements

from McCandless’ diary, interviews, and pictures help to reveal some of the clues surrounding

his untimely death. Despite only being 215 pages long, ​Into The Wild, i​ s compelling, eloquent

and simply hard to put down. Additional to telling the story of a headstrong, idealistic man, the

book also touches on the lure of the American wilderness to men similar to McCandless and how

the relationships someone forms with the people around them can influence their future.

Throughout ​Into The Wild, a​ ll of the events that lead up to Chris McCandless being found

dead and decomposed in Fairbanks 142 Transit Bus, are described with tremendous detail. The

story isn’t set up in a chronological order so it’s up to the reader to put the pieces together in a
way that makes it so they are able to understand his story. Chris McCandless’ story starts off in

the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., where he spent most of his childhood. From a very

young age, it was clear that Chris was a good scholar and athlete while at the same time,

remained someone who had a deep passion for nature and the world around him. Therefore, it

wasn’t a surprise when after graduating from his high school with honors, he decided to take a

gap year away from college and go on a road trip across the country. During this time, he finds

out that prior to his knowledge, his father had another family during Chris’ childhood. This

caused Chris to feel betrayed and leaves him starting his Freshman year at Emory University

with deep-rooted feelings against his family. These feelings are ones that eventually cause Chris

to go down a bad path because by the time he had gotten to his fourth year of college, he had

pushed away all of his friends and held little to no contact with his family.

After graduating at the top of his class, he leads his parents to believe that he was

interested in going to law school but instead, does something very similar to what he did before

starting college; he donated $25,000 of saving anonymously to OXFAM, got in his 1982 Datsun

B210 and went on another road trip without telling anyone where he was going. For the next two

years, he would then travel all around the Northwest of the United States, making money and a

few close friends along the way. During this time, he encounters some hardships due to his

strong belief in nature and that the only person someone can truly rely on is themselves. In order

to test his strengths and pursue this belief to the millionth percent, he decides to make the frontier

of Alaska his final destination spot on this road trip. He spent the months approaching the quest

learning all about Alaska and the necessary skills he believes will allow him to survive it alone.

In April of 1992, McCandless believes he is ready, so he leaves South Dakota and gets dropped
off near Mt. McKinley to begin his hike into the wilderness. He then spent the next sixteen

weeks hunting, searching, reading, and living in a deserted bus, fit to be the perfect shelter for

hunters, not seeing a single human the entire time. However, in August, McCandless accidentally

eats moldy seeds, which leads him to starve and therefore, found dead by moose hunters four

weeks later in that same bus where he spent those sixteen weeks.

Although seemingly different, Chris McCandless’ story is one that is very similar to a

few others. In order to better understand why McCandless did what he did, throughout ​Into The

Wild​, Jon Krakauer felt it was necessary to add in stories of other men that started and ended

similarly to McCandless. These stories helped to add background and context in the explanation

of why the American ​wilderness has such a lure to men like Chris McCandless. Out of the four

mentioned, a man named John Waterman was most alike to McCandless. Just like Chris, he grew

up in the same metro area of D.C. and showed a very large interest in nature at a young age. As a

child, his father frequently took him climbing and after achieving the title of the third youngest

person to climb Mt. McKinley, Waterman developed a reputation for his outstanding skills.

However, even though he excelled in this physical activity, he lacked in other areas of his life.

John Waterman never grew taller than five feet three inches, and was described as, “​a socially

awkward man-child with an outrageous sense of humor and a squirrely, almost

manic-depressive personality”​ (Page 76). Nonetheless, he too, just like McCandless, felt the

need to push himself to the limits with some sort of wilderness trip, in order to correct the other

aspects in his life he felt were lacking. For John Waterman, this meant climbing the south face of

the Mt. Denali, the mountains steepest side, in the winter, with a small amount of food. In doing

so, he practically set himself up for failure and on his second attempt, was never seen again.
 There are many questions surrounding the reason behind why men like Chris McCandless

and John Waterman have such an attraction to the wilderness and feel the need to push

themselves to the limits in the most dangerous parts of it. Unlike the majority of the people who

willingly enter the wilderness, McCandless and Waterman had inner issues that caused them to

feel as if places like Alaska and Mt. Hunter could fix them. However, going into those places

alone and isolated would only simply do the opposite. Waterman expressed this on page 78 when

he said ​‘In the months following the epic deed, though, Waterman discovered that instead of

putting his demons to rest, success had merely agitated them​.” This was the same case for many

other men, including McCandless, who wished to correct his views on the world after finding out

about his father's previous family. Another factor that would have induced the lure of the

American wilderness to these men was just truly how dangerous what they were doing was. This

is talked about on page 182, when Jon Krakauer says, ​“It is hardly unusual for a young man to

be drawn to a pursuit considered reckless by his elders; engaging in risky behavior is a rite of

passage in our culture no less than in most others. Danger has always held a certain allure.

That, in large part, is why so many teenagers drive too fast and drink too much and take too

many drugs, why it has always been so easy for nations to recruit young men to go to war.”

When men pursued their trips into the wilderness, alone for countless days, they knew exactly

what they were doing. Therefore, as a result, it can be argued that if men like McCandless or

Waterman had stronger relationships with the people in their life, they might never have

ventured into the unknowns of the wilderness they so readily pursued.

Although he would never commit to true intimacy due to his major belief of self-reliance,

Chris McCandless formed relationships with almost everyone he met. This was partly because of
the faulty relationship between McCandless and his parents but also due to the fact that he was

someone who could easily connect with a wide range of people. So, the question is brought up

that if he had made close relationships with these people and parents, would he still have wanted

to risk his life in the Alaskan Wilderness? Would he still have spent those four months, alone,

on the brink of death, if he knew how deeply his parents and friends would be affected if he was

gone forever? On page 132, McCandless’ mother's actions were described as she saw a picture of

him after his death hit the media. In the text, it says ​“As she studies the pictures, she breaks

down from time to time, weeping as only a mother who has outlived a child can weep, betraying

a sense of loss so huge and irreparable that the mind balks at taking its measure… “I just don’t

understand why he had to take those kinds of chances,” Billie protests through her tears. “I just

don’t understand it at all.”​ Although he didn’t have a close relationship with his parents, even

intense, Chris McCandless wouldn’t want to cause this much pain to his parents. Many people

were, in fact, surprised that he did. On page 104, the text reads, “​How is it ... that a kid with so

much compassion could cause his parents so much pain?”​ ​The reason behind him doing so

could be one that started at a young age. After finding out about his father's second family, Chris

McCandless had on-going relationship issues throughout the rest of his life. He was never able to

fully trust or connect with someone due to the fear that they would do something similar to what

his father did. Consequently, it’s easy to see why he’d be so willing to go into dangerous places

like the Alaskan Wilderness. He never got fully attached to anyone and as a result, felt as if he

had no ties to the world beyond the trees and Fairbanks Transit Bus 142. If only he had felt as if

he did have those ties, he might have been less willing to risk it all in the wilderness and could

still be alive today.

 Chris McCandless’ story is one that has continued to influence people all over the world

ever since it hit the media in 1992. Through the work and research of Jon Krakauer’s ​Into The

Wild,​ readers are able to learn about the story of McCandless’ story, as well as the lure of the

American wilderness and how the relationships someone from can influence their future. Chris

McCandless was a young man from the Virginia suburbs of D.C, who in August of 1992, was

found dead in the Fairbanks 142 Transit Bus. The events that lead him there are​ one that can be

learned from and compared to others. Throughout ​Into The Wild, ​stories of men similar to

McCandless are talked about in order to add details to further describe his story and to touch on

the lure of the Alaskan/American Wilderness to young men. This lure is one that may be caused

by the pure aspect of danger lurking the shadows of places the men frequently visited. It could

also have been caused because when going into these places, men like McCandless had

pre-existing issues that they assumed the wilderness could fix. Not only would their problems

remain, but they would oftentimes get worse. Considering a significant amount of their problems

were caused by family or friend issues, another idea talked about in ​Into The Wild​ was how the

relationships people like Chris McCandless make with the people around them, can affect their

future. Right before going on his road trip, McCandless had a falling out with his parents so it

can be argued that if he had not had that falling out, he might not have been so willing to risk his

life in the Alaskan Wilderness due to the fear of leaving them behind. Although he didn’t do this,

the account of his actions in ​Into The Wild i​ s something that makes the novel ​hard to put down.

Not only did they make the reader looks at places like Alaska differently it also makes them look

at their own actions differently. In our generation, due to the increasing amounts of technology,

we see so little of the world that these men risked their lives to travel around. This is something
we must strive to fix because as McCandless says on page 37, ​“It is the experiences, the

memories, the great triumphant joy of living to the fullest extent in which real meaning is found.”

While on death row, Walter becomes connected with EJI and Stevenson. They

pursue a retrial for Walter over the course of several years. While doing research for Walter’s

case, Stevenson had uncovered a long history of racism and injustice in in Walter’s community.

Works Cited

Krakauer, Jon, and David Vann. ​Into the Wild​. Picador, 2018.