Into the Wild Essay

Into The Wild Essay

Some authors use stories of other to compare them to the main character of the book. In Into The Wild, the author Jon Krakauer includes stories of others for more than a comparison. Many people believed that Chris McCandless was an outrageous rebel. In the story Into the Wild, Krakauer includes stories of others and himself to make Chris McCandless not look crazy, but admirable. Chris McCandless was a bright man. He graduated high school with good grades, he went traveling that summer in his yellow Datsun. He then returned to attend college at Emory University. “In May 1990, Chris graduated from Emory University in Atlanta, where he’d been a columnist for, and editor of the student newspaper, The Emory Wheel, and had distinguished himself as a history and anthropology major with a 3.72 grade-point average”(20). After college. Chris decided to start a new life and take on a new name, Alexander Supertramp. Alexander(Chris) donated all of his money to Oxfam International and set a goal for himself: to travel to Alaska and to love off of the wilderness. Once people read the article about Alexander’s adventure and death many people said choice things regarding him. Many of those people were from Alaska. They said he was unprepared, idiotic, suicidal, and even crazy. But Alexander Supertramp was not suicidal, nor was he crazy. Jon Krakauer stated many stories of guys that left everything they had and went out into the wild to live off of nature. The story of another person that stood out the most was the story about John Mallon Waterman. John Waterman was like Chris McCandless in some ways; they both had an urge to be out in the Alaska wilderness, they both were very critical of themselves, and they both had a troubled relationship with their fathers. John Waterman was a great hiker, when he was sixteen he climbed Denali and was known for it ever since then. John Waterman was going to climb Kahiltna Glacier in the winter of 1979 but decided to stop after a mere fourteen days. Before his second try at the Glacier his belongings were all burnt after a fire that occurred in the cabin he was staying at. Waterman was devastated about what happened and immersed himself into the Anchorage Psychiatric Institute. After leaving the institute he embarked on what was his final hike on Denali. He told his pilot “ ‘ I won’t be seeing you again’ “(79). Waterman also returned the radio he was given which his only way of getting help and the last note he wrote said “ ‘ My last kiss 1:42 P.M.’ “(80). He was never seen again. It is obvious that John Waterman wasn’t in the right state of mind after his cabin burnt down. When Chris McCandless went into the Alaskan wilderness he underestimated what the conditions would be like and how long his food would last. He also didn’t know how to properly hunt. Chris only brought with him some camping supplies, a rifle, several books and a 10-pound bag of rice. When Jim Gallien gave him a ride to the Stampede Trail he offered to buy Chris McCandless supplies but, he refused. Chris didn’t realize what the Alaskan frontier was like and just assumed he would survive with what he brought and off of hunting and eating wild plants. Chris ended up dying from starvation and from eating a poisonous root. Jon Krakauer also compared Chris McCandless to many other people but comparing McCandless and John Waterman proved that Chris wasn’t crazy. “Like Rosellini and Waterman, McCandless was a seeker and had an impractical fascination with the harsh side of nature. LIke Waterman and McCunn, he displayed a staggering paucity of common sense. But unlike Waterman, McCandless wasn’t mentally ill”(84-85). Many people helped Chris McCandless along his journey to Alaska. Wayne Westerberg helped him the most, he offered him a job and wanted to help Chris make enough money to get to Alaska. “‘You could tell right away that Alex was intelligent’”(18). Everyone that was involved in Chris McCandless’s life helped him out in some way spoke very highly of him. In the story Into The Wild, Krakauer includes stories of others and his own to make Chris McCandless not look crazy, but admirable. After comparing Chris to Waterman we know that Chris wasn't crazy but simply unprepared.