Thesis on "Led Chris Mccandless to This Idealistic Path?"

Thesis 3 pages (1000 words) Sources: 0

[EXCERPT] . . . .

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… READ MORE

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