Christopher Johnson McCandless was living in a completely different reality than the one he had previously suffered in. Alexander Supertramp was what he called himself now and thus began his venture out into the world with nothing holding him back, not money, valuables, family, friends nothing was going to keep him from discovering his place in this world. He had a sort of resentful feeling towards his parents which was undeniably expressed within a letter that he wrote to his beloved sister Carine, "I can't believe they'd try and buy me a car (...) a car that has in all those thousands of miles not given me a single problem, a car that i will never trade in, (...) I'm going to have to be real careful not to accept any gifts from them in the future because they will think they have bought my respect" (Krakauer, 21) this resentfulness might have pushed him further away from home. Home wasn't the only thing he was running from though he was constantly meeting people and creating relationships and then he would move again. When things got to close he would leave, probably to prove to himself that he didn't need human relationships to make a life for himself, "McCandless was thrilled to be on his way north, and he was relieved as well-relieved that he had again evaded the impending threat of human intimacy, of friendship, and all the messy emotional baggage that comes with it" (Krakauer, 55). Chris was incredibly high spirited and from the beginning all he could talk about was Alaska, though some of his new friends were skeptical at first, like his friend Jan Burres, they realized that he could handle it, "He was smart. He'd figured out how to paddle a canoe down to Mexico, how to hop freight trains, how to score a bed at inner-city missions. He figured all of that out on his own, and I felt sure he'd figure out Alaska, too" (Krakauer, 46). Before he endeavored to Alaska he sent cards to all his friends that he met along the way, cards that indicated that he knew there was a great chance that he might not make it out with his life intact, so he sent these out like he was parting with his life in case he did indeed perish. Maybe he didn't want to die and maybe he did in fact love the relationships he had in his life but we do know that he did this for some irrevocably important reason we just wish we knew what it was.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
The adventures of a stubborn, idealistic young man
Christopher Johnson McCandless was living in a completely different reality than the one he had previously suffered in. Alexander Supertramp was what he called himself now and thus began his venture out into the world with nothing holding him back, not money, valuables, family, friends nothing was going to keep him from discovering his place in this world. He had a sort of resentful feeling towards his parents which was undeniably expressed within a letter that he wrote to his beloved sister Carine, "I can't believe they'd try and buy me a car (...) a car that has in all those thousands of miles not given me a single problem, a car that i will never trade in, (...) I'm going to have to be real careful not to accept any gifts from them in the future because they will think they have bought my respect" (Krakauer, 21) this resentfulness might have pushed him further away from home. Home wasn't the only thing he was running from though he was constantly meeting people and creating relationships and then he would move again. When things got to close he would leave, probably to prove to himself that he didn't need human relationships to make a life for himself, "McCandless was thrilled to be on his way north, and he was relieved as well-relieved that he had again evaded the impending threat of human intimacy, of friendship, and all the messy emotional baggage that comes with it" (Krakauer, 55). Chris was incredibly high spirited and from the beginning all he could talk about was Alaska, though some of his new friends were skeptical at first, like his friend Jan Burres, they realized that he could handle it, "He was smart. He'd figured out how to paddle a canoe down to Mexico, how to hop freight trains, how to score a bed at inner-city missions. He figured all of that out on his own, and I felt sure he'd figure out Alaska, too" (Krakauer, 46). Before he endeavored to Alaska he sent cards to all his friends that he met along the way, cards that indicated that he knew there was a great chance that he might not make it out with his life intact, so he sent these out like he was parting with his life in case he did indeed perish. Maybe he didn't want to die and maybe he did in fact love the relationships he had in his life but we do know that he did this for some irrevocably important reason we just wish we knew what it was.
Chris McCandless, an ignorant human being and a precarious survivalist
Chris McCandless is described as an idealist and a nature enthusiast but others see him as being arrogant or mentally disturbed. He isn't the only one of his kind either, "I've run into several McCandless types out in the country. Same story: idealistic, energetic young guys who overestimated themselves, underestimated the country, and ended up in trouble. McCandless was hardly unique; there's quite a few of these guys hanging around the state, so much alike that they're almost a collective cliche. The only difference is that McCandless ended up dead, with his dumbassedness splashed across the media" (Krakauer, 71). Chris tried to live up to an expectation of himself that he derived from literary works by authors like Jack London, Mark Twain, and Leo Tolstoy that he became "...enthralled by these tales, however, that he seemed to forget they were works of fiction" (Krakauer, 44). He was chasing this dream or fantasy where he would somehow invent his own story that seemed to come right out of a Jack London novel. The fantasy led him straight to Alaskan Bush where you wouldn't describe Mother Nature as forgiving. He chose to go to one of the harshest terrains in the country unseasoned with the arts of hunting, scavenging, and just plain surviving under such conditions. Chris McCandless was unprepared in more ways than one, "why would anyone intending to 'live off the land for a few months' forget Boy Scout rule number one: Be Prepared? Why would any son cause his parents and family such permanent and perplexing pain" (Krakauer, 71). His parents had to I.D. his shriveled, decomposed, sixty seven pound body and "Virtually no subcutaneous fat remained on the body, and his muscles had withered significantly" (Krakauer, 14) who in the right mind would think that this is okay? Maybe all or none of these things led to his death but one thing is for certain this young twenty four year old boy who had his whole life ahead of him, his death could have been prevented.
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