Into The Wild

SUMMARY:

     Into The Wild Jon Krakauer is about the death of Christopher Johnson McCandless who turned up dead in Alaska in April of 1992. Chris grew up in an upper middleclass home with his parents and sister, Walt, Billie and Carrine. From a young age Chris was different than other kids he tried to excel in everything he did. He played instruments, liked hiking, and had a thing for helping out others. He was a great son and student but had trouble being told what to do. Chris did not want to attend college. He thought it was useless but attended just to please his parents. He attended Emory University but as soon as he graduated he cut all ties with his family. Chris decided to travel and create his own adventures. He did this for two years, the last great odyssey he wanted to achieve was to walk into Alaska and live off the land with the least supplies possible. This journey turned out to be fatal and Chris did not make out alive. In this book the author is trying to have an insight on why Chris decide to do this and why did he disappear from his family. Family members and friends he made along his trips are interviewed. They try to help the reader know who Chris really was. Christopher Johnson McCandless impacted many people’s life.

     The way Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer intersects with what we’ve discussed in class is privilege. The book shows how a person born into a privileged class can have advantage. Born into upper middle class has its perks. One great benefit is having an amazing education. Upper middle class schools have money for extra curriculums that public schools are not able to afford. Children in upper middle class are able to explore different things becoming knowledgeable and intelligent. The author explains Chris’ childhood and how “after receiving a high score on standardized test, Chris was placed in an accelerated program for gifted students”. Not all public schools offer programs for accelerated students. Sometimes kids that are gifted have to stay in a class which is too slow and I think it can affect a gifted student. Instead of helping a gifted student progress his knowledge he is left behind and is never able to fully expand his education. Upper middle class parents are able to afford sending their kids to college. They expect their children to succeed and they know their children’s education will not stop in high school. When Chris tells his parents he does not want to attend to college they did not want to hear it. His dad says,” A college degree is not something we don’t take lightly, OK, and we worked hard not to be able to afford to send our kids to good schools”. They had the luxury to send their kids off to school and encouraged their kid to go to school. My parents sort of encouraged me to continue college but they said with at least graduating high school it would be enough. Even if you are privileged being born into upper middle class doesn’t mean you are necessarily happy. In this case Chris seemed not to care about money, class or race; he wanted to follow his passion.

     Another way this book intersects with what we’ve talked about in class is passion.  The passion some people have for the wilderness can be bizarre for others. It’s like the stillness and emptiness of the wild fulfills them.  Many upper middle class probably don’t support this passion because being in the wild means to disengage from all materialistic things. The passion Chris had for the wilderness “in a sense, was too powerful to be quenched by human contact”. He liked time to himself where he could read and reflect; the wilderness offered him that.  I think we all can relate with him because who doesn’t like alone time, the thing with Chris was that he liked being alone for extended periods of time. When passion makes a person extremely happy it makes them want to share that happiness.  The conviction you feel for something makes you want every one you encounter experience the same emotions.  Chris shared his passion with Ron Franz in a letter reading, “The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.” Even though Franz was already an old man Chris wanted him to experience the wild. He knew Franz was a man that was living a daily routine but he wanted him to experience the wild at least once. Many can’t comprehend Chis’ passion for the wilderness because it was much more like an obsession, but if anything made you tremendously happy wouldn’t you be obsessed with it too?