Chris McCandless Persuasive Essay

Chris McCandless Searches for the Meaning of Life

By: Alex Gambrell

Chris McCandless, the subject of Jon Krakauer in Into the Wild, was not ignorant or unprepared, but he was going out into the wilderness to find the true meaning of life and to see what it was like to live out in the wild on his own. Chris was a great role model for kids all across the country; because he was trying to live out his dream and do what he thought was right in the wild and would not listen to what anyone told him to do. Chris McCandless was a loving and caring person who cherished for all creation and wanted to get away from the society and live free to find the meaning of life.

I feel that Chris McCandless was a person in the world who didn’t like society and wanted to get away from people to become free in the wild. Chris never liked being in society with people and wanted to get away from them as much as he could. When the book opens, we see Chris hitchhiking into the wilderness trying to get away from society when he gets a lift from Jim Gallien. Chris was going to hitchhike to Denali National Park and get away from society and be free. Jim Gallien picked him up and drove him there. When he dropped him off, Chris did not bring much and his only food was a ten pound bag of rice because he wanted to experience the wild and be a part of it. In college at the Emory University, he never had a good social life with people and Krakauer states when people tried to talk to him at parties, “It was hard to get him to open up.” His studies were the only thing he was interested in talking about (Krakauer 120).” He never interacted great with society and wanted to get away as much as he could.

Chris McCandless went into the wild to live out his dream by being a part of the wilderness and living in the wild. As soon as Chris graduated from high school his first step by living out his dream by taking a trip to the Pacific Coast and ending up in the Mojave Desert where he almost died of dehydration and lost thirty pounds, but that didn’t stop him from taking more trips into the wild. When he got back to Annandale where he lives, his sister Carine says, “He was so thin, He looked like those paintings of Jesus on the Cross” (118). Even though he almost died from going into the wild, he still returned to his trip to Alaska as soon as he graduated from college to continue his dream.

Chris McCandless was a person who would never let anyone tell him what to do and he would always do what he thought was right. When Jim Gallien picked up Chris to take him to Denali National Park, he tried to give Chris some advice on how there was not many animals to hunt at the Stampead Trail where he was heading and that he could get attacked by bears easily because the trees did not grow high, but he would not listen. Jim Gallien said to Chris, “I said the hunting wasn’t easy where he was going, that he could go for days with without killing any game. When that didn’t work, I tried to scare him with bear stories” (5-6). Also the people who Chris met along his journey to wild and the bus would tell him to call his parents because he hasn’t talked to them in years to make sure their not worried, but he would not do it. He did not have a good relationship with his parents and did not want to talk to them. Gaylord Stuckey gave Chris a ride from the steaming pools they were both at and took Chris to the University of Alaska to study the types of berries he could eat. When Gaylord Stuckey dropped him off he begged Chris to call his parents, but he ended up not calling them. Chris would not listen to people trying to help him out or trying to give him advice and wanted to live in the wild and do what he wanted to.

People have responded to Chris’ adventure and death in a negative way, but I disagree with them because he was doing what he wanted to do his whole life and live his life to the fullest. Some correspondents of Chris’ death in the article of the magazine Outside said that there was nothing positive about Chris’ adventure and wilderness lifestyle and they said that he came completely un-prepared and crazy. I do not think he is crazy or unprepared at all. He went into the wild to learn what it would be like to live in the wild on your own and you’re the only one who can save yourself. He wanted to get away from society and find the true meaning of life outside the city walls. Chris McCandless did not bring many resources and technology because he did not care what day it was or what time it was and he didn’t want any contact with society. He also did not want so many things that they would weight himself down; he wanted to live in the wilderness and rely on himself and his knowledge to keep him alive.

Chris McCandless was a person who searched the wild to explore what the world was really like. He searched the United States on his own without anyone telling him what to do and did this to follow his dream and live his life the way he wanted. I want everyone to understand that Chris was not crazy or un-prepared for this journey, but he was a serious believer in finding the meaning of life doing what he thought was right.

Works Cited

Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. New York: Villard, 1996. Print

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