Many people are familiar with the story of Christopher McCandless. A young man from an affluent upper middle class family, who upon graduation from Emery University drops out of society and begins a two year cross country odyssey bound for the wilds of Alaska. McCandless breaks all ties with his family including his sister, Carine with whom he is very close. The bestselling book ‘Into The Wild’ by author Jon Krakauer chronicles McCandless’ journey.
Throughout most of the story we see a young McCandless trying to desperately free himself from an oppressive parental hold as well as from a society that places value and ones worth on monetary terms. He longs to shed those things and live like the characters in his favorite novels by authors like Jack London, Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emmerson. His ultimate goal is to make it to the wilds of Alaska where he will live off the land. Where he will live deliberately and experience life in its most basic and primal form. Before he sets out he gives his life savings away to a charity reasoning that in order to experience life in that way he must make it without the aid of monetary support and the trappings that brings. Having money, he reasoned, would take away any sense of true adventure from the experience by providing him with a safety he no longer wanted. It is clear in the story that the hold his parents had on him came largely from their ability to control him through the financial support they had provided him with his entire life. At one point early on in the story we see Chris burn the money he had in his possession just to amplify the reality of his existence. Chris ends up living for one hundred and thirteen days in an abandoned school bus on the stampede trail near Denali National Park in Alaska where he later dies from starvation. In the beginning of his quest he adopts the road name of Alexander Supertramp which becomes his alter ego. As he struggles to free himself he tries to change who he is. He discards his real name and identity to become this wandering nomad known as Alex.
I found myself fascinated with his story. While laid up from spinal surgery in the late 1990s several friends and family had given me books to help pass the seemingly endless time I had on my hands. My Brother gave me Krakauers book which I ignored at first. A month or so later after I had read every other book I had, I picked it up almost as an afterthought. It totally captivated me and I read it twice in a span of about three days. Recently I watched a video on YouTube titled ‘Christopher McCandless Is No Longer My Hero’ by Michael Thomas. (
) In this short video Mr.Thomas recalls as a young man seeing the movie that Sean Penn produced from the book. He relates to Chris and shares a romanticized view of the free spirited adventurer with many people who are familiar with McCandless’ story. He returns years later and watches the movie again. This time he relates more with the people Chris left behind. His parents and the people he met on his journey that tried to help him wrestle with the angst inside that tortured him. With those things inside himself that compelled him to drop out and disappear from his family and society. It seems likely that Mr. Thomas’ perceptions of Chris changed due to the fact that he himself had matured. With that maturity, as is common place, comes a different perspective. I think that this opinion and view warrant a deeper look. It becomes clear that Chris’ parents had inflicted emotional and psychological abuse on Chris and his sister. There is evidence as well that Walt McCandless was abusive physically to his wife. These facts mostly come out after the book is published. Carine, Chris’ sister shares a little bit of it with Penn who makes references to it in the movie. She then later comes out completely and writes several books of her own and speaks all around the country. This gives an added insight to what drives Chris to drop out and search begin a quest for truth. It is important to realize that nobody is perfect. Even though these abuses existed, they do not negate the love that these two imperfect people had for their son. They suffered greatly during Chris’ absence. Not knowing where he was or if he was alright must have been unbearable for his parents. I believe that as Mr. Thomas matured, he returns to watch the movie again and now relates to the parents and other people in Chris’ life who were left with the loss of his death. It is interesting to me the dynamic of transformation we see that can represent a large body of readers and viewers of the McCandless story. It has been a popular story for so long that those readers and viewers are changing and maturing through life’s various stages. With that, their opinions and perspectives change accordingly. I think it is important to notice also the parallel to McCandless. Very near the end of his life it appears that he matures as well. We see a fundamental change in Chris. We see what appears to be his reconciliation of the struggles he feels within himself as he himself matures. At one point he feels as though he has fulfilled his objective to prove himself worthy having lived for several months in the Alaskan wilderness. He decides to return home. Upon hiking out he finds the river, which he easily forded in the fall is now a raging impassable torrent due to the glacier melt of the spring season. Defeated, he returns to the bus to continue to wait out the seasonal changes that will allow him to be able to cross the river and return home. There he eventually dies of starvation. In one of the last entries in his journal he writes ‘To call all things by their right name’, and signs it Christopher Johnson McCandless. He writes a five word entry into his journal that simply states ‘Happiness only real when shared’. I submit that these and other factors show the maturity process that Chris goes through. These factors also seem to indicate that he is finally reconciling those struggles within himself. As I ponder Chris’ life and death it seems ironic that when he seemed to be freeing himself of the very issues that imprisoned him emotionally and psychologically, he at the same time, became imprisoned physically to a point that cost him his life.
