Into the Wild

Into The Wild, by Jon Krakauer is a story about this young man named Chris McCandless, who calls himself Alex. He graduated college with honors, but completely drops everything including giving up $25,000 in his bank account to a charity for hunger, OXFAM. Ironically, he is found dead weighing around sixty pounds, most likely due to starvation. He comes from a family that is well off because of his dad’s engineering job. Although he is privileged and obtains a college degree, he still chose to live life as if he had nothing except himself. He always had an independent mindset and once he graduated, his lifestyle reflected it. 

It was obvious that Chris had a passion for nature and not materialism. He knew in his mind that this was his plan after college. His parents offered him a new car as a graduation gift, but he was content with his old yellow Datsun because it had not given up on him yet. Chris being in a well-off family probably didn’t have large amount of loans to pay after college. He had $25,000 and he could have done anything with it. He enjoyed traveling, but he didn’t use that money for a plane ticket across the country. He backpacked throughout most of his journey. During his adventure, his Datsun got stuck in the mud, but that didn’t stop him from continuing. Because of his passion, he knew what he wanted, so nothing or nobody could stop him.

Chris attending and graduating college probably helped him throughout his travels. He probably used his knowledge from school and incorporated what he had learned in order to survive outdoors. Although school doesn’t really teach you how to live in the wild, he enjoyed reading and when he spoke, he spoke intelligently. These books fired him up. He’s not just a person walking around with no direction. He knew where he was going and always easily adapted to certain situations. He probably would not have survived as long if he wasn’t so smart. Photographs and his diary tells the world what kind of life he lived and you wouldn’t expect a college graduate with a lot of money to land in the forest. You would expect one to be working like most students do after graduating. Chris was different. He followed his heart.