Tiffanie Sanders
Levi Negley
Humanities A2
January 14, 1013
Into the Wild Essay 
Have you ever seriously considered your own mortality? Have you ever wondered
when your time comes, if you would consider your life well lived? Well Chris
McCandless was not happy with the way he was living his life. He needed more. So he
went off on his own, doing what many Americans will not or cannot. He made a
monumental change to his life that resulted in him being happy; for once in his life he
was truly free, truly happy. Jon Krakauer wrote a book about McCandless’s life
adventure, Into the Wild. McCandless made the choice to live outside the restraints of
society and go out on his own. McCandless made the right decision for him.
McCandless died. Many people will argue that because of this, McCandless was a
stupid naïve ungrateful boy. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. McCandless did
what he needed to do to live. McCandless met many good people after he left society. He
made wonderful friends. In the year 1990, when McCandless left society, there were
over 2 million deaths in the United States. That’s a mortality rate of over 8 people for
every thousand people. Of those over 2 million people that dies it’s hard to imagine that
even half of them died truly happy. Taken from the very last chapter of Into the Wild, we
learn of what McCandless did shortly before he did. “One of his last acts was to take a
picture of himself, standing near the bus under the high Alaska sky, one hand holding
his final note toward the camera lens, the other raised in a brave beatific farewell…He is
smiling in this picture and there is no mistaking the look in his eyes: Chris McCandless
was at peace, serene as a monk gone to God.”(pg 199) He was truly happy in his death.
He was ready for what was to come and he had little to no regrets. The argument the
McCandless was a fool to leave society is not valid. He did what few are brave enough to
do and he died after an extraordinarily happy life.
Some people question Krakauer’s credibility in writing about McCandless’s life.
Krakauer was once very much like McCandless. It is proved when Krakauer say, “But my
sense of Chris McCandless’s intentions comes from a more personal perspective.”(pg
134) Krakauer had to peel off the restraints of society and go off and live a little more
than society allowed. He had to prove to himself that he could be more than what society
said he could. Krakauer also did more than just write what he believed to have
happened, or even what he wished could have happened. Krakauer interviewed many
people that McCandless spent time with and people who barely knew McCandless but
helped him at one time or another. He interviewed McCandless’s family and did plenty
of research and gathered evidence to show that this is the most likely occurrence of what
happened. Krakauer also showed that there were many other people who left society to
live off on their own; people who were much happier. Even those who did in the end die,
they still die so much happier than any of the time spent in the restraints of society. This
shows that Krakauer is fairly credible in writing about McCandless’s life.
There have been a lot of critics say that McCandless was very selfish in leaving his
family and friends behind. There is talk that he hurt them in such an unforgivable way.
That’s not the way it should be viewed. McCandless did not get along with his father.
When he and his father argued it upset his mother. Billie McCandless could not choose
sides without offending the other. She said, “I just don’t understand why he had to take
those kind of chances…I just don’t understand.” (pg 132) If they continued down this
path the only logical way they would have ended is getting in such a heated discussion,
they would have stopped speaking. This would have deeply hurt his mother because she
would be forced to make the most difficult choice a mother can make. If McCandless
would have stayed, he would have caused his family more pain then he did when he just
left.
McCandless chose to walk away from society. He made the right decision for him.
Yes, he did die, but he died immensely happy. Yes, he did hurt his parents when he left.
If he had stayed he would have hurt them so much more. Krakauer wrote about
McCandless because he felt a connection with who he was and how he chose to live his
life. McCandless did exactly what he needed to do and he DID make the right choice.