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Kenji Vang
Ms. Crooks
ERWC 2019-2020
27 April 2020
“Into the Wild”
The book “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer covers a young man named Chris
McCandless who wanted to live life away from society and was offered help by many people
who came across him such as Gallien. “Gallien offered to drive him back to wherever he wanted
to go. “No, thanks anyway” Alex replied, “I’ll be fine with what I’ve got.” (Krakauer 6)
Mccandless was always thinking about living life on the edge without government and law
intervention, but what we found out four months later was his corpse, which was founded by a
group of hunters in Alaska.
“Franz tries to convince McCandless to get a job, but McCandless explains to him
that he has a plan.” (Krakauer 51) McCandless was later dropped off in San Diego, to find work
with the help of Franz. Work was really hard to come by in San Diego, so McCandless
eventually went to Seattle by train which he was later arrested for jumping trains and was
released in Colton. Franz drives to pick up McCandless once again and he tells Franz that he
would be working for Wayn Westerberg again. Franz later tells McCandless if he can adopt him
as his grandson, but then McCandless saves the conversation for later when he comes back from
Alaska. Franz also took his advice of becoming like him and enjoying the world, so he did
everything he said and bought a camper, Franz also travelled to McCandless old campsite where
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he heard about McCandless’s death from two hitchhikers. This made Franz really sad, so he
decided to drink booze again and think about what happened.
What I think and have to say about McCandless is that he is a reckless idiot since
he never wanted support until he was about to die, and he also left a note for help. He was
already dead when anyone could find him. Nobody even recognized his body at first because he
had no forms of identity to prove that he is Chris McCandless. All of the evidence of him was
destroyed by himself, but they later found out that it was Chris McCandless. McCandless’s plan
was really only to live his life free away from others, and he only wanted to enjoy the world.
Nothing stopped him from achieving his plan, but this is ironically said if it was his final
moments. He had so many offers and choices to turn back and become something that he
could’ve been but better. McCandless never accepted anyone’s support as much, and this is why
he had died.
McCandless to me, was a reckless idiot since he never really accepted assistance
from people who gave him opportunity. McCandless also see’s the world differently as others
will oppose his view of the world. I don’t blame him for doing what he wanted to do, but the way
that he acts is really annoying. McCandless would’ve made it out alive of Alaska if he had
accepted the help of others, but his ego and peace of mind shoved off the assistance. It is his ego
that got him killed in the end, but we must respect the dead and learn from their mistakes and
stories.
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Works Cited
“Into the Wild.” SparkNotes, SparkNotes, www.sparknotes.com/lit/into-the-wild/.