A Rare Breed: John Krakauer's Into the Wild

Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild chronicles the meteoric life of Chris McCandless, a 22 year-old man who left his privilege life to wander the American West.

McCandless gave all his money to charity and renounced material possessions. Two years later he was discovered dead in an abandoned school bus in the Alaskan wilderness.

Krakauer presents the life of McCandless as tragic, baffling and courageous.

The adventure begins as McCandless reaches the vast Alaskan wild. The author soon reaches back into history to connect the facts and events that brought this young man to the Alaskan wild all alone and with little provisions

What stands out immediately is the unique character of McCandless and his philosophy on life. Why did a straight A student from an upper middle class family in Virginia, voluntarily take up the life of a vagabond, who hitchhiked throughout the west only to end up dead in a school bus in Alaska?

Krakauer chronicles the events that led up to McCandless' withdrawal from society as well as the two years of physical and spiritual exploration made by the young man. Excerpts from the wanderer's journal detail his changing attitudes and beliefs during those final fateful years.

The author intends to have the reader take with them an understanding of why McCandless did what he did and not just write him off as some young thrill seeker who foolishly died.

This journalistic piece is also about the many people who were affected by the life of this young man.

First, there was his family, who McCandless abruptly ended all communication with after graduating from college. Their tale is one of heartbreak and confusion and emphasizes the contradictory aspects of McCandless' nature.

Krakauer details with amazing insight the 80 year-old Christian man who provided food, protection, and shelter for the boy in the brief amount of time they were together. He followed McCandless' advice and left his comfortable life to live in nature. After hearing the news of McCandless' death, he renounced God.
There was the co-worker from South Dakota who received letters from the young man throughout his journey in America, sometimes the only soul McCandless communicated with for weeks.

Another lasting figure was a driver who picked up a hitchhiking McCandless in Canada. He went out of his way to drive the hitchhiker all the way to Alaska and bought him a meal. All were affected by the distinctive personality of McCandless.

The primal desire to be in nature hovers over the characters and events and is the central theme of the piece. This craving to experience the awe and beauty of the outdoors has captured the imagination and spirit of many.

In Into the Wild the protagonist had a yearning to leave his life of pleasure and simplicity in order to fully experience nature and the great outdoors. He did not want to live off of nature, as many assumed, but rather be a part of it, to fully implement himself in the continuing cycle that nature runs through again and again.
Before his death, McCandless would successfully live in the brutal Alaskan wild for six straight weeks, with rice as his lone food source that he brought from civilization.

The pull that nature has upon the soul of such men is further presented as Krakauer provides portraits of individuals in the past who shared similar lifestyles.
An interesting aspect of the story is the stunning similarity between McCandless' life and the author. Krakauer presents his own journey into the depths of near death, on his climb of Devils Thumb in Alaska.

He spent his own period of life alone as a climber, atop mountains for weeks without seeing another soul. His personal experience allows him to paint a picture of McCandless as a confident man, who knew what he was doing, rather than a stupid adolescence that was too foolhardy to respect nature.

The author sees in Chris the exuberance of youth as well as the tragic consequence that can come from it when pushed to the extreme.

Into the Wild grips you from the first page onwards. The journey to understand how a regular American young man left the only world he knew to adventure out into the wilderness is fascinating, stunning and tragic.

The reader relives every bit of the adventure McCandless experienced and appreciates a new understanding for the wild, in both its beauty and brutality.