Into The Wild: Mccandless' Inspiring Journey
Imagine waking up one morning and wanting to throw away everything,wanting to get away from the world to actually see the world. Imagine actually living your life instead of just existing. That’s exactly what Chris McCandless— also known as Alexander Supertramp— did. Chris McCandless was a young man at the age of twenty-two who decided to go out and disappear off the map, venturing off to Alaska and called it his “Alaskan Odyssey”. Chris McCandless was a transcendentalist who wanted to get away from the world as some believed. He donated all his funds to famine relief charities and left with little to no money on his adventure. The claim of this essay is of how inspiring and courageous he was, and how his story had influenced many others to live independently.
In the documentary of “Into The Wild”, it states how before he ventured off with donating all his funds to charity and throwing away all money and contacts and lived nobly, doing small jobs and helping out others on his way without boasting about how he was from middle class or that he did in fact have cash. As some people stated from interviews in this documentary that he was very kind, very gentle, and hard working. He was a good fellow to be around and when he did open up about himself they were surprised because they didn’t expect him to be who he truly was. He also did hitchhiking occasionally, and got a ride from one man who was also interviewed. “... He said he didn’t want to pay anyone back, so he gave me a few coins of change, his watch, and was on his way in the boots I gave him”. At the time, he was in the Arizona region in an area called “Slab City” when he made his way in the boots, never to be heard from again. As stated, he was a very mysterious and kind man, and that’s something all strangers who associated with him could agree on.
Another known fact about the male is that when he did set off on his travel, his family hired private investigators to find out where he was, and the only evidence they could find was his sunken datsun. He had buried his license plates so he couldn’t be tracked and his family had accepted the fact that he wanted to be left alone. More evidence from the documentary concludes that he only had contact with his step sister, Carine. He sent her letters about his journey and she never told anyone else in her family, and since he was the closest to her only it would only make sense for him to send only her the letters to let her know he’s alive.
As stated in Into The Wild: The Beauty of Travel and the Amazing Story of Christopher McCandless, it states how he had written in his journal about how he believed that conservatism was the death of adventurous spirit and that adventure and travel were what made life worth living. Although it seems like a selfish thing to say, it had a better meaning to it, as every man has thought of travelling and dropping everything at least once in their life, wanting to travel and see the world they didn’t know was so big.
There is huge belief that many people believed he was cowardly and idiotic for going to the bus and staying there to die instead of trying to find a way out, as stated in an article from Anchorage Daily News, “...He retreated to the bus to await death or someone’s arrival to rescue him, fully aware there was no reason for anyone to come looking. The intelligent thing to do in that situation was to take the gamble on the glacial river because while it “might” kill you, you might also survive..” The quote from this article simply shows how instead of taking the risk in his journey, he stayed at the bus and awaited death. But, what would have happened if he did take that risk at hs starvation state? Wouldn’t he have been too weak to try? It was smart of him to hide in the bus until his time came to an end, dying peacefully after completing his goal and leaving an impression and important mark on lives.
In conclusion, McCandless who was also known as Supertramp, was a very encouraging and inspiring person as it is not that easy to just get up and throw everything away. For someone to actually drop everything and do what they want to do is very hard to do, yet he did it so easily. McCandless will always be known as an inspiring man who genuinely lived his life and died peacefully while doing so.
