Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra

Department of Language Pedagogy and intercultural Studies

Into the Wild

Marek Mjik, Peter Fabian

December 2013

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INTRODUCTION

The primary focus of this seminary work and the main topic essentially discussed are the
considerable, drastic and notable reasons of the main protagonist of the 1996 book Into the
Wild, Christopher McCandless, to literally abandon whatever his past represented and
constituated, his former self, strong and weak relations, family, close friends and travel the
path of disapproved choice, into the wilderness. For whatever restlessness his reasons appear
to be a disconnect between reality and his own world, we were taking in account the several
and possibly all reasons to do so.

This seminary work will not be discriptive, dealing with facts and passages relevant to
a readers imagination, although layers of explanatory facts will, briefly, be proposed to
example a explain motives, desires and most of all, the truth revealed, if not completely, while
analysing the aspect of life of an individual struggling to not produce nor consume, but to
reveal and understand, resulting in finding a place of his own.

Synchronizing the text, giving a full-in-detail and easy-to-absorb representation of the

thoughts of the author of this work, we will structurally and gradually enclose the picture of
the relentless realitys truth understood by the main character and its effect on his nature and
changing character. Furthermore, considering the aspects of the changes went through by
Christopher, our focus will be divided into chapters of chronologically ordered happenings,
supported by authentical quotations withdrawn from the original book, refferences and
second-parties interpretation providing a deep sensus of this work.

The first chapters content will provide an starting point for an outline of several motives and
reasons for rapid abandonment of the world of a society, followed by a reflective reasoning
and idealistic promotion of a kind of behaviour. In brief, we will look at some features of the
modern age scociety of the United States of America and its impact on the characters life.

Second chapter, in referrence to the previous, represents a continuation of reasons to escape

society, some considerable more, with others subsidiary relevant, embarking on a slightly

different aspect of the life and living of the main character. We will mention his familys
circumstances as a second most influential reason to leave the urban life-style.

Third chapter deals with the influence of the books of many famous world-known authors and
their ideals, on the choices Chris made. Following the meaning of citations by Tolstoy,
Pasternak, London, Thoreau and other authors, we will enclose the escapee Alexander
Supertramp, Chris, exposing his motives to condemn the flow.

Finally, but not least, we will look at and conclude the the outcome, qualities and aspects of
the main theme, dealing with reasons for the character to take different paths, different
choices, resulting in a lifestyle of values distant to the stereotype thinking of the late 20th and
early 21st centurys population.

CHAPTER ONE

The in-book mentioned quotation by Leo Tolstoy, from his epic War and Peace, "If we
admit that human life can be ruled by reason, the possibility of life is destroyed." (Krakauer,
1997) is only the tip of the iceberg of the ideology-forming influences the main character
drawn out from his books of his most favourite authors. As a partial, nevertheless influential
argument of McCandlesss escape to the wild, we consider the American consumerist and
materialist lifestyle. Reading through the book, one gets, one way or the other, sooner or later,
a very strong notion about how the characters concsience began to fade into despair due to his
stereotype life, with no means of escape, but sole obedience demanded by societys rule.

As a part of the white-collar society, the characters reasons for a drastic do, such as leaving
his prosperous home in exchange for a harsh environment, without the ususal commodities
and luxury, despite being well educated, intelligent, with a bright future ahead, face
disaproval by many. Being deprived of the benefits provided by a community, one is surely
to, if nothing else, feel a certain amount of pressure, thus leaving is felt as a negative sideeffect. From afore mentioned quotation, one must not rationalize life, for its prevalence lies in
its natural form. This is, in spite, a contrast-showing quote, to the American (also global) way
of dealing with things. So, if we account the characters beliefs to be similar to the message in
the quote, we can consider it to be a major, if not also the main reason for his exit.

However, we, the reader, stumble upon a more fundamental problem and also reason for the
,,cold shoulder,, the character gave the world of men. While consumerism and materialism
presented one side of the disgust he felt, a more profound problem irrited and pushed him
away the rules. Rules given to men by men, acknowledged by mass, resented by few and
maybe, behind closed doors, resented by all. He, Chris, became aware of the problem in
society. Stereotype life, being born, get an education, participate in the labor world, then die,
were things he hated, but most of all, feared.

He was a young man, not able to cope with the outside world. Well, at least not anymore, he
had been able to, and after graduating he did not search for the same things the majority of his
peers. He sought something different, something more profound and deep, somethign only the

isolation could give him. We think, he was not afraid to work, which was non-directly writen
in the book, as he worked at several places before he completely shut down all connections.
In a talk with Ronald Franz, a single senior he met randomly as he travelled, he said Mr.
Franz, I think careers are a 20th century invention and I don't want one. , not specifically
how much he disapproves with the concepts of labor, but that its and invention, meaning,
not something natural, that is crucial for life itself. An invention is defined as a unique or
novel device, method, composition or process, meaning, it is something new, perhaps
innovative, a creation adopted by others and passed on to others (wikipedia.com, 2013).
Working, making money, profit, and over again, day by day focusing on prevalance, salary,
then consume, buy goods, was nothing he could ever be interested in. The act of donating his
savings, burnign the rest, leaving his valuables was an act of emancipation. However, as an
adult, he did not think of it as and emancipation from his parents, but from something bigger.

Americans are now, in this age, more likely to be criticized for their unhealty lifestyle,
consumarism and ingorance to the public, even foreign and global affairs, than any other
country of this planet. Healthcare, administration, laws, education, public services, This, and
many other contribute to the negative, making us, the people uneasy for the future ahead. An
economy or economic system consists of the production, distribution or trade, and
consumption of limited goods and services by different agents in a given geographical
location (wikipedia.com, 2013).

This quoation can be also understood as a cycle of

manufarturing and consumption, resulting in demand for more, original and advanced goods.
In other words, economy is based on the idea, that goods get consumed, or lose their
usefulness or value due their condition or date. Outdated goods get replaced, and this is
a neverending process of ,,making and breaking. Being a part of something so unstable,
something so lean to disappoint, Chris decided to move on. Away from the cycle of thinking
about how to survive, to an oasis of liberation and true life that was a path, indeed.

CHAPTER TWO

"So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to
change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and
conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is
more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future is possibly the
best example of a framed portrait of thoughts expressed by the characters desire to be
different and, perhaps, better than the rest in sense of a free spirit. Out of fear of change,
people tend to subside their dreams and slowly, but surely, throw away pieces of their hope
for a better future for a better life (Krakauer, 1997).
Our hero, as we could address Chris due to his unwillingly adaptable soul, understood the
boundaries his former self had set around him. He needed a new life, new identity. How can
we manage to change, like a stock replacement, something so fundamental and core as
a character trait? Identity is defined (of several definitions) as The collective aspect of the set
of

characteristics

by

which

thing

is

definitively

recognizable

or

known

(thefreedictionary.com, 2013). Definitely recognizable or known that was absolutely not

what Chris had wanted, since he would only be known as his former self and that was not
enough, not even close enough.

This result, we acquired analyzing specific lines in the text, lead us to believe his family, as
the second most important reason for excape, did not recognize his identity. Specifically, we
point to the fact, that his parents pushed him to collage, to a for-them-acceptable life-line, that
was in no way acceptable for Chris.

Chris began to comprehend his familys way of solving problems as a hindrance to his
freedom. Repeated parental misbehaviour in form of daily quarrels between his mother and
father made him re-think the ordinary family atmosphere to be devastating and not something
he wanted in life. He did not hate his parents, he knew they were the outcome of bad
upbringing, as was he. Not satisfied by the nature of things in his home, he began to prepare
himself to leave in hope of freedom. Many people do, successfully or otherwise, tear down
connections they have harvested in their lifetime, to seek out, if not a clear, but at least
a glimse of light resembling something that is important to them. What was intolerable at first,
the quarells, the disapprovements and the misunderstandings of motives of children by
parents, became more and more distressful. Peak of this all became the truth about the second
family of Chriss father and the ultimatum to choose whether to live with the father or mother
after they mentioned a divorce. All of the inter-family situations began to be unbearable, thus
giving Chris a rebound, a reflex to move on without them.

Every person seeks happiness, which in many forms, satisfies our needs. The basic need,
although, as we share it commonly - everybody, is contact. Human contact is the basis of our
lifes. One is hardly to survive alone. We like companionship, see, but we can't stand to be
around people for very long. So we go get ourselves lost, come back for a while, then get the
hell out again. Quoting Krakauers re-struct, keeping in mind Chriss situation, we assume
to be interpreting an uncertain flow of re-adaptation a renewed adaptation, that allows a
person to process and experience different aspects of life, intertwined by certain common
features (thefreedictionary.com, 2013).

As mentioned before, everyone wants to be happy in a different way. Chris wanted to be

happy while searching for the things he hoped to achieve during his travels, like
enlightenment and truth. Human companionship was the least of his worries as he enclosed
smaller communities, preferable to a citys large masses. Preferably, he had done this in a
seemingly quiet way, as he walked, or tramped, with no desire to talk, but to listen. Listening
was important, as he had listened to many wrongs, understood them and concluded his mind
was filled, infested by them. He needed to defragment and re-boot his mind, as a computer,
and absorb the silence and new information.

Listening to silence, being aware of it and accepting its vast knowledge was the one thing that
would free his mind. A solitude he could not hope to get at home, with his parents blocking
every part of his positive energy.

CHAPTER THREE

Jon Krakauer, a writer, journalist, adventurer and mountaineer, exclusively selected

quotations from people Chris met, from books he had read to imply a bigger, more
comprehensible picture of a young man, who was lost, alone. Not meeting in person yet still
being able to manifest his life in such detail, is an reputable display of skill and a honorific to
Chriss family - a guiding hand keeping the reader on course.
Chris had a vast inventory of reactions in form of sentences, smart quotations which he was
able to extract from his mind to adapt to any possible situation he was in. Having a collection
of smart books is not always a successful guarantee, if the one owning them, does not
possess the needed mental and social skills to use them accordingly. This was not the case of
Christopher McCandless, who was intelligent, free-thinking, open-minded and self-aware
able to manifest whatever he had gotten in advance from the content of each line, and, in his
favour, convince people of his ideas. Now, this is considered a rather blissful ability, hence
the conversations he had been part of, were won the time they had begun.
After he finished reading Tolstoyss Family Happiness , he marked several passages in the
book. One of the quotations were "He was right in saying that the only certain happiness in
life is to live for others... I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is
needed for happiness. A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful
to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them;
then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books , music, love for
one's neighbor - such is my idea of happiness. And then, on top of all that, you for a mate, and

children, perhaps - what more can the heart of a man desire?" ... The highlighted quote,
making us think about certain values in family and small community, like fellowship, which
is in many cultures valued more than individualism (Japan, China etc.) signifies the longing
for a life in which compassion in doing something results from understanding one-another. He
did run, indeed, from the chains he saw to be as heavy as the burden he had been carrying his
whole life, but, on the other hand, he longed for relationships, but of a different kind, which
he had not experienced so far (Krakauer, 1997).
An example of the search for meaning in life is a paragraph from Boris Pasternaks "Doctor
Zhivago," above which McCandless wrote, "Need For A Purpose."
"Everything had changed suddenlythe tone, the moral climate; you didnt know what to
think, whom to listen to. As if all your life you had been led by the hand like a small child and
suddenly you were on your own, you had to learn to walk by yourself. There was no one
around, neither family nor people whose judgement you respected. At such a time you felt the
need of committing yourself to something absolutelife or truth or beautyof being ruled by
it in place of the man-made rules that had been discarded. You needed to surrender to some
such ultimate purpose more fully, more unreservedly than you had ever done in the old
familiar, peaceful days, in the old life that was now abolished and gone for good."
Never before had we felt such urge to understand the meaning of words as while reading these
lines. Second-hand, the first notion appeared in our mind, as we processed the words of
wisdom like small kids learning to walk naturally and eagerly. If all has a start, there will be
an end, and what we have now is only second-hand, so we dare not preach what we dont
understand. Thus, recycling this and that, forming new in different colors shade we hide the
fact that the crucial things in life are being re-produced again and again, and partially, time to
time, losing their meaning. People can not justify loss of something as important as truth.
They can only try to hide it this leads us to disatisfactory feeling, loss of expectations in life
and more. Quotations such as these, Chris had given his life for. They made him a slave in his
own free world full of peace and solitude. No limits, no judgement, nobody to refelct the
rights and wrongs.
The opening chapter of the book begins with an epigraph, attributing Jack Londons
formidable role of an idol to Chris - Jack London is King , clearly showing the influence
and importance of the writer in his life. His final words You Were Right, Old Hoss; You

Were Right are part of a conversation that he imagines having with an old man who had
warned him not to travel alone. They are also an acknowledgment of natures power over the
individual - filled with disgust and opposition toward rapid urbanisation of untouched habitat
by men. Chris desired silence to think, this was not possible in society, where the basis of life
represents communication. Londons ideals were that of Chriss and vice versa, figuring as
a role-model, his guidance was of great fortune.

CONSCLUSION

To conclude our paper, we decided to make an overlap of each reason for exiting the urban
life. Many can feel the pressure to leave, urging us to run away, like a dog with his tail
between his legs, but that does not require a change. Chris did not run, well, not just that, not
cowardly. He ran for change, that was pushed by several raasons, which were, in our opinion,
closely related. The American way of life, in connex with his family problems were the
source of all trouble he had had to face sooner or later, pilling up. The way he chose was the
liberation he had hoped to achieve and at the same time, his downfall. We are all raised
accordingly, to suffice certain standards the present expects from us. Basically we are raised
by demands which mold our very existance, some do not require our happiness. Chriss
environment was filled with demands he had not been able to comprehend without feeling
pressured, so he left. With this said, we can conclude, that a major part of our individual
characteristics are not made within us, but pushed upon us.

FINAL WORDS

Many feel it, see it, probably are so in-deep that they can even taste it the bitter-sweet
disatisfaction we all-so reluctantly have to face one way or another, so why not take a chance
and maybe, if possible, do something about it. "So many people live within unhappy
circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation this is how we
are. Chris is, if nothing else, at least an inspiration (extreme one) and a decent guy (his
legacy).

REFERENCES

Krakauer, J. 1997. Into the Wild. Anchor, 1997. 1st.ed. ISBN 978-0385486804 (207 pages)

Invention (2013, December 5). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:56,
December

5,

2013,

from

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention>

Identity. Retrieved 19:56, December 5, 2013, from

<www.thefreedictionary.com/identity>

Economy (2013, December 6). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:55,
December
<en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy>

6,

2013,

from