I often wonder if a great many people who live an entire life lived the full life Chris McCandless did in twenty-four years. Krakauer did an admirable job of following Chris's journey to Alaska and then his stay there allowing the reader to make their own mind up about whether or not Chris was a kook, an idealistic idiot, or a passionate youth who made a couple of wrong choices. Sure, there was some biased. It was obvious from the author's note in the beginning Krakauer made his mind up early on about Chris. Krakauer even compared his own youth when he climbed a hazardous mountain called Devils Thumb. Krakauer was only a year younger than Chris when he followed what he described as a "scattershot passion of youth and a literary diet in works of Nietzsche and Kerouac."
But the parallels Krakauer made to Chris scoped way beyond his own youth, but that of other daring adventurers following their dreams. So, even though Chris's story seems unbelievable at first glance; it is not original. There seems to be a Jack London fascination with the harrowing outdoors that extends into the core of mankind. Without bold strokes of generalization, this fascination makes Chris like so many other youthful men his age.
For myself, the virtuous characteristics that separated Chris into the individual were those that extended to others outside of his dream. Despite the pain his family went through, Chris possessed an empathy towards others especially those starving and homeless. It was a generosity that bled from him infecting everyone who encountered him on his journey to Alaska. Even though Chris rebelled against the need for others; he embraced it along his journey and in the end his discovery of his need of others was his ultimate epiphany.
"Happiness only real when shared."
Krakauer had a similar discovery:
"I convinced myself for many months that I didn't really mind the absence of intimacy in my life, the lack of real human connection, but the pleasure I felt in this woman's company - the ring of her laughter, the innocent touch of a hand on my arm - exposed my self-deceit and left me hollow and aching."
Into the Wild is about self-discovery, and no matter what your age; we should always be open to growth.
