Into The Wild Analysis

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David Lemcoe Ninth Honors Literature and Composition Mrs. Siwy 29 October 2009 Wealth is Useless In “Into the Wild” by John Krakauer, we are told the story of a child from the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. Not your average child, Chris McCandless did not conform to society in the slightest bit. One of his high school friends said “Chris didn’t like going through channels, working within the system, waiting his turn.” This is quite evident throughout the entire story. Traveling from Atlanta and eventually ending up in Fairbanks, Alaska, on nothing but a hitchhiker’s thumb, Chris showed all his acquaintances that you don’t need to have a great job to live a fulfilling life. Since he was a teenager, he had the desire to escape society and live in the wilderness, where he wouldn’t be bothered with the “repetitive lifestyle that most people have to accept”, and become wealthy in life, rather than material things. After not following the path Chris’ wealthy parents wanted him to follow by going to college to become a lawyer, Chris leaves life behind and travels all over North America. All the people that assisted him with small jobs or even rides learned a great deal about life through Chris’ great perspective on life and his determination to live in the wilderness. Chris, aside from the obvious gift of food and jobs from his acquaintances and despite the materialistic attitude of his parents, is able to live a self-fulfilling life not conforming to society’s standards, rather simply making himself

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happy. Throughout the book Chris has no decrease in his determination to reach Fairbanks, Alaska to spend his life and neither does his moral, up until the time of his death in Alaska doing what he always wanted to do.