English 224: Fact, Truth and Fiction
Greatest American literary works of the twentieth century, such as from Herman Melville’s Moby –Dick, Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, and William Faulkner to Jon Kraukaur’s Into the Wild published in 1992 have always expressed strong disillusionment, depression and a desire to escape from the present conditions into the wild or alternative world. Leslie Fiedler identified that the central theme of U.S Literature is escape of American boys from the existing society and embrace a journey or quest into the unknown world. It is the arbitraries of the modern society which forced the writer to chronicle the tragic escape route adopted by Christopher McCandless in one of the most widely read books of all time. The idea of this particular essay is to peak into the intriguing mind and psyche of Christopher McCandless perfectly with the artistic fervour that is portrayed by the author. For instance when Chris discovers that his had father had a secret family he is disillusioned and quests for escape in to an alter world. Chris thus represents a Modern American boy who is disillusioned and quests to lead a free life as per his preference.
“Into the Wild”by Jon Krakauer is a stunning story of a young man who decides to hitchhike and reach Alaska to spend months in isolation. The story is beautifully weaved around the central character Christopher McCandless who embarks into an extraordinary life –changing journey by completely abandoning his privileged past. Based on a true story, Jon Krakauer tells an extraordinary tale of a man from privileged background, chooses isolation after completing University studies and escape from the entrapment of the artificial consumer society. The essay also tries to investigate the intersection of the Mc Candles the protagonist’s case and the actual story that the message that ultimately the author tries to indicate.
Adopting a new identity, Christopher McCandless became Alexander Supertramp and strives to lead the desired life in Wild. This great piece of literature with Chris’s extraordinary struggle reminds us of the heroes and their endeavours in Classical Greek tragedies. Just like the Classical tragedies, the story here does not begins simply with a birth of the protagonist, but in a distinctive manner an important turning point where Christopher indulges into his trip through the American west and meets with another individual as he enter Alaskan wilderness. There are some Classical tragedies like Iliad and Odyssey which begin in a similar style by employing unique approach such as, “In the middle of things” to enhance the expression of the content. With his singular artistic fervour, the author engages Christopher McCandless in to an extraordinary trail where readers are forced to connect his journey with that of the quest of Greek heroes like Odysseus or Aeneas. It is yet to be unearthed if the character was a vagabond, free spirit, rebel or genius, however when connected with Aristotelian tragic heroes it could be underpinned that, all Greek tragedies centre around a hero, this story also revolves around the centre character Christopher McCandless and the connection with the traits of Greek heroes may be established thereafter. In the Classical tragedies tragic hero generally comes from a noble background, the hero Christopher McCandless is from a privileged background. In Greek tragedies, hero is an embodiment of “tragic flaw” or “Hamartia” that develops the certain ideas which envelops wrong deeds committed accidentally or deliberately; this certain tragic flaw is beautifully crafted by Aristotle in his ‘Poetics’, termed as error in judgement.
It is that trait that disillusions the hero and leads him to his own ruin, for example Oedipus the King or Creon. It has been discussed that Christopher McCandless was hubristic in taking such a decision and thus like the Classical tragic heroes he too is responsible for his waste which he has invited all of a sudden. It is imperative to analyse the reasoning of hamartia with the fate of a tragic hero, as that provides the cause of the downfall. Thus, the possible misfortune is the cause of his action “misconception of him “and took his life. The death of Chris is a typical example of ‘hamartia’ which shows the tragic downfall of the main character.
In a Greek tragedy presence of chorus is important and it tries to warn the tragic hero from leading to his own hamartia and as a true Classical hero like Oedipus the King, the hero does not listen. In this non-fiction novel, Christopher McCandless descends to death into a similar fashion. The story opens from middle, “The Alsaka Interior” with a note from personal diary, the entire piece is set in the flashback to engage and encourage reader to delve deep into Chris’s life and explore the various choices he made to live a peaceful and free life. For Chris, it is always the peaceful life that he wished for and aims to avoid the evils of modern society by living far away from city. Here the author has successfully, discussed that “It’s not always necessary to be strong, but feel strong”, or “Happiness is only real when shared” or “make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt” connotes to the fact that the author has been powerfully emphasising on a man’s feelings towards the modern society and his deliberate attempts to achieve corruption free society. The society only measures an individual’s success, or and happiness, in a mechanical manner. The style immediately reminds us of great literary works like “Hollow man” or the worker returning home in Eliot’s Prelude amidst staunch and rain or “.patient etherised upon a table” hence Chris’s desire to escape from the modern society is not naiveté but the records in the journal shows how passionately he wanted to live a life away from social evil.
While Chris desired to escape from his present situation, what he found in Wild was completely different, it was not as romantic as he imagined and struggle continued. It was even deteriorating and under several situations was forced to spend most of the time in finding food for survival. Thus though he wanted to live a better life, yet most of it was spent in looking for ways to live it. Thus the author in an informative, engaging and lucid style highlighted several issues of the modern society. He created a flawed hero like the great Greek tragedies to convey that decisions of humans are often flawed. Escape from present situation is not always a solution; however the modern society is not a place to support healthy living (Krakauer, 1997). Free and healthy living is not possible in the present society which is plagued with evil. People are forced to live life as per the social codes and have ignored their basic principles and morality. A modern society often transforms a man into a machine and thus eliminates him from human elements. Such a social influx affects the mind of a young bright student from the University who becomes victim of disillusionment and then surrenders to fate as he quests to escape from the realities of life.
The tragic trail of Christopher McCandless , is therefore a unique tale of escape and adjustment to modern American society, free from necessary evil. Here, American writers have expressed disillusionment and depression that is injected in youth by the society. This leads to complete waste of talent and skill and by forcing them to take wrong decisions and embrace tragic ending. The thought provoking novel written in a journalistic style is an ardent attempt by the writer to enlighten readers about the slowly proceeding plague which will soon engulf the coming generation.
Works Cited:
Krakauer, Jon. Into The Wild. New York: Anchor Books, 1997. Print.
