Chris McCandless, a.k.a Alex Supertramp, was a unique soul who wanted to become one with nature. One could call it an awaking of sorts, a call to nature. It is a difficult notion to understand, let alone experience. In addition, it can be dangerous to those who really do not know the realities of what it takes to survive out alone in the wild. What does it mean to live a pure life in nature? In April of 1992, Chris took advantage of an opportunity like no other and decided to fulfill his dream of freedom and survival in the Alaskan wilderness. Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild documents Chris’s incredible journey.
This trip was a huge risk, especially for someone so young and intelligent, to take. Yet, Chris probably would not have done anything differently, even if he had known what the result would be. The original idea was not a difficult one to make, since Chris had issues with his parents on so many levels. For him it seemed the easiest decision in the world to accept life at its barest roots.
The idea of living a pure life in nature has been around for centuries. One experience is discussed in detail in Henry David Thoreau’s Walden (A Life in the Woods). Thoreau stayed in a cabin in Massachusetts for two years and two months, using only the labor of his own hands to earn his living. However, he was within one mile from his neighbor. Unlike Chris’s final time in Alaska, Thoreau’s well thought-out plan allowed him to use his skills, like carpentry and surveying, to purchase food. Of course, he also had a nice cabin to live-in versus a dilapidated school-bus.
However, while at Walden Pond he had similar intentions:
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. . . . I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan—like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms. (73)
Chris wanted to “reduce life to its lowest terms” as well. Although Chris based his trip more on the idealistic stories he had read in novels and essays, rather than anything found in real life. He had been fascinated with Jack London’s A Call of the Wild, White Fang and other stories. He seemed to forget, however, that the stories are fiction and based on more of a romantic notion than actual realities about the wilderness (Krakauer 35).
Ironically, a passage found in White Fang describes the very cruelty that nature can possess in a description of baron, frost-covered trees in the Northland Wild: “’There was a hint in it of laughter, but of a laughter more terrible than any sadness—a laughter that was mirthless as the smile of the Sphinx, a laughter cold as the frost and partaking of the grimness of infallibility. It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life’” (Krakauer 10). Chris seemed to take the more wondrous and romantic passages to heart, over the harshness and danger.
In addition, highlighted passages from Thoreau’s Walden, another of his favorite books, was found among Chris’ belongings. The passage from the book describes the beauty found in everyday life in the woods and the realization that it is the highest reality (Krakauer 38).
Nonetheless, having the skills to survive is essential to living a pure life within nature. It appears Chris somewhat understood this need, however, his idea of survival and his continued endurance on this odyssey did not hold true to the harsh wilderness of Alaska.
It probably misses the point, though, to castigate McCandless for being ill prepared. He was green, and he overestimated his resilience, but he was sufficiently skilled to last for sixteen weeks on little more than his wits and ten pounds of rice. And he was fully aware when he entered the bush that he had given himself a perilously slim margin for error. He knew precisely what was at stake. (Krakauer 135)
Thoreau’s idea of being one with nature and surviving amongst it involved limiting life to its essentials. Living in a cabin that was almost in the middle of nowhere. Having minimal furnishings and using skills to purchase food and also fishing for food. Thoreau had the purest intentions, however, strip away the warm cabin and the close location to a society that still allowed him to purchase food and he would not have survived.
Another factor in making this trip to Alaska, the belief that being given the freedom to do what one wished, while gaining worldly experience, seemed to be more important to Chris over that need to become one with nature. He believed life should be full of new experiences. He gave us a hint of this belief in a letter to his friend Ron, whom he met in California: ‘“The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun’” (Krakauer 45).
The idea of self reliance and nonconformity within society were also important to Chris. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay entitled Self Reliance, where he probably got his idea to give away all his money, was more than likely a favorite among Chris’s listed authors. “These are the voices that we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world” (Emerson 2). This notion also appeared in Chris’s letter to Ron, where he explained that Ron needed to make a change in his life by avoiding conformity, “’. . . . which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future’” (Krakauer 5). Most people would agree that Chris definitely did not conform to the requirements of society while making this odyssey.
Living a pure life in nature involves surviving with the most basic skills in the harsh wilderness. Thoreau was able to give testimony on how simple living is the best way to experience nature. Fictional works, like those of Jack London, romanticized the notion of surviving in the wilderness. Krakauer openly criticizes London’s lack of real experience. He only spent one winter in the cold north and committed suicide at a young age, was a drunk and rather obese (35).
Chris was basically obsessed with London’s portrayal of life in the Alaskan wilderness. He had managed to survive for the months prior to his arrival in Alaska, in rather rough circumstances. This caused him to be smug when people tried to advise him on what was needed to survive. Chris believed he knew what he was doing, refusing to conform in any regards to society and the guidance it had to offer.
Nevertheless, Chris did accomplish the task of living purely in nature if only for a few weeks. His trip to that point was rough, but never could live up to the ultimate survival task of Alaska. Instead, he lived a life as a hobo for a few months until he reached his destination. He tried to give it his best, being able to hunt somewhat notwithstanding the small firearm and the inadequate knife he carried.
His gravest mistake was not studying the location appropriately before his arrival. He misunderstood the river, how to properly hunt and gut his animals, and how to choose safe berries to consume. Some believe, like Krakauer, that Chris knew exactly what he was getting into; he was no dummy but took a great risk. As a result, he became one of only a few to have lived purely within the beautiful, yet brutal, Mother Nature.
Works Cited
Emerson, Ralph W. Self-Reliance. Essays: First Series. 1841. Web. 18 Oct. 2012. <http://www.mrgunnar.net/files/Self-Reliance%20Text.pdf>.
Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. New York: Anchor Books, 1996. Web. 20 Oct. 2012. <https://7chan.org/lit/src/Into_The_Wild-_John_Krakauer.pdf>
Thoreau, Henry D. Walden. J. Manis. A Penn State Electronic Classic Series. Pennsylvania State University, 2006. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. <http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/thoreau/thoreau-walden6x9.pdf>.
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