Many Americans sense that their world, their culture, and indeed their lives as individuals are becoming more materialistic and less connected to nature. Even as we enjoy the increasing ease of human existence, it’s common for us to have a sort of longing to be re-connected to whatever we consider to be “authentic” human life.
Most people never actually satisfy this longing. Perhaps we buy a country home or make an effort to spend more of our free time outdoors, but it’s rare to pack up and simply adopt a new life. Indeed, it’s practically unheard of for someone to have such a drive to re-connect with nature that they would completely abandon human society.
But Christopher McCandless did. McCandless came from a prosperous, stable family from the outskirts of Washington, DC. He earned a degree from Emory University, one of the more prestigious institutions of higher education in the South. At age 22, he seemed to be largely as successful as any parent could hope for in a child that age. So what drove him to give away his $25,000 in savings, abandon his family without a trace, embark on a Western odyssey, and end up dying alone in an abandoned bus in the Alaskan bush two years later?
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer attempts to shed some light on this impossibly difficult question. When the fascinating story of McCandless’ life and death initially broke in Outside magazine (in an article penned by Krakauer), many Alaskans chalked McCandless’ death by starvation up to a combination of remarkable ignorance and reckless, romantic idealism. Some even claimed he had a death wish. After all, McCandless had deliberately embarked on his journey without provisions and equipment any Alaskan would consider absolutely essential.
Krakauer doesn’t attempt to refute these claims by romanticizing McCandless’ life, but he also disputes the notion that McCandless was in over his head and essentially got what he had coming. Indeed, McCandless had always been a strong-willed character. The heavy influence of the writings of Thoreau and London probably gave him an overly romantic view of what life in the Alaskan bush would be like.
However, McCandless fared quite well for himself for some time. Using an abandoned bus near the Sushana River as his “base camp,” he managed to kill enough game and dig up enough wild plants to keep himself relatively healthy and fit through most of the summer of 1992. It’s likely that McCandless’ experience in the bush provided him with the spiritual nourishment had been looking for; McCandless attempted to hike back to civilization toward the end of the summer. It’s also likely that McCandless would have lived to tell his tale if not for a couple of instances of misfortune.
Finding the now-swollen Teklanika River blocking the path he had used on his way in earlier in the summer, McCandless decided to wait a month before making another attempt to return human society. This would allow the glaciers that feed the Teklanika to begin to freeze up again, slowing the current and reducing the depth of the river. McCandless, of course, never made it out. After accidentally ingesting toxic potato seeds, he slowly starved to death, unable to absorb nutrition from his food and too weak to hike what was, ironically, the relatively short distance to civilization.
Since then, McCandless been a fascinating figure in the minds of many – romanticized by some, condemned by others. By drawing comparisons to his own life, Krakauer shows that McCandless was neither woefully ignorant of the conditions he was facing, nor someone whose life and unnecessary death should be idealized by others.
Great review — except you forgot to yell “Spoiler Alert!” I didn’t actually know the main character died.
Either way, I haven’t read the book and I haven’t seen Sean Penn’s acclaimed adaptation. But the idea of somebody throwing it all away is both compelling and intriguing.
As an almost total outsider to this story, it seems to me that McCandless was either crazy or incredibly selfish.