Preview

Into The Wild Chris Mccandless Comparison

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1000 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Into The Wild Chris Mccandless Comparison
Both Cheryl Strayed and Chris McCandless embarked on a journey during their lifetime. Journeys that split anyone who heard about it into two groups. One side describes the adventurers as reckless and stupid, while the other side venerate their stories. Either way the stories made enough of an impact to become successful published books retelling the tales. Chris McCandless’ story was pieced together by author Jon Krakauer in the book Into the Wild. Likewise, Wild is the name of Cheryl Strayed’s memoir. After reading both these books it is clear to see that the two respectively have many similarities as well as differences. First off, is to compare the journey itself that McCandless and Strayed took. The main difference is that McCandless choose to just leave and see where the world would take him. With no clear goal intended at the start, Chris simply wandered around the US. This has a clear contrast with Cheryl's journey because from the start of hers she had a definite goal in mind. She was going to hike the PCT. Although her plans may have slightly changed while hiking her trail, the main goal stayed constant throughout. Cheryl used her trip to find herself as opposed to Chris who used it to get lost from …show more content…
Cheryl ended her journey at her planned finish line, The Bridge of the Gods. After her journey she moved on with her life and even ended up getting married. Then, later on publishing her memoir of her experiences on the trail. Chris, on the other hand, was not so lucky. He ended up starving of starvation before being able to head home. With information on his final journey entries it could be seen that he was able to find a sense of relaxation at the end of everything. This is where the stories are again similar. Due to the fact that, despite of all the differences they had, the both of them were able to find a sense of closure at the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the book Into the Wild written by Jon Krakauer, Chris McCandless gets portrayed as adventurous. He is adventurous in the way that he just left his family on a whim, and started traveling on his cross-country adventure. “I got the impression that this Alaska escapade was going to be his last big adventure” (Krakauer, 1996, pg 66) said Wayne Westerberg when describing how Chris talked about his then future trip plans. This shows that he was planning this big adventure for a long time and the Alaskan adventure would be the last big advent for a while. Or at least it was his last planned big adventure for a while as he was probably burnt out from adventuring for the last two and a half years. This is important as it shows Chris was too adventurous…

    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cheryl Strayed writes about her experience hiking the “PCT”, otherwise known as the Pacific Crest Trail. Wild is an autobiography. I found that really interesting because you get to read and hear Cheryl’s actual experience first-hand. The Pacific Crest Trail reaches from Mexico to Canada on the western coast of the United States. At the beginning of the book Cheryl explains her past and what brought her to her decision of hiking over 2,000 miles. Her mom dying and divorcing her husband were two factors that helped make her decision. As she begins her hike, it is evident that her life is about to change.…

    • 286 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Chris and Jon 's life have many parallels and contrasts at the same time. Both gave up most of their possessions to go after a dream they had. Ones dream was to live off the land in the remote regions of Alaska, the other too climb the Devils Thumb, a mountain peak that had never been scaled by man. Each man was aware of the risks, but were they equally prepared when each began their own adventure? I feel that Chris McCandless was at a disadvantage when he first started off. Raised by a wealthy family and just graduating from Emory University I feel he wasn 't as prepared as he could have been. Fortunately his father had taken him on hiking trips so he was at least somewhat familiar with the wilderness but in no way was he prepared…

    • 1367 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Cheryl Strayed started the hike because she was in a all time low in her life. She needed to get away from everything to clear her mind because of the tragic passing of her mother four years prior to her hike. Strayed started consuming drugs and started sleeping with other men . She did not know how to cope with the loss because she was everywhere, “ If I had to draw a map of these four-plus years to illustrate the time between the day of my mother's death and the day I began my hike on the Pacific Crest Trail, the map would be a confusion of lines in all directions…” (Strayed 37). She was confused on where to go and what to do. She wanted to escape reality. The quote shows how she tries to cope with the tragedy, but fails until she decides…

    • 150 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The first thing about Chris is that he was very bright. Even people noticed how smart he was, like when Franz said, “ He seemed very intelligent.” This shows that Ron sees how smart Chris is. It also explains to us that Chris knows what he is doing and that he wants to do it. Another thing about Chris is that he made food decisions. For instance, he learned off of the people who he met like when he learned how to smoke meat. This shows that he is preparing for his adventure in Alaska. Therefore demonstrating how he made good decisions. Another good decision that he made was buying the plant book. This shows that he isn’t crazy because he is preparing for his time in Alaska. Clearly Chris was a smart man who made some good choices on his journey.…

    • 506 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chris McCandless was a young man from California who loved to be outdoors and was always very athletic. He always had the desire and ambition to do things on his own. However this was a positive and negative side to his personality because it would cost him his life by wanting to live this way. In school Chris was always a very smart student who had good grades and could have gone to college if he chose to. His parents wanted him to attend college but he felt it wasn’t for him so instead he chose to travel and hitchhike. This caused tension between the McCandless’s and adding gas to the fire, Chris’s father had an affair which angered him even more.…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the story Into the Wild Chris McCandless was seeking wilderness to get away from everything. He was a son of wealthy parents with a lot of drama going on around the house, he wanted to get his mind off everything that made him crazy. He was seeking adventure. Kramer's statement supported McCandless bravery of living in the wilderness. He wanted to journey to Alaska, I believe he did this to find himself. Going through many obstacles he gained a lot of experience and I truly believe it helped him figure out who he was and what he was capable of. Before dying I think he had accepted who he was.…

    • 515 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Into The Wild Movie Vs

    • 779 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer is a story about the life of Chris McCandless. After graduating with honors from Emory University in 1990, Chris donated his entire savings of twenty-four thousand dollars to charity. In doing, he set off to pursue his life long dream of living off the land in the Alaskan wilderness. McCandless ended up making it to Alaska and finding an old abandoned bus. Three months later McCandless decided he should go home. When he got to the point he needed to cross the river, the current was too strong, so he was trapped. He ended up living in the bus for a total of 113 days and then dying. Both the movie and book of Into the Wild explore the adventure that Chris McCandless takes, while the book focuses on comparing Chris to other people and the relationships he had, the movie focuses specifically on the life story and adventure of Chris McCandless, therefore the movie is better than the book.…

    • 779 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The people there loved him. In their eyes, he “did a lot of socializing...was playful, like a little kid...had a way with animals...and was musical”. Yet, when asked about his family or to stay behind, he was persistent on leaving and not talking about his family. Chris McCandless had the perfect life, a life anyone would desire. Yet, this was the reason for his trip to…

    • 840 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    He had very strong beliefs along with the determination to let nothing stop him in his path. Chris set out to live in the Alaskan wilderness for a couple of weeks and it proved to be more than he could handle. His resources became scarce and he feared for his own life. He ended up leaving an S.O.S note on the door of the bus he was living in and it read “Injured, near death, and too weak to hike out of here, I am all alone, this is no joke (Krakauer 12).” His journey to Alaska proved to be fatal and a vast amount of theories began to spread across the media about how Chris died. Everyone has built an opinion about Chris McCandless, some say he’s crazy and ignorant and others say he’s bright and heroic. Shaun Callarman, a native Alaskan, didn’t admire him at all for his courage or his noble ideas. He felt that Chris McCandless was “Bright and ignorant at the same time,” and that “He had no common sense and no business going to Alaska with his romantic silliness.” I disagree with Shaun’s opinion to a certain extent because I feel that Chris was both foolish and noble when he began his journey to Alaska. Chris sought out to find himself and he let nothing stand in his path, but he wasn’t fully prepared for the…

    • 1101 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although Chris McCandless is in many ways viewed as a transcendentalist, by criteria, he consistently contradicts himself throughout his Alaskan journey of self-realization in Into the Wild. Transcendentalism can be portrayed by three main characteristics. One trait is the notion of a prioritization of the individual. Another trait includes the concept of intelligence commencing with self-knowledge derived from experience and mistakes. The last criterion of a transcendentalist is that one must thoroughly understand him or herself as an individual in order to achieve in personal happiness. McCandless attempts to emulate his literary inspirations such as Thoreau and Tolstoy by venturing alone into the wild Alaskan frontier with the goal of achieving a sense of self-actualization, but he realizes during his trek that his expectations do not fulfill him as a being.…

    • 576 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Passage: “The only difference is that McCandless ended up dead with the story of his dumbassedness splashed across media. His ignorance, which could have been cured by a USGS quadrant and a Boy Scout manual, is what killed him. And while I feel bad for his parents Such willful ignorance…amounts to disrespect for the land, and paradoxically demonstrates the same sort of arrogance that resulted in Exxon Valdez spill just another case of underprepared, overconfident men bumbling around out there and screwing up because they lacked the requisite humility. ” (Krakauer 72).…

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chris Mccandless Journey

    • 604 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Chris had issues with his family, and i can tell by the letters he would write to his parents contrasted to the ones he wrote to his sister. To his sister he would tell her what he was thinking and how is trip was…

    • 604 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chris McCandless

    • 571 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Before Chris died I do think he found what he was looking for. I think that he felt that there was truth out in the wild that there wasn’t in his life at home. I think that he would have stay as long as he did if he didn’t find what he was looking for. I think that he finally found a place where he belonged and place where he finally fit in. I totally agree with what Jon Krakauer statement when he says that Chris wasn’t a nutcase, sociopath, or an outcast. I think he was a very upbeat and inspirational person. I love how he was and how he thought. I think it was very unique of him to think that live on his own in Alaska would help him find out who he was. I can compare myself to Chris in many ways like when he…

    • 571 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    from failure to triumph

    • 1036 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In the book Wild, by Cheryl Strayed, Cheryl had felt as though she had lost it all. Once her mother had passed, her family began to dissipate as well. Soon after that her very own marriage was going down hill. With everything going wrong for her Cheryl decided that it was time to make one of the most important decisions of her life. She decided to take a journey on to the Pacific Crest Trail. She also knew that this trip must be completed alone without anyone accompanying her because this quest would define her genuinely. There are many disadvantages and advantages that Cheryl must endure in life and on her journey on the Pacific Crest Trail. Cheryl portrays herself as total screw up and a wise individual because of her depression, instability, and perseverance.…

    • 1036 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays