Admiration of Christopher McCandless

While it seems like Christopher McCandless has caught some harsh criticism, both from Alaskans and members of this class, I am strangely drawn to his story.  I grew up in Rhode Island, on the nature-filled campus of an elite boarding school (where my father worked).  I also spent a lot of time at my uncle’s cabin home in rural Vermont fishing, hunting and enjoying the splendor of nature.  These early experiences harshly contrast with my teen years and adult life, which has been spent in suburban Naperville and the city of Chicago.  I often feel that my urban life is unnecessarily busy and cluttered with distractions that keep me out of touch with a spirituality that seems ever present in nature.  I’ve often thought of abandoning my life in the city for a simpler existence that wasn’t reliant on technology and driven by the pursuit of monetary gain.

            I suppose that these thoughts of escape are enabled, to some extent, by a privileged upbringing in which I haven’t endured the hardships of poverty and felt the need to escape economic strife.  I feel my childhood was similar in many ways to that of Christopher McCandless.  I was always a driven child who was very self critical.  My father worked very long hours to help him achieve success that he felt eluded him due to mistakes made earlier in his life.  I also share McCandless’ sense of a need for social justice, although to a much lesser degree as I’ve never willingly sacrificed my own relative comfort to make a difference on a personal level.  This is probably why I admire Chris.  He had the self-determination to live life differently from the rest of us and didn’t care what other people thought of him.  He embarked on a three year adventure that must have been scary and empowering as he abandoned his car and became a drifter.  While the rational side of my brain has kept me from pursuing any similar activity I think there is another side that would feel relieved to commit to such a plan.  It also seems like this is not an uncommon thought as evidenced by the many people who live this way and the people who have sought refuge in the wilderness of Alaska.  I was struck by the comments of Roman, Krakauer’s companion in the exploration of the Stampede Trail.  He says, “I guess I can’t help identifying with the guy.  I hate to admit it, but not so many years ago it could easily have been me in the same kind of predicament.  When I first started coming to Alaska, I think I was probably a lot like McCandless: just as green, just as eager.  And I’m sure there are plenty of other Alaskans who had a lot in common with McCandless when they first got here, too, including many of his critics.  Which is maybe why they’re so hard on him.  Maybe McCandless reminds them a little too much of their former selves (202).

I think Krakauer also identified with him and felt like he needed to explore the motivations and actions of McCandless more in depth than he had in the initial article in Outdoor Magazine(http://mrlemaster.com/sitefiles/death_of_an_innocent.pdf).

            While some students have said that Krakauer’s personal experiences in the book detracted from the story, I feel that they serve the necessary purpose of showing that he was very similar to Chris and was simply lucky to have survived.  The fact that Chris’s death may have been caused by a small mistake of eating seeds proves that he was otherwise capable of living an almost impossible life.

            The one part of the story that does trouble me, and I think serves as the major reason that I would never engage in such a dangerous undertaking, is the pain that was caused to his family, especially his mother.  Unlike Chris, I have a very close relationship with my mother and think about the pain that she would go through if anything were to happen to me.  Krakauer even says about Billie, “Such bereavement, witnessed at close range, makes even the most eloquent apologia for high-risk activities ring fatuous and hollow (147).  In this regard, while somewhat admirable for a determined dedication to live the way he wanted to, his actions were selfish.