Controversial Chris McCandless

When I read "Into the Wild", I loved the adventure-story aspect of it, but some of the story surprised me. I wasn't able to identify the motives of the (mostly Alaskan) people who held so much scorn for Chris. It's possible that they felt ownership of the land and its harshness, much like Chicagoans like to pride ourselves on our ability to withstand and thrive our bitter winters. They seemed to forget that Chris was still young and naive and clearly had succeeded in so many different environments that he felt an invincibility even more than usual for young adults.

Clearly, Chris was a very charismatic person since he had a strong impact even on people he knew only briefly. Perhaps this is another reason why his story still resonates with people and why his life seemed a bit legendary and his death a bit more tragic. It seems that Krackauer was someone who was caught in his charismatic spell, and perhaps that is why he worked so hard to try to show Chris didn't die of starvation but rather of a type of poisoning. While reading that explanation, which seemed to be overly speculative, I got the sense Krakauer was trying to vindicate him to all the people who vilified him for challenging the Alaskan outback unprepared.

My heart broke for the parents and sister he left behind, but I kept getting the impression that he was good at friendship but lousy at deep intimacy, and left behind no deep bonds with people. If he had lived, he might have come to terms with his father's reprehensible behavior when he was growing up, and learn to love his family even though he hated their values. It seems that the passages he underlined in books right before his death had given him a new respect for human bonds and relationships. Unfortunately he died at the phase in life where many young adults refuse to compromise or accept other ways of life, so we'll never know what he could have made of himself.