Christopher McCandless once said, "I read somewhere... how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong... but to feel strong." This quote is one of the most eye-catching quotes in the book for me because you need to feel strong and to make the right decisions if you get peer pressured. Chris was a very brave and strong person to go into the wild by himself and survive for 100 days with only a backpack not even full of stuff. All he needed was to be himself and live a life where he wanted to be happy and not get anyone else involved. It really doesn’t matter if you are strong in general, but it means so much more to be a strong and objective person. Chris McCandless discovers what the wild is like in the story, “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer. He was able to understand what he was meant to do and what his lifelong dream was. Chris was new to outdoor traveling, and because of that, it cost him in the end.
When I read this book, Into the Wild, I really thought that Chris would have died in the first couple of weeks. The thing that really shocked me was that he met so many people on his way that helped him out such as; Jim Gallien, Jan and Bob Burres, Gaylord Stuckey, etc. Because of his charming personality people got to know him better and care for him more. They always suggested that they give him more supplies for him to survive, but Chris denied all the suggestions. When Gaylord Stuckey says, “As I chatted more with McCandless, through the sulfurous mist, though, I began to reconsider taking him to his destination,” (Page 158) you can tell that all Chris wanted was to get to know people and just to have a talk with him. All the people that Chris chatted with said he has a very good personality and wondered why he was going out into the wild by himself.
McCandless was a very brave person to go all the way to Alaska without any money or barely anything to survive. No matter what happened, he would always have in the back of his mind that he had parents who loved him, and cared for him. He didn’t really realize how much they really wanted to see him more than they did because of their relationship together. His parents worked hard for years to give him all the opportunities he was suggested but all Chris did was deny them all and all he was worried about was after college going into the wild, where he always had wanted to go. If he had thought more about bringing a map and other things he probably would have survived a lot more days than he did. He rushed into something without good planning, and died because of it. But since he was brave enough to go in the freezing cold and actually find a place to stay and how to live a long time I will give him credit for that. “I burnt all my money and I only have a small backpack,” (Page 29) is very brave of him because most people would not have done that.
When Chris writes, “I have had a happy life and thank the Lord. Goodbye and May God bless all,” (Page 199) he was ready to die. The past week before he wrote that he had been in excruciating pain because of starvation. When Chris wrote that quote on a piece of paper he also took a picture of himself, standing near the bus under the Alaska sky. In one hand he held his final note toward the camera and the other rose in a brave, beatific farewell. You can tell that Chris was ready to die because he had reached his goal of living in the wild for 100 days and he wrote in the letter, “I have had a happy life.” Also when he took the picture he was smiling and at peace, you could tell in his eyes. If I had reached my goal of living that many days in the wild I would have had the same attitude as Chris did.
People say that “entering the wilderness purposefully ill-prepared, and surviving a near death experience does not make you a better human, it makes you damn lucky,” do not see the good side. This is something that Chris had wanted to do because of his relationship with his family and to get away from everything that was bothering him. I bet no one would do what Chris did because they would be too scared. If you really think about what he did, he was a very brave and bold person. Chris was not very prepared, but it’s just like if you want to go upstairs into your room after a fight with your parents, you don’t want to talk to them, see them, or even hear their voices. But this is something that had been going on in his life all his life. His family had been hiding their marriage situation their whole life and if I were in that situation because my parents didn’t tell me something I would be very mad too. All the people that say that he was a “nut” for doing that, just think about it again and if you were in his position.
Chris’s lifelong dream was to go into the wild and understood what he was meant to do, but because of that, it cost him his life. McCandless is a hero to me and to a lot of other people because of what he did and how much he walked to reach his dream. I think that everyone reading this should rethink what they think Chris is, because what he did was his dream and I think that if you have a dream you should follow it. Just like Martin Luther King Jr. says, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” That quote relates so much to Chris’s situation. If you have a dream, you should not let anyone judge you by your actions of what you do to try and reach your dream.
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