Saturday, January 16, 2016

Why did Chris McCandless from Into the Wild choose the Alaskan wilderness specifically to live in?


I will not be here in South Dakota very much longer. My friend, Wayne, wants me to stay working at the grain elevator through May and then go combining with him the entire summer, but I have my soul set entirely on my Alaskan Odyssey and hope to be on my way no later than April 15.


For years, Chris McCandless had his heart set on what he called his "Alaskan Odyssey."  Without being able to ask McCandless directly, it will probably never be known exactly why he was so obsessed with living off of the land in Alaska.  He could have attempted the feat in many other places in the United States.  For that matter, McCandless could have done it in plenty of other countries as well.


Krakauer spends an entire chapter telling readers about other men that tried, and failed, to live off the land in Alaska.  He uses those chapters to compare McCandless to other men who felt the "Call of the Wild" in Alaska.  McCandless isn't unique in thinking that Alaska represents one of the last truly untamed wildernesses out there, and I believe that he overly romanticized what Alaska would be like for him.  


Krakauer also believes that McCandless had an overly romantic idea of Alaska.  Krakauer contemplates that McCandless's feelings about Alaska stemmed from his infatuation with the author Jack London.   



McCandless had been infatuated with London since childhood. London’s fervent condemnation of capitalist society, his glorification of the primordial world, his championing of the great unwashed—all of it mirrored McCandless’s passions. Mesmerized by London’s turgid portrayal of life in Alaska and the Yukon, McCandless read and reread The Call of the Wild, White Fang, “To Build a Fire,” “An Odyssey of the North,” “The Wit of Porportuk.” He was so enthralled by these tales, . . . 



McCandless's lifelong hero was London, and London's muse and central setting for many stories was Alaska.  I think McCandless figured he would get the same experience in real life that he got from reading those works of fiction. 

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