Jewel Jorgensen

Mrs. Di Somma

18 November 2016

Period 5

McCandless the Fool

In the novel, Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, the main character Chris McCandless goes

off into the wild based off of his own personal fantasies of the flamboyant (81) adventure that

he created in order to escape reality and his parents. All until he is a dead man. Overall, Chris

McCandless was a full-hearty fool.

One reason why he was a fool is because of his poor preparations and weak fantasies of

what the wilderness of Alaska would be. For instance, when McCandless was about to venture

off into the Alaskan wilderness, his driver Gallien noticed how McCandless bag had an

improbably light load for the amount of time he was going to be out there, but also from the

peppering of questions McCandless about the small game, even though his gear seemed very

minimal for the harsh conditions (4-5). Many other people also noticed that McCandless was

going to die from his lack of supplies and equipment that were necessities in order to have a

chance at survival in the Alaskan wilderness. Besides the facts that McCandless was very

ill-prepared, his fantasies and motives that kept him going deeper into the wilderness were

worse. For example, McCandless had been idolizing how nature could produce movements of

force that are not calm of existence, but yearned to be noticed. He also was a dare devil in the

case of how he also wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for his

love(13). This love was the nature he was overly seeking throughout his quest into the wild,
and has now blinded him in any hopes of returning to society or reality. Another inspiration was

from the many tales he had read all too much, for he had forgotten that they were works of

fiction, a fruitless venture (44). Similar to other adventures who have ventured off into the wild

to not come out, McCandless idolized in these types of fantasies that had in the end only brought

him death. But everyone has to wake up from their petty fantasies and come back into reality.

For McCandless, he had a very rude awakening from proof of a note that was on the bus he had

past away in: S.O.S. I NEED YOUR HELP. I AM INJURED, NEAR DEATH I AM ALL

ALONE. THIS IS NO JOKE (12). Even though a few weeks ago he never would have thought

he would end up this way, he did, and did so under foolish reasons. Inevitably, Chris

McCandless dies as a fool because of his poor judgements and lack of realization of the risks he

was taking in going into the Alaskan wild.

A second reason for why Chris McCandless was a fool was because of his total

disconnect with any communication between him and his family or officials, in risk of being

taken back into society. For example, right when Chris was about to go off on his little

adventure, he told the mail office to return all mail he would receive, back to the sender (69).

Why he did this in order to keep his location and freedom from being taken away, was too much

since he had also put in danger, his family; the danger of losing a son or brother. At the end of a

letter he wrote, he also had written, if this adventure proves fatal and you dont ever hear from

me again..I now walk into the wild (69). Even though McCandless seems to acknowledge that

he may not survive this adventure into the Alaskan wilderness, he is still a fool for not telling

anyone details on when he should be back or where specifically he was going to be in the

wilderness. No, he just left without a trace of where he was, to everyone he had contacted with,
and his family. An instance of when McCandless plainly proved how a fool he was, was when

he had burned all of his money and left his rifle in his Datsun before walking out in the Mojave

Desert, almost dying of dehydration (29). Even though he had been encountering disaster by

disaster, to the point he almost dies, he still goes out and does it again, showing how McCandless

is a fool for not knowing his own limits. Aside from the novel, the documentary, Return Into the

Wild, showed how his actions in not communicating with his family and trusted sister Carine,

impacted them with worry and frantic nightmares of more than just indolently (32) pain, but

what he could be suffering from, since they had no idea if he was still even alive (Return). From

seeing this, Chris McCandless was inconsiderate to others, even his family, when it came to

communication. The realization is that if he had done so and even just gave out monthly letters

telling them where or how he was, may have saved his life. Towards the end of the novel,

Carine is told that her brother Chris has past away from starvation, No, she corrected him,

Chris isnt dead. Then she began to scream (130). From this passage, Carines tears and

screams are something that Chris McCandless should have intended if he was so insistent with

going through with his adventure, and because he was so overconfident that he was so naive to

not believe he would die after everything that had happened to him, and in the end caused pain to

the one he loved the most. From beginning to end, Chris McCandless was a fool from his idiocy

(52) of ever believing he could go off into the wilderness alone, without communication, ended

up hurting those who cared for him and could have saved his life.