I write this with full admission that I am not much of an outdoorsperson. There are so many glaring outdoorsmanship errors made in the first two chapter that even I was cringing.
His own friends readily admitted that he had a lot of enthusiasm but little common sense and didn't know much outside of academia. I don't believe he was schizophrenic or suicidal. This was not a tragedy this was inevitable.
He butchers a moose, wasting the life of a beautiful and well-adapted animal because he could not be bothered to learn ahead of time how to preserve it. Instead, McCandless arrogantly drives his car into the habitat of an endangered species of poppy. Courage is not the same as not knowing when we ought to have a healthy degree of fear. McCandless' (and Everett Ruess') overconfidence speaks to a fascination with nature but not a respect for it. Two chapters that could have provided some insight into his hero are wasted because Krakauer sounds like a religious fanatic, with McCandless as his unknowable God and Krakauer as the I'm-not-worthy follower. This sounds utterly bogus after all we have been told about McCandless' foolish mistakes, and the obvious fact that Krakauer is not stupid. Krakauer makes an apt comparison between himself as an idealistic and foolhardy young man, and McCandless, and then dismisses himself because "he didn't have intellect". Krakauer tries half-heartedly to disguise his fascination but his admissions that McCandless was a clueless young hothead sound insincere he has to say it to sound credible to his readers, who are less smitten. The conflicting aspects of his personality don't sound quirky they sound devious and self-serving. Can you see the halo? Unfortunately, the impression that comes across is of a snotty adolescent who has never seriously thought of anyone but himself and is used to getting by on charm and flippancy rather than making good use of his considerable gifts (and I do not doubt that he was gifted). We're told he was brilliant, independent, funny, kind, musical, athletic, visionary, talented. Krakauer pulls out all the stops to make McCandless look like a phenomenon, and seems to agree with McCandless that the world should have handed itself to him on a silver salver because he was just so darned special. A much bigger part of me is completely disgusted both with McCandless himself and with Krakauer's mindless adoration of him. Krakauer pulls out all the stops to make McCandless look like a phenomenon, and seems to agree with McCandless that the world should have handed itself My grandfather-not an Alaskan but an experienced outdoorsman-would have tied this kid to a tree and let the bears play tetherball with him.Ī small part of me appreciates the effort Krakauer put into researching this book. A small part of me appreciates the effort Krakauer put into researching this book. My grandfather-not an Alaskan but an experienced outdoorsman-would have tied this kid to a tree and let the bears play tetherball with him. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished into the wild.more Craving a blank spot on the map, McCandless simply threw away the maps.
He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and, unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented.
In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his cash. Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir. How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild. Four months later, a party of moose hunters found his decomposed body. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. In April, 1992, a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and inve Librarian's Note: An alternate cover edition can be found here Librarian's Note: An alternate cover edition can be found here In April, 1992, a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt.