Respond to either question A or question B.
Question A:
Last week I asked you to think about ways that Chris was like the other Alaska adventurers. Only a few of you answered the question and we did not get around to talking about Chris' similarities and differences to the other adventurers in class on Thursday. For this post, think about the chapters on Waterman and Everett Russ and how they are described.
Do you think Chris was suicidal or mentally ill or both or neither? Why or why not? If not, how would you describe Chris' state of mind as he walked "into the wild?"
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I may be biased because I saw the movie before reading the book, but based on what we've read thus far and trying to forget about what I saw in the movie, I think Chris was neither suicidal or mentally ill. I think he was passionate and on a mission and did not want to let anything get in the way of his adventure or take away his passion.
The letters that people wrote to Outsider magazine were harsh and I think unfair. I think maybe some of the people who wrote to Outsider about Chris were jealous of how he just picked up and left to start something new. On page 71 Krauker includes a piece of a letter written by a resident of Healy, "Alex is a nut in my book" he goes on to mention about how Alex gave away his material life and a loving family. I think the responses people sent in are just completely unfair. Yeah, there are people who are a little wacky who wander around Alaska and maybe Alex was a little "kooky" but he wasn't happy with the way he was living so why would he suffer through a life where he was miserable and angry? Dropping it all and start something new - creating a new adventure for himself - even if it meant death in the end seems like it was the best choice for him.
Chris/Alex wrote in his letters and told people "if this adventure proves fatal..." (Krakauer 69). He KNEW that there was a great amount of risk with going into the wild of Alaska like he did. Unlike McCunn, Chris/Alex had his stuff together. He knew what to expect, he had the proper materials and although could have gone about dealing with his parents in a more rational way - told people about his adventure so his story would not be a huge mystery when his body was found. I do not think he was suicidal, I think he knew there was a great chance he would not make it out but he was hopeful that he could do it. And I think that's passionate, not suicidal or mentally ill.
All of the Alaska adventurers have similarities and differences about who they are and why they have decided to take their journey into the wild. In the book, Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, Chris writes a letter to Wayne Westerberg saying, "I've decided that I'm going to live this life for some time to come. The freedom and simple beauty of it is just too good to pass up" (Krakuer 92). Everett Ruess wrote something simular half a century earlier. I think that most Alaskan adventurers are captured by the natural beauty and wildness of Alaska and cannot keep themselves away from it. Especially Ruess and McCandless embraced physical discomfort because it was a part of the experience.
I don't think that Chris was suicidal or mentally ill because he knew what he was getting himself into and was still willing to take the risk that his journey might be fatal. He was willing to risk dieing so he could live the life he dreamed of living. He wanted to experience every bit of the wild, from the trees, animals, weather, and all of the pros and cons that come it. McCandless from the inside out was meant to become one with the wild.
I don't think Chris was suicidal or mentally ill. I think he was on a personal search for his own identity with absolutely no influence from the modern world. He was a very intellectual individual with a credible college degree, with a sense of boyish adventure that swam through his veins. Chris wanted to know what the REAL world was like, that untouched natural beauty of the wild. Whether that wild be the Grand Canyon or the icy Alaskan wilderness, Chris wanted to explore the world and figure out what it was all about, without the biases that the modern world influences on our perception on civilization and way of life.
In a letter Chris writes to Ron Franz, he says, "The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences." [Pg. 57] This directly corresponds to a letter written by Ruess, "No man with any of the juices of boyhood in him has forgotten those dreams." [Pg. 90] and in another letter, "I have always been unsatisfied with life as most people live it. Always I want to live more intensely and richly." [Pg. 91] This directly relates to the ways in which Chris felt about the suburban and modern way of life. It wasn't that he despised it, but that he knew there was more to life and a different way of learning these things without all of the modern technologies and advances that society has made today.
Also, the fact that they both changed their names, Ruess many more times than McCandles, institutes that as they adopted this new way and new philosophy of life, they needed a completely new beginning, and how are most people defined? By their name, by changing their names it is as if they are both starting from completely new foundations. One is named at birth, and this can almost be viewed as a "re-birth" for these new people they feel they have grown into and long to develop fully.
I think Chris' state of mind was clearer than most people's today. He knew exactly what he wanted and knew how he needed to achieve it, and he did it. He even states in a letter, "So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism." [Pg. 57] This explains that Chris was unhappy, figured out why he was unhappy, realized what he needed to do to make himself happy, and he did it. And to the best of our knowledge about Chris today, he achieved that happiness, although along with a tragic end.
In my opinion I don't think Chris was suicidal neither mentally ill. I just think he was a man that wasn't satisfied with the life he was living that set off to find a piece of mind. Others may look at it as mentally ill because after all, he did refuse help, money, and places to stay but but maybe he wanted to do it on his own. He entered the alone but content with his with his journeys and the troubles he had getting there.After his death he was looked at by the Alaskan locals thought he was foolish and thought it was a brave attempt to gain exposure and take on the alaskan wilderness. Krakauer compared hi9m to may Alaskin explorers who ambition and determination led to their death.One was Gene Rosellini, who committed suicide after a failed attempt to live off the land and to see "if it was possible to be independent of modern technology".Another was Carl McCunn who was flown into a lake near Coleen River but forgot to make arrangements to be picked up and he eventually died in the Alaskan wilderness.
For me Everett Ruess seems like the one who is the most comparable to Chris. The one main thing that stuck out for me was their earnest belief in the text of a book. For Chris, it was Jack London’s stories and for Everett it was Jules Verne’s. Both these books though are simply fiction and could possibly hold no real truth when applied to real life, but these boys seemed to hold on to something they read and did not want to let go. This relentless hold on potentially false beliefs was what in my mind brought them over the edge. I am not saying they were mentally ill but simply that they were searching for something, something to fill in the missing piece in their life and they thought they found it in these books. Whatever it was that they wanted or were looking for, they were not getting from home or other people, so it may have seemed obvious to look else where like in the wild. Which would explain why even though they both took these great trips alone they still could not resist human companionship because they were normal; they just did not believe that what they were searching for would be found in companionship, so there would be no reason to dwell on it. I think Chris’s state of mind as he walked “into the wild” would be one of hope and longing to find that missing piece that would make everything come together and place the world in perspective for him. Hopeful that he could go find this piece so he could return to civilization and be at ease with it because now he understood. This longing for understanding is powerful and I think that is demonstrated in these boys actions, because they simply just wanted to understand why things were the way they were.
Chris was not just some head-case who, one day, decided to just get up and go. It is my understanding that Chris' journey was one inspired by his education, books he had read, people he had met. Chris was not suicidal, although it might seem as id he were, I think that he maybe didn't understand the actual concept of living in the Alaskan wilderness, but there is no doubt in my mind that he appreciated the idea of living off the land, living alone, finding answers to his own questions. I also feel that if Chris were suicidal he would not have been capable of making the friendships that he did on his journey. However, nor do I believe that Chris was mentally ill, his state of mind when he goes into the wild seems clear of any of the personal burdens which most people would feel, but this does not mean that he was ill in any way. I think that if any of these adventurers were mentally ill, or suicidal they would not have made it as long as they did. I believe that Chris was an underestimated character, people thought he was crazy for looking for freedom from society, for testing himself against some of the harshest, deadliest weather on this earth.
I don't think that we will ever find an answer to the question of whether Chris was Suicidal or mentally ill. The closest we can come to finding an answer is to gather information about his life before he began his journey, and from this information make an educated assumption.
From what I have read in the book, Chris doesn't appear to be suicidal or mentally ill. I think that the motives behind his actions were to hurt his parents for not being the support system that he needed. His parents constantly pushed him to achieve things in life that weren't necessarily important to Chris. Up until a certain point, Chris went along with the plan that his parents set up for him in life. The human spirit can only handle so much of living a lie until it starts to affect the mind and heart of an individual. Chris could only live his parents' lies for so long until he cracked. I believe that his cross country journey was Chris's only way of making up for the years of his life lost to his parents wishes. His journey was pretty abrupt and radical, and I think that in Chris's mind, his trip had to be as extreme as possible to get back the opportunities he missed while living out his parents' desires.
A lot of people probably think that Chris was either suicidal or mentally ill, because they don't necessarily know what his family life was like growing up. Calling someone suicidal or crazy for trying to survive the rugged Alaskan wilderness with the bare minimal supplies is the easy way out of explaining someone's actions. It takes more knowledge to actually get to the true reasoning for the rash actions that individuals take in situations like these. In my senior in high school, my english elective class read Into the Wild, and one of the students in my class became strangely enfatuated with the book and Chris's character. Around Thanksgiving this student went missing, just like Chris McCandless. A few weeks after he went missing, our local police found his car abandoned by a river in Wisconsin. In his car, there was a letter to his family, similar to the letter that Chris wrote to his sister Carrine. His body was never found, but his closer friends are pretty sure that he did things similar to Chris from Into the Wild. In both cases, we'll never truly know why these individuals did what they did, but what we can do is try to understand factors in their lives that might have pushed them to these drastic actions.
The Alaskan environment is tough and relentless giving Chris absolutely no mercy. Had he committed suicide by endeavoring on such an impossible journey of living solo in the wild? I believe that chris knew exactly what he was getting himself into. He was both book smart and street smart. He also knew all about the journey set before him and that it was going to be the ultimate test of mental and physical strength. Maybe he was just looking for a challenge because in his past everything had come so easy to him. Or maybe he just wanted to escape from the contamination of capitalism.
As a reader I can not judge his actions as just or even assume why he began this adventure. This is because i have not experienced what Chris has experienced. His decision to live in the wild was the right choice for him. A famous quote by Jimi Hendrix sums up this point. He states, "I'm the one that has to die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life, the way I want to." I truly believe that one should simply live and let live.
The Alaskan environment is tough and relentless giving Chris absolutely no mercy. Had he committed suicide by endeavoring on such an impossible journey of living solo in the wild? I believe that chris knew exactly what he was getting himself into. He was both book smart and street smart. He also knew all about the journey set before him and that it was going to be the ultimate test of mental and physical strength. Maybe he was just looking for a challenge because in his past everything had come so easy to him. Or maybe he just wanted to escape from the contamination of capitalism.
As a reader I can not judge his actions as just or even assume why he began this adventure. This is because i have not experienced what Chris has experienced. His decision to live in the wild was the right choice for him. A famous quote by Jimi Hendrix sums up this point. He states, "I'm the one that has to die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life, the way I want to." I truly believe that one should simply live and let live.
When compared to two other adventurers in the story- John Waterman and Everett Russ, I think McCandless comes out as a middle man between the two. McCandless was an idealistic like Russ and his death surrounded by mystery, while at the same time he seek to escape the past that haunt him and be one with nature like Waterman.
While I don’t think Chris McCandless as suicidal, the intensity in which he tried to devote himself to a life “in the Wild” does hint, at least to me, him being mentally ill to some extent. That extend was his obsession and sometimes irrational approach, toward nature. This is something that develops as he progresses into his journey, but was not there so much at the beginning. At the beginning Chris had a strong idea of what he wanted to do, how to do it, and thought himself prepared enough to take that risk of living off into the Wild. Despite his usual friendly and agreeable disposition with the people he met along his journey to Alaska, McCandless kept to himself with his goal of his Alaskan odyssey above all else.
McCandless also did not prepared himself well enough for the journey into Alaska, even when people offered help or gear he would deny it or abandon it, so he didn’t had to use it. All this while saying the contradiction that he could successfully do his journey, but, saying that he knew there was the chance he would not make it. And how did he expect to make it out alive, when he refused to be well prepared for the journey? From what we read so far I can guess Chris was both too confident in his abilities or too trusting of nature; when he screwed up on one of his plans he seemed to believe something better would come. The combination of these two factors on his plans made him act irrationally or impulsively, something that cost him many times in his journey. So I would say some of McCandless actions could be labeled as unstable.
I do not think that Chris was mentally ill or suicidal. He just had a outlook on life that was/is very different from much of society. He feels a deep connection to nature and actually acts on it. Both Chris and Everett scold the mundane life. In an excerpt from Reuss' letters, "I have always been unsatisfied with life as most people live it. Always i want to live more intensely and richly" He is striving for the more challenging and even spiritual lifestyle. Opposed to others who conformed to society, Everett stood oubt because he 'went out and did things he dreamed about...for months and years in the very midst of wonder.'(p 90) As Wallace Stegner wrote about Everett, "he wrote long, lush letters...damning the stereotypes of civilization."
I think Chris' state of mind as he entered the wild was one of confidence, hope, desire and acceptance of risk. He was so excited to be literally walking in to his dream. Living away from society and civilization and instead amongst the natural world of wonder, Chris was at peace. With this desire and excitement came a hope that his search would lead him to greater understanding of himself, the world around him and our (or simply his) greater purpose in life. However, Chris wasnt stupid. As the book explains, he wasnt expecting people to come save him when he didnt plan accordingly and he knew some survival skills for making it 113 days out in the Alaskan wilderness. But Chris had a deep understanding that following his dream could lead to his demise and death. His understanding and acceptance of this notion is incredible to me. It shows his maturity at an age somewhat parallel to my own.
I don’t think that Chris was necessarily suicidal or mentally ill I just think his sources that created the idea to step back into the wild were lack. How on earth are only a few sources suppose to be enough for this kind of life change. If Chris would have paid attention to not only the semi-modern text available but also older text that catered to journeying, he may have been better in form to stand the actual wild and not just pre-journey to the Alaskan wild. On the other hand another part of me does believe that he may have been slightly suicidal with his insistence on attempting this oddesy. I myself believe that the wild is not longer a part of us, when humans as a species decided that communication was what they wanted, then that is the point we lost are right to the wild. Why would one ask, because then we identify with one another and not our environment, the only think I can’t answer is when this human phenomenon happened. So as Chris tried to remerge himself into the wild (with his mentality), he found a vicious and dejected wilderness not suited to his survival.
The state in which Chris McCandless was in mentally can be argued on behalf on what one's upbringing and course of life is, as well as where they are from. The residents of Alaska felt it was a simple reaction to portray Chris as a lunatic to march onto their turf with the deep ambitions of an adventurer but with the naive knowledge of the Alaska wild. Others may feel so secure with their own turnout that they staple a label on free riders as insecure with their own future and stupid to not see what matters. How I understand this is that we are all asking the question, what DOES matter in life, what are we supposed to retrieve from its fruits, where and how can we find it?
I could not define whether McCandless was crazy or not. I do not believe, however that he was suicidal or self mutilating in my eyes. Taking a risk and stepping into the realm of the unknown but knowing of imminent peril and insecurity. To put yourself in this position in the face of possible death (the great unknown) and to the cost of others' emotional offense in the name of passion, should we go as far as calling this crazy? I've been trying to understand where the pivot of insanity, sanity and genius lies. I definitely would have to think about this issue more to answer my own questions, and I would myself have to understand my own sanity for McCandless and I have threateningly a lot in common it seems. The abstinence of humans that he tried to fence himself with, to be supplanted by nature's seduction I think is completely sensible, but he seemed to disconnect the placid but frigid breath of the wild and the physical need for human companionship. Loving everything that created humans more than what is human I feel is empathized everywhere...like loving a God. McCandless wanted to find that God, within himself and the wilderness...to find his identity and the identity of nature. Many people use a church for finding God, some use their backyard, others maybe a swimming pool. For McCandless, it took a little more effort but it was the same idea, or at least this is what it seems. He did, however, decide that there was a difference between nature and humans, and it seems he wanted to experience a wilder side of nature, just like some go to the city to see a different side of humans.
I know this sounds like a simple concept and we know that it is not, but I will have to contemplate this and read more to understand my point of view on this subject.
Chris McCandless was certainly not mentally ill. He was in a very sound state of mind as he ventured into the wild. He was not suicidal at all, simply adventurous. He was a stubborn, uniquely minded individual who wanted to do things his own way.
His adventure reminded me so much of John Muir, who also traveled cross country alone. Both were idealistic men who saw things differently. However, Muir was much more fortunate than McCandless in the end. I don't think that makes Muir any more or less "crazy" than Chris was.
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