I just finished reading Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. The book is about Christopher McCandless, a 24-year-old honors graduate, star athlete, and beloved brother and son from a wealthy but dysfunctional East Coast family. After graduating from Emory University in 1990 he ceased communicating with his family, gave away his savings of $24,000 to OXFAM and began living the life of a wanderer. His travels took him to Arizona, South Dakota, California, and Nevada. Eventually he ended up in Alaska to carry out his dream of living off the land, far away from civilization. After 4 months of living off the land, Chris died of starvation in an abandoned bus used by Hunters for shelter.
After finishing the book I was unable to get to sleep. I’m not sure if it was because of the unanswered questions I had or the emotions I was feeling. Whatever was the cause I know that I have never read a book and had it affect me like this one has. The book itself wasn’t great, Jon Krauker did a great job in his research but I think it was poorly put together. It was Chris McCandless’s story that had such an impact on me. I feel I can relate to Chris in some ways. Not that I want or would abandon everything to go live off the land. It has to do with hoping that there is more to life than careers, paying bills, and being full of what ifs.
Everyone seems to have an opinion of Chris McCandless and his action in the Alaska bush. No matter what those opinions of him are, I think you have to appreciate that he was able to follow his dream. Even if it was to the extreme I’m sure he died not regretting the journey he had taken. The majority of us will probably spend the rest of our lives asking “What if I had…”. I don’t want to wake up one day wishing I would have done more or realizing I let my fear of the unknowing make decisions for me.
Here are some pictures I found of McCandless and related areas around the web:
