Into the Wild

Christopher Johnson McCandless aka “Alex” is crazy. Yes, I understand people get tired of society and everything about it, but to leave everything and wander off to Alaska? That’s a bit extreme. Why couldn’t he have just moved away on his own and started a whole new life away from his family? He didn’t have to give up his $25,000 in savings to charity, nor abandon all of his possessions and car. He should have started a new life in a different, more rational method. He graduated from Emory, excelled in academics and athletics, and grew up in a “well-to-do” family; it’s not like his life was in horrible circumstances to where he just wanted to up-and-leave. He basically left everything, for nothing. He was very irrational in his doing of all of this. He traveled west through the United States, even ended up in Mexico at one point. But Alaska? He was basically committing suicide traveling there with nothing but a little .22 caliber rifle. Jim Gallien, who was the last person Alex hitch hiked with, warned him and told him that he was insane to be heading to Mt. McKinley. Gallien gave him his boots, and his lunch for the day. Most of the people that gave Alex rides became connected to Alex. People liked Alex. Ronald Franz even wanted to adopt him! Jan and Bob Burres also became attached to Alex; Jan felt maternal towards him being that she wasn’t close to her only son.
Alex didn’t believe in the whole materialistic view of the “American Dream”. That was what he disliked so much about his family. He was also a non-conformist, and disliked society very much. Running away into the wilderness with nothing whatsoever however, does not fix anything. It just endangered him abandoning everything and going off into the wild all alone. Christopher Johnson McCandless was overly irrational in his decision to leave everything and travel out west and to Alaska with absolutely nothing.