Christopher McCandless Essay

Christopher Johnson McCandless (February 12, 1968 frightful 1992) was an American ascendingr who adopted the alias horse parsley Supertramp and reckond into the Alaskan wilderness in April 1992 with fine solid pabulum and equip manpowert, hoping to locomote simply for a time in solitude. Al just ab tabu four months afterward, McCandlesss quells were order, weighing only 67 pounds (30 kg). It has recently been speculated that Chris had developed lathyrism, caused by his consumption of seeds from a flowering seed d have in the legume family which contain the neurotoxin ODAP. McCandlesss resulting paralysis would pass on caused a gradual inability to move, ext sup botany or forage and this could do led to his shoemakers defy from famishment.1 His death occurred in a converted mess used as a backcountry shelter, near Lake Wentitika in Denali National lay and Preserve. In January 1993, Jon Krakauer produce McCandless base in that months take of a musical mode(p) magazine. Inspired by the lucubrate of McCandlesss tarradiddle, Krakauer wrote and published Into the Wild in 1996 virtu whollyy McCandless travels. The book was accommodate into a film by Sean Penn in 2007 with Emile Hirsch portray McCandless. That same year, McCandlesss story also became the number of Ron Lamothes documentary The C totally of the Wild. A unmown article on McCandless also appeared in the February 8, 1993 issue of the The New Yorker magazine.2 Earlier yearseditChristopher McCandless was born in El Segundo, California, the first of all of two children to Walter Walt McCandless and Wilhelmina Billie Johnson. Chris had iodine younger sister, Carine. In 1976, the family settled in Annandale, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C., aft(prenominal) his father was employed as an antenna specialiser for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). His set about worked as a secretary at Hughes Aircraft and later assisted her husband with his successf ul home-based consulting company in Annandale. Walt and Billie often fought and just abouttimes contemplated divorce.citation needed Chris and Carine had six half-siblings living in California from Walts first marriage. Walt was non nonetheless divorced from his first wife when Chris and Carine were born however, Chris did not discover his fathers affair until a summer trip to Southern California3 in 1986. This find caused him to hold a lot of bitterness towards his father, and could have been a factor in his views about society. At school, teachers noticed McCandless was unusually strong-willed.citation neededwho? Inadolescence he join this with intense idealism and physical endurance.In proud school, he served as captain of the cross-country team, goading teammates to treat running as a apparitional exercise in which they were running against the forces of darkness all the evil in the world, all the hatred.4 On June 2, 1986, McCandless gradational from W.T. Woodson High S chool in Fairfax, Virginia. On June 10, McCandless embarked on one of his first major adventures in which he traveled throughout the country in his Datsun B-210, arriving at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, two days prior to the root word of fall classes. His upper middle class stress and schoolman success were drivers for his contempt of what he power saw as the empty materialism of society. McCandless was strongly influenced by Jack London, Leo Tolstoy, W. H. Davies and Henry David Thoreau. In his minor(postnominal) year, he declined membership in the Phi Beta Kappa Society, on the basis that honors and titles were irrelevant. McCandless graduated from Emory on whitethorn 12, 1990, with a Bachelors degree, double majoring in archives and anthropology. He envisioned separating from organized society for a Thoreauvian period of solitary contemplation. TravelseditIn May 1990, Christopher McCandless donated the remaining $24,000, granted to him by a family virtuoso for his law degree, to Oxfam International, a hunger prevention charity. Towards the end of June, he began traveling under the name horse parsley McCandless until later adopting the last name of Supertramp (Krakauer notes the connection with welch author W. H. Davies and his 1908 autobiography The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp). near people he encountered regarded him as intelligent and one who loved to get hold of. By the end of the summer, McCandless made his appearance through Arizona, California and South Dakota, where he worked at a grain elevator in Carthage. He survived a flash flood, moreover allowed his car to wash outside out (although it suffered little permanent damage and was later reused by the local police force as an undercover vehicle) and disposed of his license plate.citation needed In 1991, McCandless paddled a canoe down remote stretches of the Colorado River to the disconnectedness of California. He cut across the border to Mexico and, having gotten lost in many dead-end canals, was towed by duckhunters to the sea, where he stayed for some time. He took p resigne in surviving with a minimum of gear and funds, and generally made little preparation. Alaskan OdysseyeditFor years, McCandless dreamed of an Alaskan Odyssey wherein he would springy despatch the land of the Alaskan wilderness, far away from civilization, and find himselfcitation needed. He kept a ledger describing his physical and spiritual progress as he faced the forces of nature. In April 1992, McCandless hitchhiked from Enderlin, North Dakota, to Fairbanks, Alaska. He was last seen alive on April 28, 1992, by Jim Gallien, a local, who gave him a ride from Fairbanks to the head of the Stampede atomic number 82. Gallien was concerned about Alex, who had minimal supplies (not even a compass) and no commence surviving in the Alaskan slewh. Gallien repeatedly move to persuade Alex to defer his trip, and even offered to drive him to anchorage ground to buy suitable equip ment and supplies. However, McCandless ignored Galliens warnings, refusing all assistance except for a pair of jackboot rubber boots, two tuna melt sandwiches, and a bag of corn chips. Gallien allowed Chris to wander off with the tone that he would head back towards the highway deep down a few days as his eventual(prenominal) hunger set in. After hiking along the covered Stampede Trail, McCandless found an abandoned bus (about 40 miles (64 km) west of Healy) used as a search shelter and parked on an overgrown section of the trail near Denali National park, and began to live off the land.He had 10 pounds (4.5 kg) of rice, a Remington semi-automatic rifle with four hundred rounds of .22LR hollowpoint ammunition, several books including one on local plant life, and some inner circleing equipment. He assumed he could forage for plant food and hunt game. For the future(a) thirty days or so, McCandless poached porcupines, squirrels, and birds, much(prenominal) as ptarmigans and C anada geese. On June 9, 1992, he managed to kill a moose however, he failed to preserve the meat properly, and inside days it spoiled and was covered with maggots. His journal contains entries practical application a total of 112 days. These entries range from ecstatic to sick(p) with McCandless changing fortunes. In July, after living in the bus for three months, he decided to leave, but found the trail back blocked by the Teklanika River, which was then considerably higher and swifter than when he pass in April. Un cognise to McCandless, there was a hand-operated tram that crossed the river only 14 of a mile away from where he had previously crossed. In the 2007 documentary The Call of the Wild, evidence is presented that McCandless had a map at his disposal, which should have helped him find other route to safety.5 McCandless lived in the bus for a total of 113 days. At some point during that time, presumably genuinely(prenominal) near the end, he posted an S.O.S. note wor k on anyone passing by to help him because he was injured and too weak. The full note read Attention Possible Visitors. S.O.S. I need your help. I am injured, near death, and too weak to hike out. I am all alone, this is no joke. In the name of God, please remain to save me. I am out collecting berries close by and shall return this evening. Thank you, Chris McCandless. swaggering?6 DeatheditOn August 12, 1992, McCandless wrote what are apparently his final words in his journal Beautiful Blueberries. He tore the final page from Louis LAmours memoir, fostering of a Wandering Man, which contains an excerpt from a Robinson Jeffers poesy titled Wise Men in Their incompetent Hours Deaths a fierce titlark but to die having madeSomething more equal to centuriesThan energy and bone, is mostly to shed weakness.The mountains are dead stone, the peopleAdmire or hate their stature, their insolent quietness,The mountains are not obtuse or troubledAnd a few dead mens thoughts have the s ame temper. His body was found in his sleeping bag inside the bus by Butch Killian, a local hunter, on September 6, 1992.7 McCandless had been dead for more than two weeks and weighed an estimated 30 kilograms (66 lb). His official, undis spueed cause of death was starvation. Krakauer suggests two factors may have contributed to McCandlesss death. First, he was running the fortune of a phenomenon known as rabbit starvation due to increased activity, compared with the leanness of the game he was hunting.8 Krakauer also speculates that McCandless might have ingested noxious seeds (Hedysarum alpinum or Hedysarum mackenzii) or a mold that grows on them (Rhizoctonia leguminicola produces the toxic alkaloid swainsonine).However, an article in Mens Journal stated that extensive laboratory exam showed there was no toxin present in McCandlesss food supplies. Dr. Thomas Clausen, the chair of the chemistry and biochemistry division at UAF said I tore that plant apart. There were no toxins. No alkaloids. Id eat it myself.9 Analysis of the wild sweet peas, given as the cause of Chriss death in Sean Penns film, turned up no toxic compounds and there is not a single beak in modern medical literature of anyone cosmos poisoned by thisspecies of plant.5 As one journalist put it He didnt find a way out of the bush, couldnt catch enough food to survive, and simply starved to death.9 However, the possibility of death through the consumption of the mold, which grew on the seeds in the damp bags which McCandless stored them in, was considered a suitable explanation by Krakauer.3 attendantly the academic Ronald Hamilton made the link between the symptoms described by Chris and the poisoning of Jewish prisoners in the Nazi stringency camp in Vapniarca. He put antecedent the proposal that Chris McCandless died of lathyrism caused by ODAP poisoning from Hedysarum alpinum seeds which hadnt been picked up by the previous studies as they were meddlesome for alkaloid instead of to xic protein. The protein would be relatively atoxic to a well-fed person on a normal diet, but toxic to someone who was malnourished, physically stressed, and on an irregular and insufficient diet, as McCandless was. Subsequent tests revealed ODAP was indeed present in the seeds. 1011 CriticismeditMcCandless has been a polarizing plan ever since his story first broke chase his death, along with Krakauers Outside article on him in January 1993. While Krakauer and many readers have a largely sympathetic view of McCandless,12 others, particularly Alaskans, have expressed negative views about McCandless and those who romanticize his fate.13 The most charitable view among McCandlesss detractors is that his behavior showed a profound lack of common sense. He chose not to bring a compass, something that most people in the same situation would have considered essential. McCandless was also only unaware that a hand-operated tram crossed the otherwise impassable river 0.25 miles (0.40 km ) from where he attempted to cross. Had McCandless known this, he could easily have saved his own life.4 There has been some speculation (particularly in details given in the Lamothe documentary) that he vandalised survival cabins and supplies in the athletic field. However, Ken Kehrer, chief ranger for Denali National Park, denied that McCandless was considered a vandalism suspect by the National Park Service.14 His venture into a wilderness area alone, without able planning, experience, preparation, or supplies, without notifying anyone and lacking emergency communication equipment, was reverse gear to every principle of outdoor survival and, in the eyes of many experienced outdoorenthusiasts, nearly certain to end in misfortune. Alaskan Park Ranger Peter Christian wroteWhen you consider McCandless from my perspective, you apace see that what he did wasnt even particularly daring, just stupid, tragic, and inconsiderate. First off, he spent very little time learning how to actu ally live in the wild. He arrived at the Stampede Trail without even a map of the area. If he had had a good map he could have walked out of his predicament Essentially, Chris McCandless committed suicide.13 Sherry Simpson, writing in the anchorage Press, described her trip to the bus with a friend, and their reception upon reading the comments that tourists had left lauding McCandless as an insightful, Thoreau-like figure Among my friends and acquaintances, the story of Christopher McCandless makes great after-dinner conversation. Much of the time I carry with the he had a death wish camp because I dont know how else to assuage what we know of his ordeal. Now and then I venture into the what a dumb territory, tempered by abbreviated alliances with the he was just another romantic boy on an all-American quest partisans. Mostly Im puzzled by the way hes emerged as a hero.15 Jon Krakauer defends McCandless, claiming that what critics point to as confidence was merely McCandle sss desire for being the first to explore a inane spot on the map. Krakauer continues that In 1992, however, there were no more blank spots on the mapnot in Alaska, not anywhere. But Chris, with his idiosyncratic logic, came up with an dandyish solution to this dilemma He simply got rid of the map. In his own mind, if nowhere else, the terra would thereby remain incognita.16 Others have pointed out that a map of the area (although apparently not including the location of the hand-powered tram) was found among McCandlesss belongings, and refute the accusations that he intentionally discarded this map.17