Into the Wild
People are often told to be themselves as a way of embracing their uniqueness. This seems to not be true since conformity and lack of individualism is a big issue with society. The issue of what led Christopher McCandless, main character from Into the Wild by John Krakauer, to go on a search to find himself. In the author’s note of the novel, Krakauer introduces the term ‘schools of thought’. In the case of this book, there are two; one being that some people said it was a suicide mission and the other being that others disagreed saying he was ambitious. The story demonstrates one man’s attempt to define a lifestyle and find meaning in his life that came from something outside materialistic and civilized contemporary …show more content…

He also had a different way of thinking compared to his peers. Failure was unacceptable for Chris. He truly believed that there was nothing stopping a person from succeeding in what they did. A fellow member of his high school cross country team who was interviewed for Into the Wild said, “We’d run as and as fast as we could, down strange roads, through the woods, whatever. The whole idea was to lose our bearings, to push ourselves into unknown territory… In a certain sense that’s how Chris lived his whole life” (112). Chris’ obsession with going into the unknown further reinforces his views on life. He truly believes that when he’s in new territory, he is more of an individual than when he is in social society. Chris thinks that pushing himself to be the absolute best is what makes him successful, not having an amazing educational background and fulfilling career.
Individuality was a key part of Chris’ adventure into the wild. He was on the search to find out who he truly was without the influence of his family, friends, and others to change his mind. Chris wanted to make a point that he was his own person. To do that, he destroyed basically any connection he had with the outside world. In a quote in Into the Wild, Krakauer states, “To symbolize the complete severance from his previous life, he even adopted a new name. No longer would he answer to Chris McCandless; he was now Alexander Supertramp, master of his own destiny” (23). Chris McCandless was a good