ON American Wanderer Christopher McCandless

Christopher Johnson McCandless (12 February 1968 – 18 August 1992) was an American wanderer who hiked into the Alaskan wilderness with little food and equipment, hoping to live a period of solitude. Less than five months later, he died of starvation near Denali National Park. In 1996, Jon Krakauer wrote a book about his life, Into the Wild, which inspired a 2007 film of the same name.


CM quotes below to know what he is into:
Two years he walks the earth. No phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road. Escaped from Atlanta. Thou shalt not return, 'cause "the West is the best." And now after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual pilgrimage. Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking bring him to the Great White North. No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild.




• Mr. Franz I think careers are a 20th century invention and I don't want one.



• ..henceforth will learn to accept my errors, however great they be…



• 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, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. 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, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.



• I read somewhere... how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong... but to feel strong.



• The core of mans' spirit comes from new experiences.



• Rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness... give me truth.



• Surely all Americans have the right to give their money only to those causes which they support. But what kind of society has this created? A society where the ignorant reign. A society where enlightened must hold their tongues. A nation whose politicians must profess half-hearted devotion to an ancient fable or face the disastrous consequences of speaking their true mind."

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This guy really rocks,watching a movie(into the wild)on his life made me very emotional,sad. But few thoughts.. I dont understand his unplanned journey in search of truth?Whats the purpose of it.I do empathise he feeling angry towards his parents,materialism,but running away to the wild doesnt make sense.He had no idea what right life is,and he was not accepting the society the way it is..(career orientation,security,materialism stuffs).I feel he deserved to be celebrated only if he gave a better theory on how to live and lived his life on that theory,prove something different that could influence society and change.Running away to wild,is totally masochistic and incompetence,fear to handle and tackle society..Dont you think to live in society is essential nature of life,so we have to fight out.If you think somebody is worng and you are right ,you have to communicate that and prove it,thats the way possibily it could be.Like Gandhi proved the world,he was different and had the guts to be that way,he changed the society ,atleast superficially.Society either doesn't or doesn't want to understand, that's why so many people think he was crazy. We're born and raised into a society that puts an emphasis on brands, possessions, and green pieces of paper, all of which conjure illusions of success, happiness, and feelings of self-worth to today's masses. From the time we're born, we're put on a track for 22 years. After that, we're technically adults, but we're still on the track. Some wonder whether it's the right path, most are convinced to stay the course because it's just what people do.... and yet in the end Gandhi was assassinated by one of his own. I'm not trivializing what Gandhi did during his (what I would argue) very fruitful life, but understand to some these types of events are either primers for a very cynical view on life or lead some to place less faith on others and more on themselves. It's not masochism at all when you make a decision to rely primarily upon yourself and attempt a life based on such a tenet. While it seems wholly impossible in this day and age to get away and stay away from society at large for one's entire life, you must acknowledge that at one time it was a realistic scenario. To criticize someone (whether living or dead) based on their own views of life and the actions they took as a result, if those actions harm no one (but themselves, perhaps) is petty, in my opinion anyway. Can you not see how knowledge of the events of the past century and ~20 years of observing human nature in close proximity to you might lead you to want to separate from it all to be one with nature? I haven't yet read the book, but from the movie I gathered that he was inspired during his Univ. years by some very noble and distinguished leaders (such as Mandela) but perhaps over time came to see that regardless of their accomplishments, the unattractive side of humanity seems to win out in many cases. As I may or may not have posted here already, one of the scenes from the film which may I never forget is a short one where after not checking into the shelter in the city (LA?), Chris walks the streets and sees the very real face of poverty, homelessness, then looks up to see a towering skyscraper off in the not-so-distant downtown area. I could at that moment empathize with how he may have felt: "how can we as a society allow a fellow man to live like this when we are but a stone's throw away living in relative prosperity?" It's no surprise then that he didn't remain long in the city. To finish, just remember one thing: nature may be cruel at times, but always unintentionally so and never with any specificity ... can you say the same thing about man?