External Forces That Influences the Development of the Protagonist in Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild & Timothy Findley’s the Wars

Every human is influenced by his or her surroundings let it be internal or external, these forces is what shape and develop who we are. Similarly in Jon Kraukauer’s novel “Into the wild” Chris McCandless a man who is offended by the corruption he sees within society decides to change his name, renounces all his material luxuries and go off on his way hitchhiking to Alaska from Washington, DC. He spends approximately 112 days in Alaska, he eventually planned on returning back to civilization one day but does not survive his time in the wilderness. He felt unfulfilled in a life of privilege and material wealth and wanted to experience life, he wanted to live with nothing but the bare requirements of life. Chris wanted to free himself of all worldly things and live freely. Similarly in Timothy Findley’s novel “The wars” Robert Ross who is the main character goes off to War after the death of his sister Rowena, he feels that staying in his current situation would not do him any good so he leaves, throughout his journey he encounters many people and experiences that shape and develop his character. External forces that influenced the development of Chris McCandless & Robert Ross are their families, the strangers they came across and the Wilderness for Chris and war for Robert.
A major force that influenced the development of Chris was his family. Chris acts as if everything is alright and that he is going to school normally. But in reality he has travelled to live in the wilderness. He does this without informing his parents or sister. He just left them to worry about his whereabouts. He also informed the postal service to keep his letters and send them all at once so his parents would not suspect anything. He did this because he did not appreciate how his parents had treated him and his sister during while they grew up and during their childhood. Chris was spoiled rich yet because of his parent’s domestic conflicts and the total dysfunction of his family made him develop a confidence that he did not need anyone but himself to survive. Chris’s parents in a way tried to dictate his future, which in turned to resentment and rebellion. You can see this in the quote “–yet they ignore what I say and think I’d actually accept a new car from them! I’m going to have to be more careful not to accept any gifts from them in the future because they will think they have bought my respect.” (p.21). Chris’s father Samuel Walter McCandless in particular served as very important force in Chris’s development, His father held his son to very high standards, and Chris tried to live up to them. In the end, Chris finds out that his father is still married to a women named Marcia and has been for seven years, while he was still leading a family with his mother Billie. While Chris is in high school he learns of all these incidents and becomes furious with his father for the utter hypocritical nature of his expectations. After many years of this anger, Chris makes a choice that he cannot hypocrites and leaves. This can be seen in the quote “My father was a volatile, extremely complicated person, possessed of a brash demeanor that masked deep insecurities”. Chris’s family was a very integral part of his development because of their high expectations for him to succeed. Likewise in “The Wars” after the death of Roberts’s sister Rowena, his relationship with his mother becomes uneasy, this was a contributing factor for him to leave to war in the first place and also for his development. Mrs. Ross’s behaviour towards Robert and her method of dealing with him is far from how a mother would act, this is shown in the novel when she tells Robert “You think Rowena belonged to you…no one belongs to anyone. We're all cut off at birth with a knife and left to the mercy of strangers...I know you're going to go away and be a soldier. Well you can go to hell. I'm not responsible. “. She also shows no sympathy to her son who plans on going to war, and attempts to ruin any emotional ties involving them. Her harsh words affect Robert, who is goes to war the next day never to see Mrs. Ross again. Therefore this goes to show that his mother was an External factor which affected his development. In both cases their both characters parents tried to push their children to be something they weren’t leading to rebellion and resentment.
Another external force that influenced Chris is the strangers he encountered during his adventure. Throughout his journey Chris meets and is affected by many people, even though he never stays long enough to be compelled to be lured away from his goal. When Chris reaches South Dakota he meets a man named Wayne Westerberg, where he is hired by him to work for his grain plantation. He eventually develops a relationship with his co-workers and Wayne and finds a surrogate family within them, this develops his character because Chris’s relationship with his biological family is a bit shaky by finding a surrogate family his idea and view of a family may have altered leading to his decision in the end to return to civilization. This can be seen in the quote “If McCandless felt estranged by his parents and siblings, he found a surrogate family in Westerberg and his employees, most of whom lived in Westerberg’s Carthage home” (pg.18). After Chris returns to hiking from South Dakota he keeps in touch with Wayne by writing to him and calling every month. This shows he respected Wayne as father figure, this can be seen in one of the letters Chris Sent to Wayne “It’s rare to find a man as generous and good natured as you are.” (pg.33) Chris later reaches Colorado where he gets a job at McDonalds, and he moves into a hippy community known as “The Slabs” where he lives with Jan and Bob in their trailer. During this time Chris opens up a bank account which may show that he was beginning to come back to civilization but he left back onto the road before he could fully let go of his ambition. Equally while Robert trained in Alberta, he is forced to go a whorehouse known as “Wet goods” by his comrades. While he is there he comes a across a prostitute named Ella who tries to seduce him, Roberts nervousness is obvious because “sat on the edge of the bed with his hands folded on his knees…he wouldn’t look at her”. This experience serves as a development for Robert because had not had much experience with women outside his family. Even though he is an adult, emotionally and physically he still had to mature. Later in the novel we see that he has matured because he becomes involved in a relationship with Barbara D’orsey, and even develops a sexual relationship with Juliet.
Nature was the most predominant force in the novel because it was nothing like what Chris expected. Chris did not want to waste is his life doing a boring job and chasing after material wealth, instead he wanted the freedom and happiness that could be found in the simple life with nature. Chris was trying to prove that he could live in the woods by his own wits, whether it was kayaking down the Colorado River towards Mexico or living off the land in Alaska. He didn’t pay attention to what people told him he needed to survive, his ambition was to try to survive with almost nothing, and while he did have a few adventurous experiences, this caught with him and led to his end. This was foolish because he went into the wild relying solely on his wits and luck alone. This developed his character by proving him wrong and failure is always the greatest success of man, through these failures he slowly began to realize the absurdity of his ambition. This can be seen through the quote “McCandless spent six days toiling to preserve what he had killed before it spoiled... I believe that every man who has ever been earnest to preserve his higher or poetic faculties in the best condition has been particularly inclined to abstain from animal food, and from much food of any kind...” (pg.166-167). It’s believed that Chris starved to death, because when he was found he weighed only 67 pounds. Yet another failure which led to his development was how he did not know how to feed himself. He had hunted a moose but because of the lack of knowledge he had on preserving the meat it all went to waste. Jon Krakauer implied through his writing that man can only achieve the best relationship with nature once he loses his ability to see differences from it. It is natural for humans to appreciate nature, but nature cannot be controlled and will always win in the end. Chris’s ambition to live off the land and to rely on himself was a noble ambition but a very dangerous one that led to his end.
In conclusion External forces played a very major role in the development of Chris McCandless. Chris’s family tried dictating his future which in turn caused him to hate his lifestyle and to rebel. The Strangers he met made a big impact on his life, everyone he encountered had their own troubles and Chris came to the understanding that some of his problems were very small compared to some those of the people he encountered. The wilderness which he thought would grant him a refuge for his troubles proved him wrong, nature can only be a salvation for those seeking it only for a certain period of time, ultimately humans need other humans to survive. In the same way Roberts’s mother pushed him to do things he did not, which led him to leave and never see her again, also the people he met served as a developing factor for him because he matured through each experience he had with each of them; like Ella. The War developed him by proving his idea of it wrong. Humans need other humans and society to survive, unless they are mentally and physically prepared to renounce everything. Chris was neither mentally nor physically prepared because his actions were solely based on teaching his parents a lesson. Chris does not realize this until the end of the novel right before he dies of starvation. Society may hold us back at times but it definitely does protect us by giving us a purpose. “I was a raw youth you mistook passion for insight and acted according to an obscure gap-ridden logic.” (155)