Alyssa Wilkinson
Mr. Mackey
AP English Language and Composition
8 January 2015
Into the Wild
Into the Wild exhibits a multitude of personalities depicted by Chris McCandless. The book, portrays a perspective of the journey taken to Alaska by a young man who left his family without a trace of his whereabouts. Throughout his trek, Chris, later as he changed his name,
Alex, met many people whose lives he changed. Each person he met, he stayed in contact with through letters or visiting face to face with. Unfortunately, his fate ended when he passed while staying in the bus in Alaska. All in all, within the plethora of personas, he illustrates resemblance of myself and Henry David Thoreau. In contrast, he counteracts the lyrics of “Mad …show more content…
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Gary Jules explains explicitly how everyone wants to succeed but downgrades that fact with explaining how nobody does anything about it. Opposingly, Chris makes the decision to drop everything and leave his family for finding what he believes in. Krakauer explains
McCandless’ ordeal discussing how“[i]mmediately after graduating, with honors, from Emory
University in the summer of 1990, McCandless dropped out of sight. He changed his name, gave the entire balance of twentyfourthousanddollar savings account to charity abandoned his car, and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet. And then he invented a new life for himself, taking up residence at the ragged margin of our society, wandering across …show more content…
Chris realized he would benefit from leaving his materialistic life because all he felt he needed, nature could offer to him with peace, which came to the conclusion of him also removing all past things from his life. In short, Chris McCandless is the complete opposite of what the song Mad World describes when saying nobody takes initiative and erases a life of horror.
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In conclusion, Alex illuminated high goals like myself, showed hatred for government similar to Henry David Thoreau, and contrasted the ideas of the song “Mad World”. As a young boy, Alex learned from his parents to dream big and believe in yourself, which he made into a reality when hiking north. In addition, Henry David Thoreau influences Alex highly with his thoughts against a higher authority and simplicity of nature’s surroundings. Finally, Gary Jules’ song exhibits a world where everyone only knows to conform, while Alex explores a new world in order to encounter his true peace. In summary,
Into the Wild illustrates a mind returning to its own simplicity in life with mother nature.
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Works Cited
Jules, Gary. “Mad World.”