"...but in reality, nothing is more damaging 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." This is one of the many quotes from Jon Krakauer's bestseller "Into the Wild" that left me feeling as though Krakauer was speaking directly to my heart. For those of you who have not read "Into the Wild," it tells the story of a young man named Christopher McCandless who following his college graduation, donated all of his money to charity, abandoned most of his material possessions, and embarked on a cross-country journey that would eventually lead to his untimely death in the remote wilderness of Alaska. Throughout McCandless's journey, he lives an extremely frugal lifestyle, travelling by hitchhiking and making a living working odd jobs for short times. The author is able to piece together events leading up to Christopher McCandless's death through the testimonials of the people McCandless encountered along his way.
The book was especially intriguing to me for several reasons. It was difficult for me to wrap my head around the fact that someone as intelligent as Chris, an avid reader of Thoreau and Tolstoy, could deny his potential for a successful future and die in such a manner that could have been so easily prevented. What was even more fascinating to me, however, was the author Jon Krakauer's passion as he retraced the steps of McCandless's odyssey and retold his story. In the book, Krakauer describes his personal connection to McCandless's plight in the retelling of his own epic journey in attempting to climb the Devils Thumb in Alaska. It was this connection that inspired Krakauer to devote himself to the tedious and strenuous process of researching and writing what would become a national bestseller. Like Krakauer, I feel a strong relation to McCandless and his journey. I too find myself with the urge to escape the monotony of my daily routine, often finding myself looking for a new place to explore. Sometimes I'll hike along the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, or climb the rocks of Whips Ledges, or even just get into my car and drive with no particular destination in mind, seeking the thrill of new and uncertain surroundings. When I first started "Into the Wild," I believed that McCandless was a unique individual. I thought that he was somehow wired differently that the typical American. I mean, what else would inspire someone to deny the material success that seems to characterize modern America and instead seek a life of uncertainty and seclusion?
However, the more I thought on the subject, I realized that Christopher McCandless was not so different from the rest of Americans. He was just an extreme embodiment of the American dream that has driven us to pursue a better life from the time our country was just beginning. This is why "Into the Wild" captured the hearts of so many and became a national bestseller; there is a small piece of Christopher McCandless in all of us. The modern American dream is characterized by the pursuit of wealth, fame, and material possessions. However, that myth is not the reality of the American dream.
I recently came across a quote by Thomas Jefferson when writing a paper about the American dream in popular culture and film. In the 1774 pamphlet "A Summary View of the Rights of Americans," Jefferson said that American immigrants "possessed a right which nature has given to all men, of departing from the country in which by chance, not choice, has placed them, of going in quest of new habitations, and of there establishing new societies, under such laws and regulations as to them shall seem most likely to promote public happiness." I argued in my essay that this was the "old" American dream, much different than the "modern" American dream characterized by materialism. Our descendants, America's original settlers, came to this country in search of a new life with greater meaning. It was that same drive that pushed the Eastern settlers to explore the western frontier. And eventually, it was that same motivation to find something greater that sent McCandless on his journey that lead to his ultimate death in the Alaska wilderness. The spirit that McCandless possessed, though manifested in an extreme and unique way, is a spirit that lives in all Americans and is why Krakauer was possessed to write "Into the Wild" and why it both touched the hearts of millions of readers and also chilled them to the core. There is a piece of Christopher McCandless in all of us.
