One of the most notable entries into the journal that Chris “McCandless kept is “Happiness is only real when shared.” (Krauker, 1996). “McCandless is the protagonist in the novel into the wild by John Krauker. McCandless hailed from a well-to-do background and lived in Atlanta with his big family. He had the privilege to live a life of comfort with all the trappings of wealth. However, the revelations that his father had abandoned a woman in order to marry his mother really disturbed him that he became indifferent to the family and the culture of America. He decided to forsake material things and search for happiness in solitude.
The protagonist was a good Reader and a student of Leo Tolstoy whom he emulated by leaving his wealthy family to go and wander into the wild in search of happiness. In his effort to cut links with the family that had been left behind McCandless even changed his name to Alexander Super Trump. When he goes away, he does not even inform his parents neither does he keep in contact later afterward. He starts living a risky life in search of the elusive happiness in the wilderness of Alaska. He degenerated into foolish levels of simplicity and avoided the pleasures of life presented by civilization. He survived with only the basic needs in his attempt to find happiness in simplicity. He claimed that he did not need money and wealth to survive because money was evil by nature and it promoted greed. He donated all the money he had to a famine fund and burnt the rest before he moved into the wild. He found happiness in nature while in the wild especially while enjoying the berries that were his main food. In nature, his sorrows were drowned because he viewed the wilderness as a place that would provide solace in the face of the cruel realities presented by life. According to him, his voyage into the wilderness was a right of passage and his happiness; he thought would come from the lonely life he led, conquering nature, as he tested his survival tactics and his strength as a man. However, his intent was not to conquer nature. He was just using nature as a toy to conquer his aversion to his parents after the revelation was made. His attempt to live a life of simplicity, shutting himself from the rest of the world did not come from the heart like in the case of Tolstoy; it was a means of escaping the harsh realities of life that faced him. This means that it was very foolish of McCandless to leave the family behind just because he felt an aversion to what transpired between the parents had. He is trying to run away from a problem by claiming that he is searching for happiness, but the reality is that the problem does not get solved by his departure. In his journal, it is documented that despite finding happiness in living in solitude, there were feelings of loneliness at times and the happiness seemed to be incomplete in the face of loneliness. (Krauker, 1996). McCandless had to struggle with lonely existence for many months and it is after this struggle that he realized that the happiness that he was looking for in solitude was still far out of reach.
It is after this realization that it became apparent to him that interactions and relations with human beings were an integral part of life. He seemed to lack something to complete his newfound happiness. That something was someone with whom to share with the happiness. In one of his journal entries, he claims that joy comes from the love to and by neighbors and that real happiness cannot exist unless it is shared among human beings. It is after these realizations that he decides to go back to the civilized life that he had come from initially and ends his dismal life of solitude and isolation. He needed men and women in his life with whom to share his happiness and grief, good times and bad times because no man is an island as men cannot avoid living in groups. When trapped by the river flows, he entered something in his journal that his loneliness had become scary. This implies that he had started valuing the presence of other people in his life and the aversions that he had towards his parents started to wither after realizing that he had to share his happiness with them. In his stay in the wilderness, he would often starve and by the time he realized that he needed people around him, his health had failed drastically and death was beckoning. When he slipped into the bag in which he ultimately fell unconscious, it was an implication that he wanted to be reconnected with his mother who had sewn that bag. Though he never returned home to show his realization, a point had been made to him as he took his final breath, that human relationships were inevitable. Through interactions with people may be a source of grief and sadness, isolation may bring happiness but short-term happiness because, in the long run, that happiness has to be shared for it to be complete. Happiness cannot be shared with animals and nature; it can only be shared with human beings(Hesse, 2000). When McCandless discovers the problem within his family, it creates sadness and sorrow in his life and he needed happiness. However, the manner in which he sought to create happiness for himself was not appropriate because, though he gained it, it did not help him. This is because there was no one to share it with. The happiness lasted for a short time and it transformed itself into fear and desperation. By the time that he realized that he needed people to share his happiness with, it was too late and he did not reach home to share out that happiness. It is defeatist for one to pursue happiness by living a lifestyle that will bring along psychological and even physical harm to oneself because this happiness will be short-lived and what will follow is grief. The life of the main character, therefore, implies that there are very many disadvantages that can be got from extreme forms of solitude because human beings were not created to be solitary animals (Hesse, 2000). People need a balance in their life and this balance is naturally created by sharing with other people. Neglecting the balance by isolating oneself is like signing one’s owns death certificate. McCandless’s actions are extreme and foolish and his story would evoke irritation instead of sympathy. This is because he brought himself into the situation that led to his death. Even he himself as he died had come to the realization that he needed people in his life and was on his way to re-establish relations with his people, though they did not manage.
The tragic end to the life of McCandless is a big lesson to those people who live in isolation, seeking happiness and satisfaction in their own solitude. They will get happiness initially but this happiness will still be incomplete because there is nothing like happiness in isolation. This kind of happiness degenerates’ into desperation when one realizes that they need people with whom to share this happiness. The worst way of escaping from a problem is by slipping into solitude as this character did. If happiness becomes real when it is shared, then problems, when shared, become easier and that is why human beings need each other; to share the joy in times of happiness and to share the burden in times of problems. Had McCandless decided to share the problem he was facing with a friend instead of escaping into solitude, he would not have met his tragic demise in such a sorry manner. He may have realized that happiness becomes real only when it is shared, but it was too late for him because he never lived to share the happiness with another human being.
References
Hesse, H. (2000). Siddhartha. Bantam Classics. New York.
Krakauer, J. (1996). Into The Wild. Anchor Books. New York.