In one of the most renowned books, Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer (1992) narrates the story of Christopher McCandless. The latter aspired to explore life in the natural wilderness by traveling to the Alaskan bushes. Since its publication, one of the significant discussions about the book revolved around whether the protagonist, Chris McCandless, is ignorant or wise to go to the wilderness. On the one side of the debate, readers have claimed that McCandless was ignorant to travel into the Alaskan wilderness without any prior skills or experience. On the other side of the discussion, the audience emphasized the unique and intelligent nature of McCandless, who rejected the standard ways of living and social norms to realize his dream. The analysis employing logos reveals that McCandless was ignorant to go into the wilderness despite the absence of prior skills and experience to survive while also rejecting help from the outside community.
The first evidence to support their ignorance of McCandless is his lack of knowledge and experience to understand and survive the wilderness. The author implies McCandless’ lack of skills and experience when referring to his unpreparedness while beginning the journey. In the first chapter, Krakauer notes that McCandless (Alex) had a backpack that looked “only twenty-five or thirty pounds,” which, according to Jim Gallien, the driver. seemed too light for a stay of several months (Krakauer 9). Another example of McCandless’ lack of knowledge is that he mistakenly ate wild potatoes, namely moldy seeds (Krakauer 148). This unfortunate mistake caused by ignorance eventually became the cause of this death (Krakauer 151). Finally, McCandless was ignorant enough not to take an accurate, up-to-date map of the wilderness he was wandering. Hence, he was not aware of nearby survival opportunities, such as populated areas (Krakauer 136). Thus, the first evidence of McCandless’ ignorance is going into the wilderness without having proper knowledge, skills, or experience.
Another evidence of McCandless’ ignorance is his isolation from the outside world. Namely, the book’s interviews indicate that several people who met McCandless gave him pieces of advice and warnings throughout the journey. However, McCandless recklessly and arrogantly rejected them, asserting that he “won’t run into anything he can’t deal on his own” (Krakauer 11). For instance, Gallien warned McCandless that hunting is not easy in the area where he was heading, and it might take several days to catch any animal (Krakauer 11). He also tried to warn him about wild animals, such as grizzly bears (Krakauer 11). McCandless largely ignored these warnings and did not worry about their seriousness (Krakauer 11). At another point, McCandless wants to explore what kind of plants he could eat (McCandless 126). Gaylord Stuckey tells him that it is still too early to go hiking, and due to heavy snow on the ground, nothing is growing yet (McCandless 126). Once again, McCandless is determined and does not listen to Stuckey’s advice (McCandless 126). Thus, these continuous rejections of outside help complicated McCandless’s survival.
To conclude, McCandless’s ignorance for going into the wilderness is that he was determined to live in nature without any prior experience, knowledge, or skills while isolating himself from the help. From my perspective, in this narrative, Jon Krakauer wants to convey to the reader the importance of deliberate, thoughtful decision-making and social support. The author demonstrates in the pursuit of finding solitude and driven by irrational self-confidence and excitement, the main character ignores the significance of objective planning and seeking help from the community. Thus, the message is crucial for the audience to understand that a person should carefully plan and objectively analyze his situation instead of falling into ignorance and arrogance.
Work Cited
Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. Anchor Books, 1992.