Johnnie Sophomore
E10: Mr. P.
Response to Lit.: Into the Wild
5/16/06

At Arm’s Length

	Often, in both real life and in fiction writing, common individuals are put on the hot seat and held up as heroes, even when they are unworthy of the label. Take, for instance, Chris McCandless.  He is an ordinary, spoiled rich kid from the East Coast who embarked on a thoughtless, tactless journey that ultimately led to his death and the heartbreak of his family and friend.  In Into the Wild, a description of McCandless’ journeys across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, author Jon Krakauer writes about McCandless with an enthusiasm that borders on idolatry, linking some of his own past experiences and how they compare to McCandless, to convince the reader that McCandless was not only courageous, but a whiz kid who saw past the madness of modern-day convention and material wealth.  However, McCandless is in no way special. In fact, he was gutless in many areas in his life, constantly fleeing from relationships and emotional attachment. 
	When McCandless first makes the decision to break himself away from his family and friends, he does so by thinking only of himself and the phenomena of his spiritual gains he will receive in his endeavors.  He does not stop and think of the stress it will place on his parents, as well as his sister Carine, with whom he had a close relationship.  His unpredicted death is like a lightning strike to both his parents and Carine. When she first learns of Chris’s death, she is overwhelmed: “I went in and sat at the alter for an hour or so while Fish stayed in the car […]. I wanted some answers from God. But I didn’t get any” (130). In his desperation to break away from all reality, Chris inadvertently breaks the hearts of the people he cares about most.  When he dies, he leaves his parents, Carine, and countless friends to question God, while he gets the glory of being a modern-day martyr. Such self-absorption is barely worthy of praise, and though he could not have known when he set out on his journey that he was going to die, his carelessness nonetheless led to pain for those closest to him. 
	Perhaps the person hurt most by Chris’s fear of human relationships is Ronald Franz, a dedicated Christian-turned-atheist whose affections for McCandless were callously cast off. When McCandless unwittingly enters Franz’s life, the old man is living by himself, yet he is comfortable. Chris brings a spark of light into Franz’s monotonous life, and the two become fast friends. But in the end, like so many others, Franz is left in the cold by McCandless, who sees no explanation to develop a close relationship with this man who so eagerly opened his heart and made himself helpless to Chris’s rejection. Despite McCandless’ swift and hurtful disappearance, Franz remains loyal to Chris and even takes the boy’s eager advice to give up his lifestyle for one that favors the same roving path Chris himself follows. This proves to be a mistake; when Franz learns of Chris’s death in the Alaskan wilderness, he is left with nothing but a bottle of whiskey to heal his broken heart. Franz says, “I went out into the desert and drank it. I wasn’t used to drinking, so it made me sick. Hoped it’d kill me, but it didn’t. Just made me real, real sick” (60). Not once does McCandless pause to think that perhaps not everyone can live a life like his, free of desire to have any sort of companion. Chris’s death causes the once happy and optimistic Franz to fall back into his old, destructive past, full of booze and hurt. Chris quietly slips out of Franz’s life, leaving the man lonely and confused to question the very foundation of his religion. 
	Of course, Chris by nature was not a cruel person at all. Most of the decisions he made were made in hopes of finding the purpose to his not so perfect life. McCandless would never deliberately hurt someone, but he was so unaware and blinded by his own arrogance that he never saw his behavior compromised his relationships.  Relating to others, sharing beliefs and dreams, and finding someone to commiserate with—these are things that could have filled the abyss that McCandless felt inside his heart.  Instead of filling that empty void with the isolation of the Alaskan wilderness, Chris could have filled himself with the love so openly given to him by others.  Unfortunately for both McCandless and those whom he touches, this thought terrifies him, and he seeks only to pull farther and farther away from any bond he has with another person. 
	From the beginning to the end of his travels, Chris McCandless demonstrated thoughtlessness and frigid separation from those who cared about him the most. His actions are only pathetic attempts to appear sophisticated and adult-like. Though not cruel by nature, he caused undeserving persons multitudes of emotional pain and agony. He both dug up the past of Franz’s life and became the past for the sister who loved him the most. In the end, McCandless died alone, an ill-fated but nonetheless fitting ending for one who wanted to hold the rest of the world at arm’s length. 
WC: 878