Into the Wild

I thought Into the Wild was a very interesting film, but thought that the main character Chris McCandless, aka Alexander Supertramp was a bit foolish. I understood why he wanted to venture off into the wild, to escape from society and enjoy the beauty and pureness of nature. However, I thought that he had this ideal of what his experience was going to be like from reading all of his books, and he went about his adventure in the wrong way. He seemed to think that everyone else in the world had been corrupted by society, and the only way to fix that was to return to the pureness of the wilderness. He seemed to think that the only way to find true happiness was by being completely alone in the wilderness, so he could form his own ideas about the world. When he was traveling he met many people whom he started to become close to, but he seemed to run away from those relationships, as if he was scared that getting too close to people might change his views on how the only way to be happy is to be by himself in the wild. I also thought that he was so determined to have this grand adventure that would change his life that he was a bit unpractical in how he went about it. He burned all of his money and identification, and did not take much time to learn how to properly survive in the wilderness that was much more harsh and unforgiving than Chris had anticipated. While he learned a lot on his adventures, it took him until the very end to realize that true happiness is shared with others.

Another thing I thought was interesting is that Chris was never truly and completely in the “wild”. There is hardly any place in the world that has been untouched by man. Even when Chris was on his own in Alaska he was living in a bus that had been abandoned there. Also, many of the “wild” places that people can venture out into require permits and proper training before people are authorized to explore them. People can’t just climb mountains or raft down rivers anymore, they need permission because the “wild” is now under human control.