Into the Wild

“Into the Wild” a book that documents the life and death of Christopher McCandless probably puzzles the average American. Living in the world’s richest country we as people tend to get caught in worldly materials that young Christopher McCandless decided to give up for the freeness of the nature. America’s materialistic setting has caused people like McCandless to abandon reality and go on solitary journeys. By comparing and contrasting present time in America and fifteen years ago we may find it hard to find a character like McCandless .Taking a look at the world today we see the average American or American family striving for the riches of the world. By having the title as the richest country in the world people struggle to fit the stereotype image of an American family living in a six bedroom home with two luxury cars parked outside. Though some people live this way, not everyone does and there are even thousands of homeless people on the streets of America who are not living the American dream. For example in the article “Death of an Innocent” “Chris didn’t understand how people could possibly be allowed to go hungry especially in this country” said Billie McCandless. Yes, we should wonder why such things go on in a country so rich in money and opportunities. Not only has money taken over lives, but so has fame. Instead of taking time to look into the issues affecting American society today we turn the lives and stars and celebrities and deal with their problems before we even fix ours. For instance people like Paris Hilton, Brittney Spears, and Michael Vick are people who we have become obsessed with watching their every move as detective watches its target. In McCandless case it is very unlikely that a character like him would exist today in modern society where all are focus is money, fame, and materials. I do believe that a character similar to McCandless would be more common fifteen years ago when stories like this were of the norm. In the article “Death of an Innocent” there are numerous examples that back up the existence of a character like McCandless would be more common fifteen years ago. First the author Jon Krakauer shared his similar experience as a young man who experienced many things that McCandless went through like the trip to Alaska and even escaped some things that McCandless didn’t, like death. This article even compares McCandless journey to others like John Waterman a mentally unbalanced man who disappeared in the mountains of Denali, and Carl McCunn a wildlife photographer from Texas who committed suicide after being left in the in the forest. Though all these men had different stories they all had a common love for nature. Stories like this left people in the nineties to think of the stories as common, whereas people today would shocked and appalled at stories like these. Ultimately when looking into the life and death of Christopher McCandless one may get sense of relief to know that someone wasn’t confined to America’s materialistic world of riches and fame, and it’s also sad to know that character like him would not exist today in the world we live in, where standards of living life are based on paper.