New Theory on the Death of Chris McCandless
dmaradona10
Posts: 915
"He probably would have walked out of the wild in late August with no more difficulty than when he walked into the wild in April, and would still be alive today. If that were the case, Chris McCandless would now be forty-five years old." -Jon Krakuer
Link to the article.
http://www.outsideonline.com/news-from- ... cebookpost
More extensive article on the same topic...
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/b ... -died.html
Link to the article.
http://www.outsideonline.com/news-from- ... cebookpost
More extensive article on the same topic...
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/b ... -died.html
Las Cruces, NM Pan Am Center September 14, 1995
Albuquerque, NM Tingley Coliseum July 7, 1998
New York City, NY MSG May 20, 2010
Eddie Vedder Solo Albuquerque, NM November 9, 2012
Wrigley Field July 19, 2013
LA Nov. 23: 24, 2013
Denver 10-22-14
Albuquerque, NM Tingley Coliseum July 7, 1998
New York City, NY MSG May 20, 2010
Eddie Vedder Solo Albuquerque, NM November 9, 2012
Wrigley Field July 19, 2013
LA Nov. 23: 24, 2013
Denver 10-22-14
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
This one goes into much more depth...
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/b ... -died.html
Albuquerque, NM Tingley Coliseum July 7, 1998
New York City, NY MSG May 20, 2010
Eddie Vedder Solo Albuquerque, NM November 9, 2012
Wrigley Field July 19, 2013
LA Nov. 23: 24, 2013
Denver 10-22-14
Wind this thing up.
Great article. It makes his passing seem even sadder if that's possible. That WW2 story is brutal.
Dublin 02 Arena - 22/6/10. Belfast Odyssey Arena - 23/6/10. London Hyde Park - 25/6/10. Berlin Wuhlheide - 30/6/10.
Manchester MEN - 20/06/12. Manchester MEN - 21/06/12
Or why he tried to hike out during Spring Melt, which if you ever lived anywhere near a river, you know rivers are high until until the end of spring (maybe a bit later in Alaska) and tend to be lower in August.
I also wondered why he didn't try and cook up a bunch of that moose and eat it (rather that try to smoke it all). Cooked food would last a few days, and he could of added a bunch of protein into his diet over the short term.
I've never read the book, but the movie made him seem ill prepared for the outdoors.
If anyone ever wants to watch a video and living in the Alaskan wilderness done right. Watch "Alone in the Wilderness". That guy was awesome!
or keep walking following the river to see if it calmed down enough to cross.
anywho,
i love his story as it gives life to never-ending convos it seems.
his story is great inspiration to my life.
share your happiness with somebody.
live life to it's fullest. always try new things.
Call of the Wild: Debunking Into The Wild
http://www.tifilms.com/wild/call_debunked.htm
The documentary brings up legit points. He may have simply injured himself and starved to death.
PJ: 2011-09-03 2011-09-04
For any person who has not read the book - PLEASE make the time to read it as it is incredible! I teach Into The Wild every year in my English 11 class and it elicits excellent and thought provoking discussion - last spring I was able to use that new information as well.
On a personal level - I have been so moved by the short life of McCandless that I am making my pilgrimage out to the bus in June. The choices he made in regard to his parents along with his need for explored seclusion make sense to me. Clearly, he valued life - we can all learn from his experience.
Some people will always see this as an ignorant loss of life, but I will always consider this man a true American hero.
Thanks so much OP for these important articles.
Your opinion will bring criticism, no doubt, but i feel similarly. The only chris mccandless i know is the one from the movie, with that being said, I think it's ridiculous to admire that version of the man. He was an arrogant prick in the movie who killed himself. If that is really him, than you can have him as your role model. That being said, the guy was probably a lot different than the movie version.
I seem him in two lights. There's always the part of me that thinks it sucks being stuck in a 9-5 job, only to do it for 30 years to keep paying bills, pay off the mortgage, and then you retire (Which I also find bittersweet, because you get to enjoy the fruits of your labour but you phase into the final 3rd of your life). So I get the aspect of saying fuck it all and doing your own thing. I get it and respect it.
Then there's the other half. A guy who completely entered the Alaskan wilderness completely unprepared. A guy's who naivity about the situation cost him his life.
I enjoy the hell of the Into the Wild movie but the ending.... I can't help but think he was a bit of a dumbass. I'm not sure if its how he was, or just how the movie portrayed him.. but its how I feel. I've never been to Alaksa, but I did grow up on a rather large Island full of forests, lakes, and rivers. I couldn't imagine hiking into the middle of nowhere with a bag of rice.... I think a cougar would eat me before I found enough natural food to sustain me.
stupid kills-
I think the pre Alaska part of his journey set a trap for him. It seemed like his survival came too easy and gave him a sense of invincibility so he wasn't prepared for how much more dangerous living on his own in the Alaskan wild would be. In he end his ego and a few bad breaks did him in.
One thing that stuck with me is the huge smile on his face in all the pics of him during his stay at the magic bus.
Am I alone in thinking that movie is every bit as good as the book? For me the author went of on too many tangents not related to the story of Mccandless, when I just wanted to read about his journey.
there's people that are 'tramps' it's in their blood.
and as humans it's in us to explore.
was he stupid or have one moment of bad luck that cost him his life?
I think it was much more than one moment of bad luck. I won't say stupid, but more naive and really a total lack of respect for the power of nature.
Trying to smoke the moose, when it's my understanding that if he would have done any research whatsoever it would've told him that drying it or even cooking it to use for a few days would've been much more useful.
Not knowing when the river would rise is pretty boneheaded. There's speculation that he suffered a shoulder injury at some point, so even if he knew that there was a hand tram across the river, he may not have been able to use it.
The fact that he had a map has been downplayed in the book and movie. I don't know how accurate the map was, but it was among the things found in his backpacks. It surely would've been of some use.
He had some bad breaks, no doubt, but alot of it was his own doing and could've been avoided with better knowledge of living in the wild.
I don't think he was doomed from the get go, but signs point the fact that he began starving almost immediately.
that wasn't selfish at all.
good post.
just trying to find himself.
i don't think that makes him a hero but it does inspire me.
I don't get how people can be so angry with McCandless, or to the contrary, proud of him for rejecting society. I read the book before a movie was on the horizon, and he seemed very Holden Caulfield to me. He made his choices, but probably didn't think those choices would kill him.
You want something to be angry about, read Night by Elie Wiesel, speaking of WWII.
This. Both the book and the movie made it seem he got some good breaks early on and as a result he thought he could do more than he actually could. (I read the book a long time ago, but I think I got that feeling from the book too.)
I also don't get the hate for the kid - we all tend to think we're better than we are, especially in our early 20s. I think it's good to have someone like him around - to show that we can live our lives on our own terms, but also to show consequences if we behave too recklessly.
An aside - I've never cared much about Krakauer's books - he picks these great topics, but when he writes about them, or gives interviews on them, it always ends up as a story about him. Maybe it's me...
Agreed that some have "canonized" him - what makes his life so meaningful is that he did do what he felt he needed to do. His parents raised him within their blanket of lies - he was pissed because his dad abandoned Chris and Carine's half brothers/sisters and allowed them to live in poverty, WHICH is why Chris so resented his "privileged" life - This makes sense to me and I do not feel sorry for his parents. Perhaps had he lived, McCandless would feel differently now, but his sister Carine still does not speak with their parents as she has publically said that she resents the money they have made from Chris' death (a book and documentary)- supposedly the money they made went to a fund that helped single parent families...Oh the irony here because of Walt's previous denunciation of his first family!
Other responses have mentioned that we all do dumbass things, especially when we are in our twenties - myself included as I moved out to Montana from Wisconsin for "love" - at the same time McCandless traveled the U.S. Had he lived, we would be the exact same age. At some point, we all try to find ourselves and the meaning that we feel indebted to find and prove. His life was lived purposely and simply - he chose to live that lifestyle - Clearly, money was not his motivation. What mattered to him? Truth, living honestly, and being appreciative of all life!
If this sounds as if I am attributing heroic qualities to McCandless, perhaps, but as a high school teacher, I see this happen whenever we lose a student to some tragic accident. Regardless of fault, we have to somehow make sense of senseless death - placing blame may make some feel better, but really, it just cannot be changed.
With that, my trip out to the bus is truly something that I feel I must do for myself - maybe if just to solidify the fact that McCandless' life still means something and will continue to.