Chris McCandless is interpreted differently from person to person after reading the novel Into the Wild from Jon Krakauer. Some would consider McCandless a hero, an adventurer open to face the world, while I and many others would see him as reckless, just a man who would put his wants before common sense. People could argue that the boy was misunderstood using details Krakauer presented, but I myself, will always see Chris McCandless as a thoughtless man who wanted to run from home.

Chris McCandless seemed to have a good life before leaving to become a drifter, a great environment to live, had a good reputation in college as a graduated honors student, and was also planning to become a lawyer, but after graduating college, it seems like McCandless wanted to change his fate. As Jon Krakauer perceived his travels, McCandless moved around, state to state, train to train, and car to car. Even with small amounts of food, supplies, and money, McCandless would travel everywhere he’d want to go by hitchhiking. The man would stop and settle down for a while after laying a job and meeting people, but he would always get an itch for adventure and move again. The man would later send postcards to the people he had met reassuring them that he was safe and sound. The last postcard sent by McCandless to his supporters “was postmarked April 27, 1992, ‘Greetings from Fairbanks!’” (Krakauer 69) and arrived to them just before his journey to Alaska where he would die just months after at the age of 24.

Into the Wild is a good book and should be read by all audiences whether adventure is your thing or not. The facts presented by Jon Krakauer are interesting, but McCandless himself is the one in the novel who I view as negative. This man burned his own money to later on get a job and earn more. In my opinion McCandless wasn’t thinking too straight while on his adventure, despite reports of how sane he was when people met him. But the facts are interesting, and if people like history, news, facts and other things of the nature, Into the Wild is a good choice when looking for a book to read, as it covers the story of an adventurous and reckless man through family, school and expedition struggle. Chris McCandless went into the wild, and died doing what he loved.