Into the Wild Comparative Analysis
December 2011
Into the Wild is a tumultuous story about a man truly confounded by his existence, who seeks salvation in the wild. For some, the wilderness is full of mystery and uncharted territory, but for Christopher Johnson McCandless, the wild is where a life defined by self-discovery and personal fulfillment exists. After his graduation from Emory University, Christopher McCandless marches away from his complicated and material family in search of an existence that is not dependent on monetary value and prized possessions. As he gets lost in stories written by Thoreau and London, McCandless donates his life savings to charity, abandons his beloved car, burns his money and starts his quest into the wild. “Rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness, give me truth” (Page 117)—with this mantra guiding him, McCandless heads into the unknown with no doubt that wherever he is headed, his journey will provide him with answers to some of his most profound questions. However, as far as Chris travels, the audience is never allowed to forget about the relationship he shares with his younger sister Carine. It is her love and their unspoken bond that proves to Chris that “happiness [is] only real when shared.” Jon Krakauer and Sean Penn interpret this unbreakable sibling connection in different ways, but it is the pure nature of their bond that proves to both Chris and the audience that not only is Carine the most aware of Chris and his emotions, but that his most authentic happiness is when he is by her side.
Jon Krakauer, author of Into The Wild, places much emphasis on the physical journey of Chris McCandless, making Chris’s relationships, mainly the one shared with his sister, less prominent in the story. Though Krakauer allows the reader to piece together the mysterious last years of Chris’s life through the analysis of his trails, his encounters and the little notes that he leaves along the way, Krakauer leaves much of the sibling relationship to inference, not mentioning Carine as much as he necessarily should in terms of her obvious importance to Chris. As seen in letters written to her, it is clear Chris feels comfortable expressing any and all kinds of emotion with his sister. Whether it is expressing rage about his “entire childhood seem[ing] like fiction”(Pg. 123) after uncovering his father’s dark familial secrets, or expressing compassion and understanding to reassure his sister not to worry, Chris sees Carine as an important emotional ally. She understands that Chris is in part running away but also just doing “what he want[s] to do…[trying] to see how independent he [can] be.”(Pg. 125) With Chris being “an ideologue who express[es] nothing but contempt for the bourgeois trappings of mainstream America,” (Page 39) it is only Carine who truly understands the deepest roots of her brother’s need to escape from the confines of society.
Carine and Chris grow up in the same household with the same demanding parents, so it is only natural that Carine is familiar with the burden that Chris feels is placed on him. By examining the underlined passages he leaves behind, it is clear that Chris’s most organic state is when he is out of civilization’s grasp and lost amidst the wild. Chris rejects his home environment so intensely because it is an element in which he can’t relate. It is because of this passion for nature that Krakauer focuses on Chris’s envelopment by the wild rather than the sister and the life he leaves behind. Chris is infatuated with nature and with all of its surprises, which is why he relates so closely to Tolstoy when he writes, “I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love. I felt in myself a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quiet life.”(pg.15) Chris rejects the life he runs from, one defined by education standards and monetary wealth and success, because he craves something bigger than him. Krakauer sees this in Chris and refers to his own hiking experiences to make his point that nature sweeps Chris away, making the distance from his sister great, but necessary. Even though Chris loves Carine immensely, the pull of the wild is too tempting to resist. What makes this sibling relationship so complex is Carine’s understanding of her brother’s ultimate goal. Carine is at peace with Chris’s indefinite departure, and though she hopes Chris will return speedily, she understands how it is inevitable “that Chris [will] break away, and when he [does], he [will] do it with characteristic immoderation.” Carine’s former proximity to Chris is what allows for such a deep understanding of her brother’s motivation, even as the physical distance between then grows.
Jon Krakauer illuminates Carine in a beautiful yet quiet light. It is because of her undying support for her older brother and her admiration for his determination and resilience that Chris walks to a new world with confidence and faith. Krakauer writes in depth about where Chris travels to, all because he feels deeply that Chris has plans to return. Chris’s journey is only meant to be temporary. Once he sees the life he can lead on his own, he has every intention of returning home to his sister. It is the tragedy of Chris’s lonely and excruciating death that Sean Penn, screenwriter and directory for Into The Wild makes the statement that Carine’s voice is ever present in Chris’s mind through her narration. Chris perishes with nothing around him except the crisp Alaskan air and the steep mountains in the distance, but it is his relationship with his sister and how much Carine idolizes Chris that keeps him going for as long as he does. Through his uncovered journals, the audience is given the impression that Chris has plans to return, most probably to feel the love that his sister has for him, to experience shared happiness and the comfort of company. In Krakauer’s Into The Wild, this idea is presented by a subtle foreshadowing when Chris’s former teammates are asked about him. They describe one of Chris’s signature workouts known as ‘Road Warriors.’ The teammates says that the “whole idea was to lose our bearings, to push ourselves into unknown territory. Then we’d run at a slightly slower pace until we found a road we recognized and race home again at full speed.”(Page 112) Many can argue that this is how Chris intends to live his life. As long as he can pick up and leave from anywhere, explore and discover but then return home to tell his stories, Chris is content. It is the idea that Chris never gets to share his greatest adventures with the one person he loves more than anything, that makes Into The Wild a book and movie of striking heartache and disappointment.
When Chris abandons his former life for one comprised of nature alone, he takes no map and no compass; just himself, some clothes and several pounds of rice. As Krakauer takes the reader through the Yukon Territory, over and under the Stikine Ice Cap and in and out of Fairbanks, the reader is convinced that Chris is a man incapable of emotional attachment, a man who thrives on the feeling of belonging nowhere. But this simply isn’t true. Chris engages in abbreviated and sometimes forced relationships with nomadic hippies and lonely widowers—all people he can talk to, in an attempt to fill the void where his counterpart, Carine, is missing. Though Krakauer purposely chooses to focus on Chris as an instinctive and savvy explorer through his wild adventures and several brushes with death, the reader is nevertheless reminded of Chris’ life, family, and a sister because of the replacement relationships that he forges over the course of his great Alaskan journey. Chris McCandless uses his two years of detachment from society to run towards new lands, new ideas and new people, but it is his ultimate realization, when he no longer can save himself, that he truly understands a life worth living, is a life shared with those he loves.
Sean Penn creates a visually stimulating and adrenaline-producing film version of Into The Wild that recognizes Chris McCandless’s physical struggles but places great emphasis on his emotional journey. Penn understands the mutual admiration between Chris and his sister Carine to be very telling of who Chris is as an individual; as a result, Penn creatively uses Carine and her narration as a way of opening up Chris’s mysterious character to the audience. With Carine narrating the duration of Chris’s exploration of a ‘more realistic’ world, Penn’s overall intention is to make a movie that is as true to the real emotions felt by Chris as possible. As Carine dictates, the audience is brought into a deeper and more complex sphere of Chris’s thought that integrates past and present. She explains her brother’s tendency to “harbor…resentment,” or to let “bad feelings build and build,”(page 122) as she tries to rationalize the darker or more mysterious aspects of Chris’ character. These sudden yet frequent eruptions in Chris, sparked by true discontent with his surroundings, represent both the impetus and continued incentive to always keep moving forward, and to never lose focus on his ultimate goal—the North. With out Carine, Chris’s rash movements and constant push for something more would be irrational and make no sense, but because of her deep and personal insight into the world that necessitates such a dramatic life-change, Carine ties it all together.
Penn’s Into The Wild hauntingly portrays a man who slowly gets irreconcilably lost amidst the wild. Through certain adventures—a perilous kayaking voyage down a treacherous canal or nights spent on the streets of major urban cities--the audience quickly learns that Chris is overly confident, always pushing his limits, allowing very little to deter him and his plans. Chris has one goal, which is to be “the master of his own destiny,” (Page 23) and it is only when he manages to establish complete independence from his former life, including the abandonment of his true name, that Chris realizes something is missing. It is when he is “near death, and too weak to hike out”(page 198) that he reaches out for help. When no one answers, when no hikers pass by, when no plane flies overhead, Chris understands he has jumped in too deep, leaving too much behind, including the joy he shares with his sister. As Carine narrates all the way up until the moment of Chris’s lonely and excruciating death, Penn reaffirms once more that Carine’s voice, Chris’ voice of reason, always remains with him. Chris manages to leave behind the hate associated with his parents and former life, and chooses to “surrender to some such ultimate purpose more fully, more unreservedly than [he] had ever done in the old familiar, peaceful days, in [his] old life that was now abolished and gone for good,”(page 103) and he still believes in a life shared with his sister. Chris’s adventure proves that he is in search of a purpose, of a life worth living, and it is when he is far too lost that he realizes he is only himself, only found, with Carine.
After two years of roaming the earth and stumbling upon some of the worlds most breathtaking places, Christopher Johnson McCandless leaves for his final pursuit, “no longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild.” In both the book and the movie, Into The Wild’s McCandless is a character that is fueled by the powerful connection between him and his sister Carine. Regardless of Krakauer’s decision to hone in on the physical tribulations more so than the obvious “agitation of the soul” that Penn explores more deeply, the audience is still given the chance to see a sibling relationship that is far more powerful than any force of nature. It is the relationship that Chris shares with his sister that propels him forward, allowing him to keep exploring, discovering and defying nature as a means of finding happiness. Whether he admits this to himself during his final days or not, the world will never know, but it is the strength of this bond that empowers Chris to get as close to his dream as he does. Through his photos, his records and his engravings, it is clear that Christopher Johnson McCandless’s “great Alaskan odyssey” does not grant him the euphoric contentment that he is searching for, but instead teaches him that personal happiness is often predicated on the ability to share one’s happiness with the ones he loves.