Into the Wild Critical Analysis

The Unforgiven “In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter…”(Krakauer, 1) But, what lead him to do all of these and eventually die alone in the coldest place on earth, Alaska? For some, the society leads him to do these, and for some his parents lead him to die in this way.
But in my opinion, it was all his fault. Chris’ inability to forgive; lead him to isolate himself from his friends, lead him to hate his parents and, most importantly, lead him to die. Chris was a boy who did not know to forgive anyone or anything, which caused him to lose friends in the college. Whatever happens between people, they should always forgive each other to continue their relationships or friendships. But the inability of Chris to forgive anyone caused him to isolate himself in the college and in the society. As a result of this isolation Chris chose to go into the wilderness alone.
Even though it doesn’t mention clearly in the book that whether Chris had strong relationships with his friends or not, it is clear that he wasn’t the type of person who used to have so many friends. He was an introverted type of person. And his relationships with his friends seem to be shallow. This isolation was caused by his inability to forgive and his characteristic of being an introverted type of person. These two facts affected his life directly because whoever isolates himself from his friends and society may do dangerous things. And the dangerous thing that he has done appeared to be escaping into the wilderness.

Even though he tried to isolate himself from the society, it wasn’t possible to do it while living in the society, and that’s why he escaped into the wilderness. So, the most affective fact for him to isolate himself from the society and therefore escaping into the wild, was his inability to forgive. His inability to forgive didn’t cause him to just lose his friends and isolate from the society but also hate his parents and disgust their manners. “Their fraudulent marriage and our father’s denial of his other son was for Chris a murder of every day’s truth. ” from this quote, it can be said that his father was married with nother woman when his mother was pregnant to him. And after learning that, Chris loses all the respect and all the love he had towards his parents. But if he could’ve just forgive them and accept them as they are, he wouldn’t die alone. It is perfectly normal for him to show some anger to his parents but after some time he should’ve forgive them. It is wrong to judge people for the things they’ve done in the past. Everyone needs a second chance and therefore everyone deserves to be forgiven. You can’t change the past by escaping into the wilderness, but you may change your relationship with people by forgiving them.
And forgiving just doesn’t cause any harm to you, but escaping into the wilderness may. As he forgave neither his parents, nor the society he used to live in, he also didn’t accept them in the way they are. It is hard to change people’s minds after they grow up, but it is easier to change your mind when you are younger. The society that Chris used to live was composed of people who had different ideas with Chris. They were materialistic, but Chris was not; they liked rules but Chris hated rules; they think that joy emanates from human relationships, but Chris thinks that joy emanates from the nature.
However, if the person wants to be happy, he can be happy in any condition. But to be able to do that and be happy everywhere, that person must accept the people with their characteristics and should not try to change them, that person should be optimistic and most importantly that person must forget and forgive the other people that live in the society. Ron Franz says: “From the bits and pieces I put together, you know, from what you told me about your family, your mother and your dad. And I know you’ve got your problems with the church too.
But there’s some kind of bigger thing we can all appreciate, and it sounds like you don’t mind calling it God. But when you forgive, you love. And when you love, God’s light shines on you. ” And this quote shows that Ron also noticed Chris’ inability to forgive; because he recommends Chris to forgive anyone no matter what happened in between and he also mentions that he will find the way to get in contact with God if he learns to forgive. Ron Franz notices his inability to forgive and feels like he has to give him this speech where he put emphasis on “forgiving”.
Because from his experiences he knows that forgiving is important and he also knows that Chris will be happy if he learns to forgive. To sum up, I think that Chris’ inability to forgive people lead him to die, where he could’ve just chosen to forgive everyone and be happy. But Chris chose the easy way which is to escape from the society rather than trying to be a part of that society by learning to forgive and to forget. If he had found a way to forgive his parents and the society for their mistakes would he have gone such extremes to find himself?