Eventually, the family members concluded that they misread Alex and never really knew anything about his intentions. Walt, an aerospace engineer, dismissed his son’s decision to travel. The parents, Billie and Walt, assumed that their son would pursue a career as a lawyer, but instead, he donated all of the money to charity (Krakauer, 2011). Alex grew up with his parents and a younger sister, Carine, and had a classic father-son relationship issue. According to Vera (2015), he disliked “money and mainstream values, despite the fact-or rather because of the fact-that he was “flipping Quarter Pounders at McDonald’s” (p. Main Characters and ThemeĬhristopher McCandless, Alexander Supertramp, or simply Alex is the protagonist of the novel, an Emory University graduate who recently finished his education.
Eventually, he dies of starvation in an abandoned bus, where locals find his body. McCandless tests his limits by hunting, foraging, and camping alone. At some point, Alex applies for a job in Los Angeles but then returns to his original plan (Krakauer, 2011). He spends his time hitchhiking, exploring nature on foot, and a canoe.
McCandless starts a journey to the West and then into the Alaskan wilderness, looking for solitude and escape from societal norms. Before taking off, he gives up his real name and takes a moniker Alexander Supertramp. Shortly after graduating from a prestigious college, Christopher “cuts himself off both from his family and from the values and symbolic roles expected of him” (Hook, 2018, p. The book describes the details of real-life Christopher McCandless, a young man who decides to abandon past life. This paper focuses on covering the characters of the book, especially Christopher McCandless, and studying the central theme - the search for personal freedom in times of modernity. The book explores many topics, such as difficulties in family relationships, the meaning of reaching manhood, materialism, and capitalism. In his famous book Into the Wild, Krakauer studies a story of “a well-educated young man with an above-average intellect and remarkable spiritual ambitions” (Vera, 2015, p.
Extreme weather and challenging conditions are the perfect backgrounds for exploring people’s psyche. Rural nature has always been a source of inspiration for many American writers.