Into the Wild - Education, Privilege, Passion, Race

Summary
Into the wild tells the story of a lad by the name of Christopher McCandless Aka. Alex Supertramp. Chris finds himself in disgust with his parents and american society as a whole so when he graduates from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia he tells his parents that he is going to spend the summer traveling in his car. Chris mails his final college transcript and a brief note to his parents and the McCandless's family never hears from him again. From here he goes all around the country on foot since a flash flood renders his car unusable. During his adventures he meets many new faces and has many new experiences. While doing all of this he has his final destination, Alaska, in mind.

Privilege & Class 

Chris is a white male with rich parents who payed for him to attended Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. That is essentially as privileged as you can get. Chris' father was an engineer for NASA... so it's safe to say, they were very rich. It seems Chris is defined by his beliefs and knowledge which i believe he obtained during his years at the university. With that in mind I believe Chris would have been an entirely different person with a different mind set if it weren't for his parents putting him in that school. Essentially what I am saying is he wouldn't have been the same person if he wasn't rich and white. On a side note, something I kept telling myself every time Chris was welcomed with open arms by some stranger was "Damn they're nice..." I'm sure if Chris wasn't a white male he would likely get a different reaction from the very same strangers. 

Education & Passion 

Christopher's education plays a big role in defining him as a person. He often quotes books thus informing us he reads often and thoroughly enough to memorize them. I believe that it's Chris' education that formed his strong contempt for the "empty materialism of American society" and its this very idea that made him just want to take off to live in the wild of Alaska, with very little food and not much equipment. Just the way nature intended! He was smart... but unfortunately he didn't know jack about living off the land. he soon realized that the corrupt materialistic society he so loathed was pretty much the only thing keeping him alive. Many Alaskans believe that he was foolish to embark on such a lifestyle without the required skills or equipment, such as a map or compass or common sense for that matter. Alaskan Park Ranger Peter Christian said,"When you consider McCandless from my perspective, you quickly see that what he did wasn't even particularly daring, just stupid, tragic, and inconsiderate. First off, he spent very little time learning how to actually live in the wild. He arrived at the Stampede Trail without even a map of the area. If he had a good map he could have walked out of his predicament... Essentially, Chris McCandless committed suicide." Yes, Chris was passionate about what he wanted to do with his life and yes he did achieve it but it essentially led to his demise. I believe if Chris had better educated himself on how to actually live in the wild before making this trip, he could have been more than a tragic story. It takes more than just book smarts to live in the wild.